Accused Lawyer Impostor Goes to Court While on Bail

A man awaiting trial in Orange County for allegedly posing as an attorney and taking thousands of dollars from unsuspecting clients appeared twice as a legal counsel in Los Angeles Municipal Court this summer while free on bail, court records show.

Interviews and records show that the accused impostor, known most recently as Christopher Kennedy, made the two appearances on behalf of an acquaintance. The first appearance came only 10 days after his release from Orange County Jail on June 4.

Kennedy, 50, who authorities say has used as many as 10 aliases, was scheduled to go on trial Monday on the local charges of impersonating an attorney and grand theft. Instead he was arrested in an Orange County courtroom after Canadian authorities sought his extradition on an unrelated drug charge. According to the California Department of Corrections, Kennedy had been charged with marijuana trafficking in Calgary in 1988 but fled the country while free on $5,000 bail.

Harbor Municipal Judge Ragnar R. Engebretsen denied Kennedy’s request for a four-month delay of his trial on the local charges Monday and, instead, watched as investigators came forward and arrested the defendant on the Canadian charges.

“Ah, what wondrous webs we weave when first we commence to deceive,” Engebretsen said as the handcuffs were being applied.

Kennedy was arrested in the spring of 1990 by Orange County district attorney investigators after people complained that he had taken thousands of dollars from them and falsely portrayed himself orally and in writing as a Newport Beach attorney named J. Christopher Kennedy.

California records show that there was only one attorney in the state by that name, a lawyer in Los Angeles with the firm of Irell & Manella. Irell & Manella’s Kennedy told The Times last year that he became concerned for his own reputation and that of his firm when angry clients and attorneys kept calling, complaining about cases he knew nothing about.

The Kennedy charged with being an impostor has pleaded not guilty to the Orange County charges. He did not respond Monday to questions posed to him by reporters as he was led through the courthouse to a holding cell and later transferred to federal custody.

Kennedy had been free on bail since June, after having spent 10 months in Orange County Jail while awaiting trial in Santa Ana.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge William R. Chidsey said that during Kennedy’s appearance in his courtroom on June 14, “I had no idea that he was anything other than an attorney.” But after questioning him during a second appearance on July 16, Chidsey said, he was convinced that Kennedy was not a lawyer.

A court transcript shows that during the July 16 appearance, Kennedy told Chidsey that he had been granted “a special limited power of attorney” to represent a man wanted on felony charges in Parker, Ariz. The transcript shows that Chidsey questioned Kennedy’s legal credentials, but also praised his courtroom performance.

“Based upon my perception of what the law ought to be, I believe at the present time (that the man on whose behalf Kennedy was appearing) is not represented, although I think you have done an admirable job in presenting what his situation might be,” the judge said.

That same day, Chidsey said, he notified the State Bar by telephone. He added that he has heard nothing since then. Anne Charles, a spokeswoman for the State Bar in San Francisco, said she was not in a position to discuss the judge’s complaint. In any event, she said, the Bar “has no jurisdiction over non-attorneys.”

Court records show that Kennedy has been convicted of white-collar type offenses in Solano, San Mateo, Riverside and Santa Clara counties. In the 1970s, he served five years at the state prison at Chino for passing bad checks.