Phoenix
Man who posed as lawyer convicted of theft, fraud
A man who impersonated an attorney was convicted of 23 counts of theft and one count of fraud Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Gary Karpin, 57, was then taken into custody pending a sentencing hearing.
Karpin has acted as his own attorney since trial began in mid-August. The jury spent a day and a half deliberating before coming back with 24 guilty verdicts. One theft charge was thrown out over the course of the trial.
He had been out on bond but was taken into custody after the guilty verdicts were read because the charges require mandatory prison sentences.
Karpin specialized in divorce cases, technically as a mediator and legal-document preparer, but he presented himself as an attorney.
In fact, though he had been a prosecutor and defense attorney in Vermont, he was disbarred in that state in 1993 and was later disbarred in Maine as well. He was not a member of the State Bar of Arizona, though he set up his office in Phoenix, which he called Divorce with Dignity, in 1996.
"We all thought he was a lawyer," said Bill Ludlow, who had hired Karpin to help him and his wife through a divorce.
But when Ludlow realized that Karpin was dating his wife during the time he was helping them divorce, he started doing research and learned that Karpin had been disbarred. He filed a civil lawsuit against Karpin.
Then, Ludlow claimed, Karpin harassed him, filing frivolous lawsuits against him and calling his employer.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, Karpin billed the case's 25 victims nearly $300,000 between April 2000 and December 2004. He was indicted in 2005 and released on $75,000 bond.
Originally, investigators identified more potential victims.
"It wasn't just one or two of us," said Gina Niedzwiecki, "there were hundreds of us." Niedzwiecki paid Karpin more than $87,000 in one year.
Karpin would lead his clients to believe that he was part of a law firm with several attorneys. His ads and business cards implied that he worked for a law firm, and he displayed his law degree on his office wall.
It was a real diploma, as he said in court, though he was not licensed to practice law.
And though the clients, in effect, ended up filing their own documents for divorce, Karpin strung out the process.
"He played me for the last cent I had," said victim Clissy Landreaux.
Karpin will be sentenced Nov. 21 in Judge Warren Granville's courtroom. The offenses call for prison sentences ranging from six months to 9 1/4 years. Whether they run consecutively or concurrently is up to the judge.
He will also be required to pay restitution to his victims. Officials in the County Attorney's Office said that his Fountain Hills home and bank accounts were seized.
