Man Held in Phony-Lawyer Scam

Authorities on Wednesday arrested a Santa Ana man they accuse of posing as a lawyer for six years and bilking at least 30 immigrants while pretending to help them with their divorces, immigration papers and other legal problems.

Joseph Robert Lopez, 61, walked out of his Santa Ana office--one of several storefronts from which he has conducted business over the years--in handcuffs. Investigators with the Orange County district attorney’s office booked him into jail on seven counts of grand theft and one count of unauthorized practice of law.

Prosecutors allege that Lopez preyed on the county’s immigrant community and used his Mexican background to gain the trust of Latino immigrants.

The arrest is significant because charging scam artists is tough, investigator Dina Mauger said. Often victims are reluctant to come forward, she said.

“You have to have victims to do anything,” said Mauger, who first heard of Lopez in November, when he represented himself as a lawyer in court. “I knew there were victims, but I had to go find them. People move. People sometimes are afraid to go to the police for whatever reason.”

Mauger began her investigation in small-claims court, where at least 30 former clients have sued Lopez, contending that he took their money for services he never performed.

On business cards and a framed diploma in his office, Lopez claims he earned a law degree from the Blackstone School of Law in Dallas. But school records show that the only training Lopez received there was a paralegal correspondence course. He completed the course while serving time in a California prison in the early 1990s for stealing from a collection agency that employed him.

Lopez’s receptionist said she has answered many phone calls from irate customers in her three months on the job.

“A lot of people call or come by to say that he took their money and hasn’t done anything, but I didn’t know,” Yesenia Garcia said. “His cards said he is a lawyer. I didn’t have any reason to think otherwise.”

Lopez, who portrays himself in fliers and advertisements as “su amigo” (“your friend”), also relied on word of mouth to attract clients.

One woman who has sued Lopez, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said she lived in the same apartment complex as Lopez and met him through his girlfriend. She turned to him for help with her divorce and immigration visa but received only empty promises in exchange for the $2,500 she paid.

A year after the woman hired Lopez to represent her, no divorce papers have been filed on her behalf and the INS is unaware of her application, she said.

“I became desperate,” said the woman. “Sometimes he blamed it on the secretary. Then he told me that the justice system takes time. Finally, I demanded a refund, and he kept saying he would send it, but he wouldn’t. He made me believe he was a lawyer and a good person.”

Lopez refused to comment Wednesday on the allegations except to acknowledge that he owes some clients money.

In an interview last year, however, Lopez admitted that he falsified his law degree and defended the ruse as an effective marketing strategy. Lopez also noted that his customers never specifically ask if he is an attorney.

“I don’t know if it’s wrong, but it’s good for business,” he said at the time.

Santa Ana Police Officer Jose Vargas said he routinely pleads with Latinos to file police reports in cases of suspected fraud. But most fraud victims are “so ashamed for people to learn that they’ve been made fools of that they would rather not go,” he said.

“It’s really sad that our own people are victimizing each other,” Vargas said. “It’s typical of all immigrant communities for the ones to arrive first to take advantage of the ones who arrive later.”

John Lopez, 33, who appeared at his father’s office minutes after the arrest Wednesday, said that his father is a “God-fearing” man who does not claim to be a lawyer but tries to help the disadvantaged.

“The people that come to us are poor,” he said. “They’re not rich and sophisticated.”

John Lopez acknowledged that his father “owes a lot of people money” but said he plans to pay them back.

He added that his father was about to take down the signs on his North Main Street storefront that advertise the services of an attorney. When asked if the arrest would shut down the business permanently, John Lopez shook his head.

“We never close,” he said.