Crime & Safety

Newport Attorney Who Swindled Fellow Churchgoers Gets 3 Weeks to Come up with $1.2M for Victims

If Peter David Nitschke doesn't come up with the money, a judge is going to send him to prison for 12 years. An angry exchange ensued in court.

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

An Orange County Superior Court judge today gave a suspended Newport Beach attorney another three weeks to come up with the $1.2 million he promised to pay his victims or else he will be sent to prison for 12 years.

Peter David Nitschke, 47, was at times so agitated during today's restitution hearing that sheriff's deputies stood ready to restrain him. At one point, he insulted the prosecutor in the case and his own defense attorney, Stacy Kelly of the Orange County Public Defender's Office.

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"I object to this," Nitschke said angrily after Deputy District Attorney Sean O'Brien recounted some of his past fraud schemes. "I can go on 'ad hominem' attacks too. Mr. O'Brien is an ass and Ms. Kelly is incompetent."     

Nitschke also complained to Judge Gary Paer that he needed the better phone access at Orange County Jail to finalize the $1.2 million loan he expects from benefactors in exchange for working for them in North Dakota. The deal will fall apart if he is sent to prison because it is difficult to gain access to pay phones there, he argued.

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Paer said he wanted to give the victims one more chance to get their money back.

"I heard from those victims. Their lives got screwed up because of your felonies," Paer told the defendant. "They would do anything to get their money back."

The judge said Nitschke had a "drop dead" date of Aug. 8 to come up with the money.

"I would be stunned if the money shows up," Paer said, adding "maybe this case can make history."

Nitschke claims his benefactors are willing to loan him the money if he is freed soon so he can work for them in an unspecified job. Paer wondered why anyone would hire a convicted felon, but he held out hope of some credibility to the claim since Kelly had been in contact with an attorney about the job offer in recent weeks.

Nitschke was sentenced June 20 to 12 years in prison for stealing about $780,000 from nine victims. But Judge Paer said he would reduce the sentence significantly if Nitschke quickly paid the amount he stole, plus interest.

The victims included two elderly sisters Nitschke met through the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods.

After they inherited a home in Northern California and more than $675,000 in March 2010, Nitschke offered to help them with their finances and directed them to give him cashier's checks totaling more than $675,000, O'Brien said.

The attorney put the money in his personal bank account instead of in a client trust account as required by State Bar rules, O'Brien said.

Nitschke stole another $46,000 from the sisters by failing to return money from a real estate transaction, O'Brien said.

After the attorney was arrested in September 2012, more victims came forward, the prosecutor said.

Those additional victims included a married couple from the church who he approached with what he said was an investment opportunity, O'Brien said. Nitschke asked for $50,000 and promised to pay it back with 20 percent interest, but he did not repay the money until the couple hired an attorney.

He then made several payments before bouncing a check for more than $3,400, according to prosecutors.

Another church member hired Nitschke to help with a loan modification on a home, but he took $1,000 and failed to provide any services, according to prosecutors.

Nitschke's license to practice law was suspended Dec. 2.


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