Campbell Case Judge Bows Out of Sentencing
An Orange County Superior Court Judge has disqualified himself from the case of an Orange County real estate investor awaiting sentencing on four counts of grand theft.
Sentencing of William Campbell, 53, had been scheduled for Tuesday. But Judge James L. Smith instead removed himself from the case, explaining in a statement that he had been contacted by several of the investors--some of them longtime personal friends, involved with Campbell’s Vista Investment Properties Inc. The county contends Campbell’s limited-partnership investments involved hundreds of investors and millions of dollars.
Campbell’s next court date is March 22. His attorney, Dominick Rubalcava, said Campbell probably will not change his guilty plea before the new sentencing date, although he has the right to do so.
No Plea Change Seen
“It’s a legal choice available, but I don’t see that it’s going to be our choice,” said Rubalcava Tuesday. He called Judge Smith’s decision to remove himself “quite unexpected, after this length of time.”
Campbell pleaded guilty last September to taking $1.5 million from three real estate partnerships, and to bilking Capistrano National Bank out of about $280,000, using notes and trust deeds belonging to his partners as collateral for loans he has failed to repay.
Campbell could face seven years in prison, the maximum sentence.
The four charges stem from an investigation begun by the county two years ago. In addition, hundreds of investors have complained and shown documents indicating that many more millions of dollars may have been lost through limited partnerships arranged by Campbell’s Vista Investment Properties Inc. The company, then based in Orange, packaged real estate deals for investors, who then had no say in the management of the property.
‘Tip of the Iceberg’
“What we have covered is the tip of the iceberg,” said Connie Ferris, a deputy district attorney serving as prosecutor on the Campbell case. “We just didn’t have the resources to do more.”
Ferris said she will ask the court to sentence Campbell to prison for five years. She said about 200 investors were involved in the three partnerships on which the charges were based.
At a sentencing hearing in January, Judge Smith told a courtroom crowded with angry investors, “I’m frustrated, and I sense there are a lot of people out there who are frustrated and hurting. On one hand, we are seeing a substantial and major fraud, but on the other hand, we may simply be looking at a real estate operation that got caught up in the downturn of the market in the late 1970s and 1980s.”
