PITTSBURG — After a three-week trial, a Danville lawyer who unsuccessfully ran for district lawyer and her co-defendant had been discovered not responsible of swindling an eccentric millionaire out of greater than $100,000.
Elham Falahat, who ran for Contra Costa County district lawyer in 2010, and her co-defendant Hamid Ben Maghsoudi had been acquitted of grand theft by a county jury on Aug. 2. Filed in 2016, the costs accused the pair of profiting from a senile man named Andrew Gabor, who turned a millionaire after his daisy wheel printer system invention was picked up by Xerox within the Nineteen Seventies.
The case hinged on Gabor’s psychological state when he paid tens of 1000's of dollars to Falahat and Maghsoudi, with protection attorneys arguing that Gabor was a extremely smart and eccentric man who gave the impression to be answerable for his schools. Throughout the identical interval he paid Falahat and Maghsoudi, he additionally bought a $450,000 Bentley and began engaged on a “intercourse chair” invention designed to assist chubby folks.
Roberto Dulce, a lawyer who represented Falahat, mentioned his consumer’s greatest fault was “she genuinely cared a lot for a consumer that she turned a suspect in aged fiduciary abuse.”
“A lawyer who seemed past simply getting her authorized charges, what an idea,” Dulce mentioned in a written assertion to this information group. Dulce’s co-counsel, Ashley Bargenquast, known as Falahat a “great lady” who has been “absolutely vindicated” by the decision.
The California Lawyer Common’s Workplace, which prosecuted the case, didn't return requests for remark. The workplace took over the case after Walnut Creek police, which led the investigation, recognized a possible battle of curiosity with the Contra Costa County District Lawyer’s Workplace.
Prosecutors argued that Falahat and Maghsoudi took benefit of apparent indicators that Gabor’s psychological well being was declining, and that they spoke to others who refused cash from Gabor since they felt it was apparent he was not absolutely coherent. The investigation was opened in 2014 after a financial institution worker turned suspicious of cash transfers from Gabor to the pair and tipped off police, in accordance with authorities.
The costs had been filed in April 2016 when former District Lawyer Mark Peterson — who beat Falahat and Dan O’Malley within the 2010 election — was nonetheless in workplace. Throughout trial, it was revealed that Falahat texted Peterson throughout the investigation, inquiring why her checking account had been frozen.
Satirically, Peterson ended up with authorized issues of his personal a 12 months later when he was charged with 13 felonies for spending about $66,000 in marketing campaign funds on private bills. The identical day he was charged, Peterson resigned and pleaded no contest to felony perjury, was sentenced to probation, and the opposite costs had been dropped. He was changed by former choose Diana Becton, who continues to be in workplace.