Attorney Accused of Embezzling Bail Money

Criminal charges were filed Monday in Nevada against a Vista lawyer, James Wessel, who allegedly gambled away $150,000 paid him by an Illinois farmer who wanted his sweetheart in the Nevada state prison freed on bail.

Carson City Dist. Atty. Noel Waters filed a complaint charging Wessel with three counts of embezzlement in connection with three transfers of money in 1988 from Paul LaBudde, 64, of Freeport, Ill.

Wessel, who had moved from Nevada after the 1988 transfers of funds and until recently had been a deputy public defender in Vista, is expected to surrender Thursday, Waters said.

Wessel, 37, could not be reached Monday for comment. He resigned about a month ago, after initial reports of the Nevada investigation reached senior members of the public defender’s office, but has remained at the office as a paralegal, Public Defender Frank Bardsley said Monday.

Investigating officers said Wessel admitted to his former law partner in Nevada and another lawyer that he lost the money gambling. Wessel reportedly told one of his associates he was a “gambling addict.”

Wessel is expected to cooperate in the criminal case and possibly plead guilty, according to the sheriff’s office investigative report.

LaBudde, a widower who mortgaged his farm to get the money, hired Wessel to try to help free Ethyl Collier, 41, after striking up a correspondence with her from Illinois through his church. Collier is serving a life term without parole in a Nevada prison for hiring her father in 1981 to kill her sixth husband in Las Vegas to collect insurance benefits.