Oregon: Ex-Portland lawyer sentenced to more than 8 years in prison for stealing more than $3.8 million in clients’ money

Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up

Oregon Live reports

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Ex-Portland personal injury lawyer Lori Deveny used her clients’ funds to pay more than $150,000 on foreign and domestic airline tickets, more than $173,000 on African safari and big game hunting trips and $35,000 on taxidermy expenses, according to prosecutor Claire M. Fay.Court Exhibit

 

Former personal injury lawyer Lori E. Deveny, who cheated more than 135 clients out of more than $3.8 million, was sentenced Monday to nearly 8 ½ years in federal prison

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman called Deveny’s fraud more “calculating and predatory than desperate,” though he said he believed part of what contributed to Deveny’s downfall was the emotional and physical abuse she endured from her late husband, who took his own life in 2018.

Deveny’s defense lawyer pointed to her terrible marriage to a controlling husband who was 16 years older and convinced her to do things she never would have done before.

But the judge said that still doesn’t explain why Deveny crossed the “huge line” instilled in all trial lawyers from the time they’re sworn in: Stealing from clients will get you disbarred, and you’ll wind up in jail.

In addition to sentencing Deveny, 57, to eight years and five months in prison, Mosman ordered her to pay $4.6 million in restitution in what the state bar has called the worst fraud by a single lawyer in Oregon’s history.

Deveny intends to forfeit her home, her lawyer said.

The sentence came after the judge heard testimony from five of Deveny’s victims, many of whom said the lawyer betrayed their trust when they were struggling to heal from serious injuries.

Gabriella Davidson said she was 18 and relied on a promised settlement from a car accident case to help pay college tuition, but the payment never materialized.

Aubrey Hunter, who was in a head-on car crash, said he had to dip into his retirement funds after losing his job, while Deveny kept stringing him along with all kinds of excuses why his settlement wasn’t forthcoming.

“She used me,” said Nancy Freyer , who came to court on crutches, of Deveny. “She told me I was a model client but she failed me.”

She said a doctor removed the big toe on her right foot without consent and she hired Deveny to file a lawsuit. But Deveny kept the medical settlement, claiming she was working to reduce a Medicare lien, Freyer said.

“I felt like I was nothing to her,” Freyer said. “She preyed on me at my most painful, vulnerable time in my life.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire M. Fay called Deveny an “unfeeling financial predator” who used lies and manipulation to defraud her clients. Many had suffered serious brain and bodily injuries in traffic crashes or other accidents and were awaiting payments from insurance company claims that Deveny had filed on their behalf.

Instead, Deveny stole the identities of countless clients, forged insurance checks made payable to them and deposited the money to her own bank accounts to cover her and her husband’s lavish lifestyle.

“For 12 long years, she systematically robbed her clients, not with a gun and a mask, but with a pen and a law license,” Fay said.

Lori Deveny leaves court after sentencing

Ex-lawyer Portland Lori E. Deveny, 57, seen leaving the federal courthouse in downtown Portland with her lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Mark Ahleyemer, after her sentencing. She has to turn herself into the U.S. Marshals Service on Jan. 17.

HUNTING AND CIGARS

Deveny used her clients’ money to pay for “unbridled and decadent spending” on big game hunting trips to Africa, taxidermy costs for the hunting trophies, guns and ammunition, travel to Las Vegas, Mexico, South Africa and Alaska, cruises and fishing trips, according to Fay.

Deveny bought more than $220,000 worth of expensive cigars from Broadway Cigars and more than $60,000 for stays at the Desert Sun Resort, a Palm Springs luxury nudist resort, Fay said.

Deveny also used the money to support her husband’s photography business and remodel their home to include a dog kennel, cigar room and new roof.

She left many of her victims “either destitute or barely able to make ends meet,” Fay said.

Some didn’t know Deveny had settled their claims. When others complained about the length of time to get their payments, Deveny would offer up excuse after excuse, even claiming a bogus death in her family, Fay said.

Hunter, who was in a head-on crash in 2014, said he suffered a head injury and his ankle had to be reconstructed in two surgeries.

Deveny told him he should expect a couple of hundred thousand dollars in a settlement, he said, but then she stalled, telling him that one lawyer she was dealing with had died and then about a year later that the insurance company had gone into bankruptcy.

He said he was laid off and hit rock bottom, pleading with Deveny to take care of his case. He has known her for nearly three decades, he said.

“I was a complete fool, just stupid,” Hunter told the judge. “Sorry, I’m so pissed, I was waiting years for this opportunity.”

Hunter said he read in the paper that Deveny was under investigation for defrauding her clients and immediately called her on her personal cellphone. She still denied she had done anything wrong and told him she’d have his settlement by the end of the year, he said.

“Even when you had been caught … you still lied,” Hunter said, turning toward Deveny as she sat beside her lawyer. “By that point, she had already taken all my money. … I don’t know how you can live with yourself.”