Ex-Lawyer Accused of Stealing $1.8 Million From Trust : Arrest: Richard Eric Boehm is held on $1-million bail. Investigator says the alleged theft from a paralyzed man is one of largest in county involving a single victim.

Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested a former Orange County attorney suspected of stealing about $1.8 million from a trust fund account he helped establish for a driver paralyzed in a traffic accident.

Richard Eric Boehm, 42, was arrested shortly after noon on a warrant upon arrival at his Lake Arrowhead home, authorities said.

Deputies planned to transfer Boehm to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, where he will be held on $1-million bail, said Don Lambert, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Department economic crime detail.

Lambert said the alleged theft was one of the largest in Orange County involving a single victim.

Boehm negotiated a $3-million settlement in August, 1991, for Tipton Chase, 33, of Vancouver, Wash., who had been in a traffic accident two months earlier in Imperial County. Chase and his mother-in-law were headed to Yuma, Ariz., when a driver trying to pass a tractor-trailer collided head-on with Chase’s van.

Chase was left paralyzed from the neck down. His mother-in-law was slightly injured, and the other driver was killed, Lambert said.

Boehm worked on Chase’s case for free and negotiated the settlement with Liberty Mutual insurance to help pay for medical bills, authorities said. The account was established in Mariner’s Bank in Dana Point.

Sheriff’s deputies said Boehm began writing checks of up to $100,000 for himself, his friends and for a friend’s air-conditioning and heating business. The account apparently only required one signature on checks for withdrawal, Lambert said.

“I’m a trusting person,” said Chase during a telephone interview Thursday. “I thought there are still people left in the world who care. Obviously, there are people who care and others who take advantage of anyone, anyway they can.”

Chase said that he saw that money was being taken from the trust fund but that he thought it was going toward his bills accumulated during a nearly three-month hospital stay.

Boehm “was there and would call and see how I was doing and made it seem like he was a caring, concerned individual,” Chase said.

When he learned that his bills were not being paid, Chase told Boehm to investigate what was happening with the money, Lambert said. Boehm allegedly balked, and Chase’s relatives called the California Bar Assn. to complain.

It was then that they learned about Boehm’s past. Beginning in 1982 until 1988, several people complained to the California Bar that Boehm obtained retainer fees from them for civil cases but did nothing, Lambert said. Sheriff’s deputies said the three-year statute of limitations had expired on the complaints so they would not investigate.

The State Bar placed Boehm on suspension in August, 1991, and formally disbarred him two months later, Lambert said. Boehm also allegedly failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service and the State Tax Franchise Board the income he made on the accident settlement, he said.

Chase said he still has $500,000 worth of medical bills stemming from his hospital stay. He requires help feeding himself, getting dressed and moving around, he said.

Chase, a former truck driver for Johnson Controls Inc. in Fullerton, lives on about $5,000 he receives each month from annuities set up by the insurance company that established his trust fund.

Sheriff’s officials said that their investigation is continuing and that they are trying to determine where all the money went. Boehm, arrested on suspicion of grand theft, unauthorized practice of law and filing a false income tax return, will be arraigned Tuesday, Lambert said.