Appeals court overturns conviction of Newport Beach attorney found guilty of extortion

A state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Newport Beach attorney found guilty of taking part in an extortion plot targeting the married owners of a Tustin auto museum.

A panel of judges on the California Court of Appeals in a written opinion released this week found that while there was sufficient evidence for jurors to find James Toledano guilty of extortion and conspiracy, an error in the jury instructions meant Toledano did not get a fair trial.

Toledano, a onetime chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party in the 1990s, was sentenced in 2015 to nine months in jail and three years of formal probation. The jail sentence was stayed, however, pending Toledano’s appeal.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately comment on the appeals court decision.

Toledano, on behalf of co-defendent Michael Earl Roberts, was accused of threatening to reveal personal information about Priscilla “Bo” Marconi and her husband, Dick Marconi, the owners of the Marconi Automotive Museum.

Roberts worked for the Marconi’s as a personal trainer between 1995 and 2005 before eventually falling out of favor with the couple.

According to the appeals court opinion, Toledano in 2007 wrote a letter to Priscilla Marconi, indicating he had been retained on Robert’s behalf in connection to a potential civil lawsuit against the couple.

Prosecutors alleged that Toledano and Robert’s efforts soon turned to extortion, with evidence against the pair coming from secretly recorded phone calls made at the direction of law enforcement. In an exchange cited in the appeals court opinion, an attorney for the Marconi’s agreed to pay Roberts and Toledano $200,000 in cash, along with a cashier’s check for $150,000, via a duffel bag delivered to the parking lot of a Newport Beach hotel.

Roberts pleaded guilty prior to trial, and was sentenced to six months in jail.

During Toledano’s trial, his attorney denied that Toledano was trying to extort or threaten the Marconi’s, instead arguing that he was working out a settlement to avoid a civil lawsuit. The appeals court judges were unconvinced, writing that there was “substantial evidence” that Toledano was trying to extort the Marconi’s, including a threat to release embarrassing information to “the Orange County press.”

But the appeals court judges also determined that jurors were “never informed that conduct otherwise criminal is permitted if it falls within the litigation privilege,” which grants attorneys immunity from criminal prosecution when certain statements are made in the course of a trying to settle a lawsuit.

“There is a reasonable chance the jury would have rendered a more favorable verdict for Toledano had it been properly instructed that the litigation privilege could protect Toledano’s communications,” the appeals court judges wrote.

It was not immediately clear if Toledano will face a retrial.