Former Attorney Is Charged With Stealing $380,000

A former lawyer was charged Friday with embezzling $380,000 from two Inglewood brothers who were shot to death after they reported the alleged crime.

Angela F. Wallace, 41, stole Howard Byrdsong’s inheritance, then offered to pay off the 20-year-old man if he didn’t tell, according to the 10-page criminal complaint.

Wallace was helping Byrdsong collect a life insurance policy left to him and his brother, Jontrae Byrdsong, 18, after their mother, a Los Angeles police officer, died of natural causes in June 2000.

At the time, Wallace was barred from law practice.

She had been suspended by the State Bar of California for misappropriation of other client funds.

Prosecutors say Wallace directed the insurance company to send the check to her All American Law Firm in Inglewood.

She opened a bank account using a forged power of attorney, deposited the check, then wrote at least nine unauthorized checks from the account, one for $130,200, prosecutors contend.

A man allegedly representing Wallace offered to pay Byrdsong $125,000 and an additional $143,631 later if he would rescind his forgery affidavit with the bank, the complaint said.

The Byrdsongs also filed a complaint with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“The D.A.’s office became involved in the investigation prior to the murders,” spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. “The boys came to us after they believed they were being robbed.”

Prosecutors began their investigation into the embezzlement allegations last spring. Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald E. Goudy of the office’s Organized Crime Division will prosecute the case.

The Byrdsongs were fatally shot June 6, 2001, by an intruder at the Inglewood home where they were living. The killer has not been found.

Earlier this month, Timothy Mack, 56, was also charged in the alleged Byrdsong embezzlement.

Gibbons described Mack as a friend of Wallace’s. The two are each charged with conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft by embezzlement and perjury for allegedly obtaining a false driver’s license. Wallace is also charged with three counts of forgery.

She was being held Friday at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in lieu of $460,000 bail. Her arraignment is set for Tuesday.

Mack, who was arrested Feb. 5, pleaded not guilty to the charges at his Feb. 7 arraignment. He remains in custody on $750,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 21.

Wallace, a graduate of the USC Law School, was suspended from the State Bar for two years in 1999 and placed on five years’ probation after agreeing to misconduct charges in six cases, according to the California Bar Journal, the bar’s official publication. She resigned from the bar in May 2001 with disciplinary charges pending.