Lawyer Faces Jail for Theft --Again

An attorney sent to jail in the 1980s for cheating clients out of legal settlements faces punishment again after admitting this year to similar crimes.

Leonard Basinger of Orange was stripped of his law license in 1988 and served eight months in jail when he was convicted of stealing more than a quarter-million dollars from his law partner and clients.

But the State Bar of California reinstated Basinger’s license to practice law five years later after several attorneys and a judge testified on his behalf. The bar administrator concluded that jail time, psychotherapy and fatherhood had all served to rehabilitate a lawyer who blamed his misdeeds on a gambling problem.

Apparently it hadn’t.

Prosecutors earlier this year charged Basinger, 57, with cheating clients again. He pleaded guilty and now faces up to nine years in prison. A judge will sentence him this month. His wife, Valynda, 52, admitted participating in the schemes and faces a lesser sentence.

No matter what the punishment, a prosecutor hopes Basinger’s law career is finally over.

“It will be nearly impossible for him to become a lawyer again,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Chinn. “Look what happened last time. This is a real sore point with the state bar, and they’ve suffered plenty of embarrassment because of it.”

In March, Basinger pleaded guilty to 15 counts of felony grand theft--including charges that he cashed Social Security checks made out to a dead person, wiped out a young boy’s college fund and cashed numerous settlement checks without informing clients of the resolution. He admitted the crimes after his wife agreed to testify against him at trial.

In all, Basinger siphoned off more than $250,000 from his clients’ accounts from 1995 to 1997.

Valynda Basinger, who worked as a receptionist in her husband’s law office, faces up to five years in prison. She told prosecutors she helped in the crimes by transferring funds between accounts and by misleading clients who called to ask about their cases or accounts. She wrote in her plea that Leonard Basinger “was converting the funds to his own use to pay his gambling debts.”

Basinger resigned his state bar membership immediately after he was charged with the crimes. Neither he nor his attorney returned calls seeking comment Thursday. He has said in court he can’t afford to make restitution.

Basinger was suspended and subsequently disbarred after he was convicted in 1985 of stealing more than $260,000 in partnership and client trust funds. That conviction was later overturned on appeal because of improper jury instructions. He later pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft and served eight months in county jail. When applying for reinstatement to the bar, Basinger said gambling problems had tempted him to take the funds and that he had undergone successful treatment. In addition to serving time and making restitution on the embezzled accounts, Basinger was backed by a number of recommendations from fellow lawyers.

All of those factors convinced bar administrators that Basinger had met the necessary criteria for reinstatement: that he was rehabilitated and that he exhibited sustained exemplary conduct.

Officials with the state bar said Basinger’s case is a rare one and that authorities didn’t make an error when they decided to reinstate his law license.

“With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it’s easy to say we made a mistake,” said Victoria Molloy, assistant chief trial counsel for the bar. “There’s a very high burden that people must meet to be reinstated, and most people who try are unsuccessful. He was obviously capable of showing that he met that burden, but he didn’t hold up his side of the bargain.”

Molloy said Basinger would be eligible to apply for reinstatement in five years, but she doubted his prospects of succeeding.

“He would have to meet an extraordinarily high burden,” Molloy said. “I really don’t think he could meet that burden now.”

One of Basinger’s victims said he should have never been given a second chance.

William Weidman, 68, said he still lies awake at night stewing over the fact that he received only $5,000 of a $100,000 accident settlement.

“I’d say I was betrayed with a 3-foot-tall capital ‘B,’ ” Weidman said.