A Newport Beach attorney was convicted Wednesday in an extortion plot involving threats to reveal embarrassing personal information about the married owners of the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin.
James Toledano, 70, put his face in his hands upon hearing that he was found guilty of extortion and conspiracy to commit a crime. The lawyer, a onetime chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party in the 1990s, faces a maximum of four years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for Jan. 30.
Co-defendant Michael Earl Roberts, 49, of Corona del Mar, pleaded guilty Oct. 27, just before the two were to go on trial, and was immediately sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Roberts, who was a personal trainer for Priscilla “Bo” Marconi and her husband, Dick Marconi, was also ordered to stay away from his former employers.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley allowed Toledano to remain free on bail until his sentencing.
The jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon, but had to start over again this morning when a juror was removed for doing independent research. The panel came back with verdicts late this afternoon.
Toledano’s attorney, David Swanson, declined comment.
Much of the evidence against Roberts and Toledano came from secretly recorded phone calls made at the direction of law enforcement by the Marconis’ attorney, Paul Roper.
Roberts worked as a personal trainer for Priscilla Marconi and her husband between 1995 and 2005, but eventually fell out of favor with the couple and was fired, according to Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Olivieri.
Roberts, who was also a supplier of rare cactus plants to the wealthy, hired Toledano to file a civil suit against the Marconis, but their efforts turned toward extortion, Olivieri said.
Between August 2006 and June 2008, Roberts made dozens of calls to Priscilla Marconi and her friends saying he planned to sue her, and, in one instance, saying, “You better hang onto something, because it’s going to get bumpy,” Olivieri said.
Toledano represented Roberts in a May 2008 meeting with Roper when a demand was made for $350,000 in exchange for not releasing embarrassing information to various media, including a local magazine, two daily newspapers and a Los Angeles television station, according to Olivieri.
In a June 2008 meeting, Roberts received a duffel bag from Dick Marconi containing $200,000 in cash and a cashier’s check made out to the defendant for $150,000, as well as a check for $10,000 payable to Toledano, according to Olivieri.
Roberts also received a watch worth $40,000, the prosecutor said.
When Roberts was arrested, he had a bill from Toledano for $18,000 that investigators suspect was the attorney’s payoff, Olivieri said.
A key piece of evidence in the case was a draft letter from Toledano to Roper that referred to his intent to “expose” the Marconis, but with the word crossed out and replaced with “seek legal remedies,” Olivieri said.
Toledano testified that his client told him Bo Marconi had an affair with the trainer, leaving him with evidence he could use for “challenging her credibility,” since she declared in a request for a temporary restraining order that she never had sex with Roberts.
Toledano confronted Roper with the information at a May 2008 meeting, saying, “It really helped the case” of any civil litigation against the Marconis.
Roberts also gave his attorney a “bunch of letters” and photos that indicated the two had a romantic relationship, Toledano testified.
Roberts wanted to sue Bo Marconi for defamation, claiming she bad- mouthed him to other wealthy clients in the area and hurt his business, Toledano testified.
“I emphasized to him that we had a very good case and his client was not in a good position,” Toledano said.
— City News Service