Attorney sentenced to six years for defrauding clients

A district court judge on Wednesday sentenced a Brownsville attorney to six years in state prison for defrauding more than a dozen clients on cases he handled.

Phillip J. Stein, 47, pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of theft for stealing between $20,000 and $100,000 from four clients. In court, he apologized and asked for a second chance.

“I was going through a tough time,” he told Judge Leonel Alejandro of the 357th Judicial District Court.

Last year, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office Special Operations Group arrested him for theft charges made in October 2007. Investigators said a client had hired Stein to handle a home purchase in Harlingen, in which he misappropriated about $60,000 from his Interest On Lawyer Trust Account, a pooled, interest-bearing account for the benefit of clients.

A grand jury indicted Stein on the theft charges in June 2008 and his formal arraignment was set for the following month. But he evaded the court date and fled to Mexico before the Special Operations Group arrested him in March 2009, according to the district attorney’s office.

The following month he was arrested on theft charges again — this time on an arrest warrant in connection with an automobile accident case he had been retained to litigate. Stein deposited more than $25,000 into his bank account from two insurance companies that had settled and paid out for injuries suffered in the wreck by his client, Silvia Bustinza, according to investigators.

Bustinza received a check from Stein for only $1,500 and was told it was down payment for the settlement, police said. She tried to contact her attorney numerous times but received no response.

On Wednesday, Stein defended himself in court, saying he had taken steps to pay back his clients and had served his probation.

Mario Marroquin testified before the judge on behalf of more than a dozen victims of Stein’s litigation practices. He had filed the first charges against Stein in 2007 after he lost his home in Harlingen.

Many residents are not aware that attorneys in Texas are not required to be bonded, meaning that money given to an attorney is not protected, Marroquin said. He and other clients had trusted Stein because he was an attorney.

“What he did to us is a black ball to all attorneys in the Valley,” Marroquin testified.

Outside the courtroom after the trial, clients said they were content with the Stein’s sentence. Cynthia Gonzalez, whose father was represented by Stein in an auto accident lawsuit, said the attorney embezzled more than $22,000 from the family.

“I’m happy, glad that justice was served,” she said. “My father has waited two years for this.”