Lawyer Admits Spending Clients’ Checks : Courts: He is sentenced to 10 months in County Jail and ordered to make full restitution of $121,000 of embezzled workers’ compensation settlements. His attorney says he was repaying the money even before he was caught.

An Orange County attorney pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $100,000 in workers’ compensation payments from his clients and spending the money himself, authorities said Wednesday.

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Carlos Mario Hernandez, 46, entered guilty pleas Tuesday to 33 felony counts that included diverting six workers’ compensation settlement checks totaling $121,000 to his personal bank account, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr. said. Hernandez also wrote $34,000 worth of bad checks to clients, employees, vendors and his landlord, according to court records.

“This is another indication that we still have professionals who are going to exploit vulnerable people to line their own pockets,” Gannon said. “It is particularly aggravating when it is an attorney, who is in a position of trust and takes advantage of that position for his own benefit.”

Hernandez’s attorney, Robert Hartman, said Wednesday his client pleaded guilty because he wanted to avoid “putting people through the trauma of a trial.”

“He is remorseful for what he did,” Hartman said. “He always has been good to his clients. At the time [of the embezzlement], he was experiencing very bad financial problems and it got to the point where he sort of panicked.

“I think that accounted for what happened.”

Municipal Judge Charles Margines sentenced Hernandez to 10 months in Orange County Jail and ordered him to make full restitution of the money, of which about 80% already has been repaid, authorities said. The attorney, who has been practicing law in Anaheim and Santa Ana for about 15 years, also will be on probation for five years, authorities said.

Hernandez had no previous criminal record, according to investigators. The State Bar of California has not decided whether to revoke his license, but Hernandez “knows there is a good chance that will happen,” Hartman said.

The six-month investigation began when one of Hernandez’s clients complained to State Compensation Insurance Fund authorities that his settlement check was taking too long to be issued. After checking their records and discovering that the check had been been mailed weeks earlier, officials notified the district attorney.

Another client of Hernandez’s reported a similar incident to the San Diego Police Department, which turned the case over to Orange County district attorney’s office.

Hernandez was arrested May 24 without incident after authorities served a search warrant at his Santa Ana office and found documents supporting the charges.

Hernandez began cashing his clients’ checks in December, 1993, and continued the practice for months, investigators said. But according to Hartman, Hernandez “never intended to steal the money.”

“He was repaying the money, even before he was arrested.” Hartman said. “Most people who are criminally inclined wouldn’t do something like that.”

Hernandez is scheduled to begin serving his sentence July 14, Gannon said.