Santa Ana : State Will Take Over Case From D.A.’s Office

The state attorney general’s office will take over the prosecution of two brothers accused of conspiring to practice law without a license, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Nolan said Friday.

John and Frank Vescera were charged last February after Municipal Judge Jacquelyn D. Thomason noticed that John Vescera held a State Bar identification card that apparently belonged to a 94-year-old retired lawyer and was first issued in 1922, 34 years before John Vescera was born.

The state’s 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana on Thursday upheld a lower court decision that removed the district attorney’s office from the case to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The lower court had declared that the district attorney’s office should not be involved in the case because its prosecutors often have to appear before the same Municipal Court judges who will have to testify that the Vesceras frequently appeared in their courtrooms as lawyers. Also, some prosecutors also witnessed the activities of the Vescera brothers.

Nolan, the deputy district attorney handling the case until now, said she had talked to the attorney general’s office Friday and officials there tentatively agreed to accept the case.

No court date has been set.