Pair Who Offered Phony Legal Aid Get Jail Terms

The victims--nine Los Angeles residents facing eviction from their apartments or foreclosure on their homes--were already in dire straits.

The perpetrators were hardly novices. Richard Leroy Davis, 39, had been sentenced to probation for a federal felony of fraudulently contracting to purchase foreclosed homes, and Bonita Davison, 29, was free on bail on a grand theft conviction.

On Tuesday, the pair were sentenced to jail by Municipal Judge Marion L. Obera for having operated bogus legal services centers in South Los Angeles in which they promised to help halt or delay evictions and foreclosures.

Between September, 1984, and June, 1985, authorities said, Davis and Davison solicited clients through newspaper ads and letters sent to tenants facing eviction. Operating under the business names City Wide Legal Services and Hub Legal Services, Davis and Davison charged fees for filing legal papers--which they subsequently failed to file.

“What’s very tragic,” said Deputy City Atty. L. Wayne Mooney, “is that the victims did have legitimate legal demands. In fact, one of the victims got her house back as soon as she contacted a real attorney, and another received relief from default in her eviction proceedings after she contacted a Legal Aid attorney.”

The centers’ clients, who lost more than $8,000, were “people who were not of great means who needed legal services,” Mooney said.

Davis was sentenced to six years in jail for various counts of grand theft, petty theft, practicing law without a license and false advertising.

In a pre-sentencing report, Davis was described by a probation officer as a “smooth talker” who had “some expertise regarding real estate transactions . . . and used this knowledge in a criminal manner to exploit and cheat less fortunate people who were facing eviction or foreclosure.”

Davison received a 2 1/2-year sentence on one count of grand theft and three counts of petty theft.