Lawrence Anthony Witsoe, Mission Viejo Lawyer, Accused of Bribing Rialto Cop to Get Client Off
Categories: Crime-iny
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Or, in the case of Mission Viejo attorney Lawrence Anthony Witsoe, who is accused of paying that bribe to the Rialto cop now looking at 20, the relatively small change could fetch a 35-year stretch in the pen.
Agents from the FBI this morning took Witsoe and Officer Aaron Scott Vigil, 41, of Highland, into custody after they were named in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on June 1.
Witsoe was representating a client facing an assault charge in Orange County Superior Court in the fall of 2009. According to the feds, he offered Vigil, who was serving on a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force, $1,000--later upped to $2,500--to tell Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) prosecutors that the lawyer's client was a DEA informant.
Vigil is alleged to have contacted the OCDA several times and falsely reported Witsoe's client had provided valuable information regarding drug traffickers, including tips that led to a DEA seizure of $110,000 in drug money.
The OCDA dismissed the case. Witsoe is accused of then directing his client to wire $2,500 to a trust account, from which the lawyer wrote a check to the ex-wife of one of Vigil's associates, according to the FBI.
The indictment charges both men with conspiracy and soliciting and accepting a bribe by a public official. Witsoe alone is charged with bribery of a public official. The U.S. Attorney's office statement on the arrests claims the OCDA cooperated fully with the FBI investigation.
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