Thurston John Lopes

2018 I was accused of a D.U.I. after I supposedly ran a light and got hit by a car that caused my vehicle to roll over one time. Miraculously no injury to myself and minor injury to other driver. Officer on the scene performed a physical sobriety test on me and concluded that I had failed the test an...d arrested me. Then he was going to administer the breathalyzer test. I refused because he already put me under arrest. I knew that I had a good chance to fight it because I was in a roll over accident and I could use the accident as a reason for failing the test. Anyways I get Attorney Lopes to represent me. Because of Covid-19 the case drags on moving from city to state court. Finally the prosecutor turns over the discovery to my lawyer. My lawyer said that the discovery has a traffic light video showing running the light. So I will get charged with Reckless Driving and we will put in that Plea so I won't get the D.U.I. charge. The main think is to protect my License because I was a Transit Bus Operator. Okay, I take the plea and take the punishment as if I was charged with a D.U.I.I had to pay a $1400.00 fine and take some classes that cost money. But at least I still had my job so I thought. A week after the conviction I get a letter from The Georgia Department of Driver Services stating that my commercial license is disqualified for 2 months. I had a accident that was my fault in 2020 were I rear ended a guy. I asked Lopes if I should save my NOLO for the the Reckless Driving charge that I was going to catch. He said for me to use the NOLO on the rear end accident. So that's what I did. I thought that you license is suspended by the amount of points that you accumulate on your license. So when I talked with Lopes I was counting points and so was he. But your Commercial License can be disqualified if you have two serious accidents in your personal vehicle within a three year period that is determined to be your fault. A serious accident could be a 2 mph bumper tap. You can still keep your driver license for driving a regular vehicle, but your Commercial License will be gone. My lawyer said he knew this after the fact. But I remember talking to him about points on my license and he never mentioned anything to me about this rule pertaining to my commercial license. In 2017 I had a 5mph bumper tap accident. So the accident in 2017 and the one in 2018 make two accidents in a three year period. Lopes claims that I never told him about the 2017 accident when he asked me in 2018 if I had any prior accidents. He claimed that there is no mention of it in his notes. So the whole outcome is my fault. I got convicted in 2023 of Reckless Driving and DDS went back 5 and 6 years to disqualify my license. The events were so old that they can't put points on my license. So I must be the only person with a zero point disqualification? Anyhow my lawyer claimed that he knew that DDS could do that. I asked why he didn't tell me. his reply was; "So I got to explain the whole law to you?' So I took it on the chin and told him that the outcome was my fault. I think he was recording our conversation to protect himself from any liability. So I was just gonna take it all including the loss of my job. Then I did some research and found out that my lawyer could've requested that court keep my charge just within the justice system and DDS wouldn't have known. A lawyer knowing that his client is a professional driver should automatically ask the court to seal my record. This is unforgivable. I can only depend on myself even when I'm paying someone to do a job. The sad thing is that he won't admit that he did a shitty job and has some culpability in this unfortunate outcome. I can't respect that. If there is a lawyer who knows any recourse that I can take. Then please email me.