Ye Of Little Faith

A Colorado attorney was disbarred by the Presiding Disciplinary Judge

Nitschke absconded with three-quarters of a million dollars from nine people, two of whom were elderly victims and many of whom were fellow churchgoers. He was convicted of nine felonies in California: two counts of theft from an elder, six counts of grand theft, and one count of fraud by insufficient fund check. The sentencing judge found that Nitschke committed these crimes with a high degree of callousness, planning, and sophistication, and sentenced Respondent to twelve years in prison.

The Orange County Register had a report on the crimes

The betrayal was personal, since Nitschke met the women — and most of the victims — through Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods, where they all attended.

And this from OC Weekly

A Newport Beach attorney and church leader has copped to stealing more than $780,000 from nine victims, including over $720,000 from the trust account of two elderly sisters he’d offered to assist with their finances…

Nitschke, whose law office was in Irvine, was also president of Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods in 2010 when he offered to “help” manage the finances of two elderly sisters he knew from the congregation.

OC Weekly on the “wild” sentencing 

As Deputy District Attorney Sean O’Brien recounted some of Nitschke’s past fraud schemes, the suspended lawyer said angrily, “I object to this. I can go on ad hominem attacks too. Mr. O’Brien is an ass and Ms. Kelly is incompetent.”

That would be Stacy Kelly, Nitschke’s attorney from the Orange County Public Defender’s office. But he was not done there, saying Judge Paer needed to grant more phone time in jail so Nitschke can arrange with a benefactor to provide the $1.2 million for the victims.

It got so heated, observed City News Service’s reporter in the courtroom Paul Anderson, that a bailiff positioned himself next to Nitschke.

Paer, explaining he wanted to give the victims one more chance to get their money back, gave Nitschke a “drop dead” Aug. 8 deadline to produce the money.

“I heard from those victims,” the judge said. “Their lives got screwed up because of your felonies. They would do anything to get their money back.”

Nitschke, whose law office was in Irvine, had wiped out the life savings of the elderly sisters he met as president of Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods, where he often solicited clients from the congregation.

(Mike Frisch)