Jury out on whether man posed as lawyer
If you think like an attorney and speak like an attorney and have a law degree is that the same thing as pretending to be an attorney?
That’s a question put to a jury Monday by the attorney for Scott Anthony Whatcott, a businessman accused of pretending to be a lawyer.
Prosecutors told a 4th Judicial District jury that Whatcott filed for attorney’s fees, used the word “esquire” after his name in a billing statement and had the abbreviation “atty” in one of his e-mail addresses.
That’s criminal impersonation, Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Greenberg told the jury in closing arguments at the end of a week-long trial.
“He does not have a license. He is not an attorney,” she said.
Deputy Public Defender Roger Lucas countered that his client never told anyone that he had a license to practice law in Colorado.
Whatcott did graduate from Georgetown Law School and did pass the California bar exam, Lucas said. Whatcott may have been sloppy and pushy in his business dealings and charged a lot for his time, but he never tried to deceive anyone, his attorney said.
“He never told anyone he was a licensed attorney,” Lucas said. “They just assumed that.”
Lucas noted Whatcott never checked the box for attorney on the foreclosure forms and did not use the words “law offices” anywhere in his correspondence.
“All he wanted to do was to be paid for his time,” Lucas said. “But that’s not a crime.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Robyn Cafasso told the jury that Whatcott’s sense of self-worth was not the issue.
“Mr. Whatcott can go home and consider himself the best real estate investor in town,” she argued. “But he can not pass himself off as an attorney in a public record.”
Whatcott also is charged with offering a false instrument for recording, attempted theft, perjury and attempting to influence a public servant.
The 8-woman, 4-man jury recessed after deliberating for about one hour. They are scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.
For more court coverage, go to the Sidebar blog at Gazette.com
