Fifteen Large Men

An attorney admitted in 2014 should be disbarred for identity theft and related dishonesty, according to a recommendation of the California State Bar Court Hearing Department.

It began with an office move of her employer

As part of the move, Respondent purchased, and had delivered to her residence on Legacy Road, eight computers for CLLC. Each of the eight computers were transported to CLLC’s Anaheim office and installed for law office usage.

Respondent submitted an Expense Reimbursement Form for $8,281.38, covering the period of February 15, 2016 to March 31, 2016, to Ms. Katje for the purchase of the eight computers, as well as additional items purchased for the new office. Respondent was reimbursed by CLLC for the cost of all purchased items. In addition to purchasing the computers, Respondent was tasked with setting up the computers and downloading client files to storage on Google drive. Passwords to the drive were similar and shared between the six people who worked at CLLC.

Ms. Katje initially found Respondent to be a good attomey, and considered her a friend. However, soon after Respondent joined CLLC as an independent contractor, Respondent’s behavior drastically changed. Respondent “started dropping the ball’’  on assignments, left clients at court hearings, lied to Ms. Katje about appearing for court hearings late when, in fact, court staff confirmed that Respondent never appeared at all, stopped returning telephone calls, and appeared at work disheveled, very sweaty, and would sleep under her desk. For these reasons, Ms. Katje gave Respondent a written warning, and ultimately terminated Respondent’s independent contractor agreement on July 27, 2016.

Within an hour after her termination, all of the client files from the Google drive could be seen in the “current activity column” as going from the office account to Respondent’s account. For this reason, Ms. Katje changed the passwords, but the transfer of files happened again and, ultimately, thousands of files were downloaded remotely by Respondent.

Then

After Respondent’s termination, Ms. Katje noticed “odd charges” for Starbucks e-gift cards on her account. She thought it was odd because whenever she bought Starbuck gift cards, she would purchase them at the nearby Vons grocery store. As she investigated further, Ms. Katje saw eight charges for $25 cards and additional charges for $30 cards. The cards were sent to the  [an] email address…tied to Respondents Respondent improperly bought the Starbucks e—gift cards on Ms. Katje’s account without Ms. Katje’s knowledge or consent.

Another person gave her short term free office space

Ms. Johnson testified at trial regarding the relationship between she and Respondent. Ms. Johnson explained that their friendship formed quickly and she felt like Respondent was family. Resp0ndent’s parents treated her and Respondent to a spa day. Respondent lent her $600 for partial payment on a Mercedes, purchased meals for Ms. Johnson and her brother, bought her a purse, and offered her the rental of Respondent’s parents’ vacation home on Tennis Villa Drive in Laguna Beach/Dana Point. Ms. Johnson signed a lease agreement for the rental of the vacation home and provided the signed lease to Respondent but never moved into it.

Respondent also offered to assist Ms. Johnson with obtaining a lower auto insurance rate and requested and received Ms. Johnson’s email and password, ostensibly, to set up an on-line profile in furtherance of that goal.

Respondent began using Ms. Johnson’s personal information to access various of Ms. Johnson’s accounts and to purchase items for herself. Respondent engaged in unauthorized transactions on Ms. Johnson’s Best Buy, Macy’s and PayPal accounts.

On August 5, 2016, a Polaroid Cube Lifestyle HD was purchased on Ms. Johnson’s account at Best Buy without her knowledge or consent. The purchaser was listed as “Sanam
Nikkhoo” with a shipping address that matches Respondent’s membership records address in Tustin.

Many other purchases followed until

Ms. Johnson was alerted by Macy’s customer service that her email address had been updated and that a $100 gifi card had been charged to the card and sent to Respondent without Ms. Johnson’s knowledge or consent. Ms. Johnson then checked her Nordstrom account and learned that her access was blocked following too many failed log-in attempts by someone other than herself.

She lied when confronted by police

During trial, Respondent admitted to lying to Investigator De La Rosa, but explained that it was because she was “not thinking rationally” as she was in pain and recovering from surgery, and in shock because “police were destroying my home and taking my electronics, and 15 large men were invading my privacy.”

The attorney also e-filed four false court documents.  

Sanction

In this case, Respondent engaged in conduct that was dishonest and highly inappropriate for an attorney. She took advantage of Ms. Katje and Ms. Johnson for her own personal gain by engaging in identity theft in order to purchase numerous items including, among other things, a Wireless keyboard and mouse, Starbucks e—gift cards, headphones, a computer, a camera, and a Macy’s gift card. She also accessed and transferred money from Ms. J0hnson’s PayPal account, engaged in the unauthorized downloading of client files from CLLC after her termination, and filed documents with the court bearing a fraudulent signature on the proof of service form. Such acts of wrongdoing are very serious and involve moral turpitude. Her actions with respect to the proof of service forms clearly were committed in the course of her legal practice. In aggravation, Respondent engaged in multiple acts of wrongdoing, demonstrated a lack of insight into her misconduct and indifference toward rectification or atonement for the consequences of her actions, engaged in acts of dishonesty, and exhibited a lack of candor toward her victims. There are no mitigating circumstances.

(Mike Frisch)