From Clients : Lawyer Gets 4 Years for Embezzling

A former Glendale Bar Assn. president was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for stealing more than $200,000 from a dozen clients.

Eugene M. Giometti, 41, showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Pasadena Superior Court Judge Jack B. Tso on 11 counts of embezzlement and one count of forgery

In a plea-bargain agreement in February, 16 counts of grand theft and forgery were dismissed. At the time, Giometti pleaded no contest to the 12 remaining counts against him.

“I think justice was achieved,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter H. Lewis said after Friday’s three-hour sentencing hearing. “He cheated a lot of people out of a lot of money.”

Tso said: “This is a case of greed, viciousness and utter disregard for the welfare of people that trusted in him. . . . When one violates that oath, they should be punished.”

Giometti, who served as bar association president in 1980-81 and was named Glendale Chamber of Commerce “Man of the Year” two years later, embezzled $232,000 from his clients during a two-year period beginning in 1983, prosecutors said.

Included among those he bilked were two widows who entrusted money from their husbands’ life insurance policies to him, prosecutors said. He stole the money by diverting it from trust funds to his private accounts or by forging his clients’ names on insurance checks, authorities said.

Victim Pleased

Giometti stole the most money--$99,000--from Drue Delgado, a waitress widowed and left to care for her son, then 2 years old, when her husband was murdered in North Hollywood, authorities said.

“I’m real happy about it,” she said of the verdict. “And I’m glad it’s over.”

Delgado was among six prosecution witnesses who testified against Giometti during the sentencing hearing.

Giometti’s attorney, Richard J. Helphand, who requested that Giometti receive probation, said he is disappointed but not surprised by the sentence.

“In fact, Gene knew early on that it was likely he would get a jail sentence,” Helphand said after the hearing. “He knew his conduct caused great harm to people who are innocent citizens of our society.”

During the hearing, Giometti repeated his argument that a severe alcohol problem brought on by social and business pressure led to his downfall.

“I had no excuse,” Giometti said to Helphand during questioning. “I know I’m an alcoholic and caused a lot of pain for a lot of people. I wasn’t in control of what I did.”

Four witnesses, including his former wife, testified that Giometti was a heavy drinker. But prosecution witnesses who knew Giometti professionally and socially said they never knew he had a drinking problem. And Tso said: “I simply don’t believe there was an alcohol problem.”

Giometti participated in numerous community activities in Glendale. He was a member of the Jaycees, the well-known Verdugo Club for businessmen and was chairman of Glendale’s prestigious Adventist Medical Center Foundation.

Prosecution and defense witnesses testified that Giometti had a lavish life style. Theri Koehler, his former legal secretary, testified: “He always had to have the best of everything.”

Giometti graduated with a law degree from the University of Santa Clara in 1971. The next year, he became an associate of Melby & Anderson, a well-known Glendale law firm. In 1981, he left the firm and opened a family-law and personal-injury practice.

In March, 1986, the California State Bar found him guilty of embezzling money from his clients. He was charged with the criminal counts in July, 1986.

Giometti has been in custody since March 29, when he entered the California Institution for Men at Chino for psychiatric evaluation. Immediately before that, he was living in Stockton.