April 2, 2007

Woman Named in Embezzlement Case Pleads Guilty to Perjury, Forgery

LOS ANGELES – A woman who with a former attorney was charged last year in an embezzlement case involving conservatorships of estates and military victims pleaded guilty today to perjury and forgery.

Deputy District Attorney Christian Gullon of the Justice System Integrity Division said 73-year-old Anne L. Chavis is scheduled to return Los Angeles Superior Court on July 9 for sentencing. She entered the plea today before Judge David Horwitz.

Chavis and former attorney Charles Brian Smith, 59, were charged a year ago. Smith also was charged in a second case. Victims included military veterans too disabled to handle their own affairs.

Authorities said Chavis served as conservator for the veterans. The veterans were from the Army, Navy Marine Corps and Air Force. She also served as a special administrator for a probate estate that Smith represented.

Gullon said the two counts to which Chavis pleaded guilty involve actions in April and June 2002.

Smith pleaded guilty last year to multiple counts from both cases, including conspiracy, perjury, grand theft by embezzlement and theft from an elder. He was sentenced to three years, four months in state prison and ordered to pay $750,187 in restitution.