Barbara Shorten of Oregon City remembers her lawyer brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers to her hospital room when she was paralyzed from the waist down after her car was rear-ended and thrown off the road into a pond in August 2015.
Shorten considered the flowers a kind gesture by Lori Deveny. That day, Deveny promised her that together they’d “go after the guy who hit me,” Shorten recalled.
Months later, Deveny arrived at Shorten’s manufactured home, this time showing up with a cake and more promises as Shorten’s medical bills piled up. The retired nurse would end up burning through her retirement fund to renovate her house to accommodate her wheelchair.
Three years later, Deveny told her: “I’ve got something really good going. … Things are going to be settling soon.” That was the last Shorten heard from the personal injury lawyer.
Shorten never received her $100,000 settlement check. She next heard from a Portland police detective who told her that Deveny had forged the check and pocketed all the money. About two years ago, Shorten and her husband divorced, partly due to the financial strain and stress they faced, she said.
“It’s enough to be damaged physically and family broken, but then to be robbed by a trusted lawyer is heart-wrenching,” Shorten testified Thursday from her motorized wheelchair.
Shorten was the first of 23 victims expected to address Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jerry B. Hodson in a five-day sentencing hearing for Deveny in what the state bar has called the worst fraud by a single lawyer in Oregon’s history.
One man lost his house and became homeless. Another filed for bankruptcy. A young woman dropped out of college because she couldn’t pay tuition. Several lost their savings. The tales of the hurt and heartache go on.
Shorten testified about 15 feet from Deveny, 57, who had been led into the downtown Portland courtroom in handcuffs and dressed in blue jail scrubs. She sat beside her lawyer at the defense table, jotting notes at times on a sheet from a yellow legal pad on the table.
State prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence for Deveny, who pleaded guilty to stealing $1.8 million from 36 clients, a fraction of the approximately 135 victims who lost a total of $4.6 million to Deveny’s fraud, according to federal prosecutors. Most aren’t part of this case because state and federal investigators conducted separate inquiries.
Defense lawyer Wayne Mackeson urged the judge to impose the same sentence Deveny received earlier this month in federal court, arguing the convictions are for the same crimes.
He submitted a sentencing memo that extensively quoted U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman’s remarks when he sentenced Deveny earlier this month to eight years and five months and ordered her to pay $4.6 million in restitution.
“Judge Mosman got it right,” Mackeson argued. “The federal case encompasses all of what we’re here for today.”
Deveny has been in custody for just over a week, since Jan. 17 when she was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service. Whatever sentence she receives in state court will run at the same time as the federal sentence, according to her plea agreement.
Prosecutors Scott Healy and Jeffrey Nitschke called for the 20-year term -- about 6 ½ months for each of her three dozen victims, saying there’s no comparable case in Oregon to Deveny’s.
“No person defrauded so many people over such a long period of time,” Nitschke said in his opening statement.
While he said he respects the federal judge and his reasoning, Nitschke argued that the shorter sentence wasn’t appropriate “given the scope” of Deveny’s misdeeds over 16 years.
Deveny pleaded guilty in state court to 28 counts of first-degree aggravated theft, seven counts of first-degree theft and one count of identity theft.
Mackeson cited evaluations from two psychologists that suggested Deveny was emotionally and physically abused by her late husband, who took his own life in 2018, and her crimes likely were “motivated by a desire to avoid being further punished or targeted by her husband.”
“She stated she expected to be able to make up the funds before the funds were ever to be distributed, and her clients would never know,” one evaluation said, according to court records.
On Thursday, four victims talked about their devastation in the wake of Deveny’s betrayal, with 10 more set to take the witness stand Friday.
“She took their money and left them suffering,” Nitschke said.
Instead of helping her vulnerable clients, he said, Deveny used their money on expensive cigars, African safaris, trips to Las Vegas and Mexico, a visit to a nudist resort, taxidermy, home remodeling, cruises, fishing trips, guns and ammunition and more.
She spent $58,000 alone to care for her pets, $35,000 to a groomer and $23,000 to the Banfield Pet Hospital.
‘RUINED MY TRUST IN LAWYERS’
Jessie Hegwood of Portland suffered a concussion and traumatic brain injury when a car rammed into her as she was stopped at a traffic light at Southeast 26th Avenue and Powell Boulevard.
Since the May 2015 crash, the mother of two has had trouble remembering the dates of her children’s school events. She lost her sense of time and suffered sleep paralysis. She uses a wheelchair to get around.
She relied on her lawyer, Deveny, to handle her medical expenses “so I could set it and forget it,” Hegwood testified.
But when she tried to follow-up with Deveny about the insurance claims, she’d hear what she called “sob stories” from the lawyer: Her pets were ill, she had surgery, the insurance company wasn’t getting back to her, Hegwood said.
Deveny made her feel bad for disturbing her, Hegwood said.
Weeks turned to months between her phone calls with Deveny. Then years.
Hegwood said she couldn’t afford her continued medical care and had to stop seeing a cognitive specialist and a therapist.
In December 2017, Deveny told her that her case was close to settlement.
In August 2018, while on a quick getaway to Lincoln City, Hegwood searched the internet for Deveny’s phone number after not hearing from her for so long. That’s when she read a news story alerting her that her lawyer was being investigated for stealing clients’ money. Deveny kept her $50,000 settlement check, according to prosecutors.
“She did more than lie to me and forge my signature,” Hegwood said. “She ruined my trust in lawyers.
“I will never be able to work with one without worrying that they will pull a Lori.’’
‘DIDN’T SEE IT COMING’
Kimberlee Burk of Portland had relied on Deveny to help her with claims from three car accidents in 2015. A friend had recommended the lawyer to her.
Burk, who worked for U.S. Customs and Border Protection for 27 years, said she has suffered short-term memory loss and balance problems since she sustained a concussion in the third car crash.
When Burk would ask Deveny about delays in payments or settlement of her claims, she said the lawyer made one thing clear to her: “Do not contact the insurance companies under any circumstances.”
Deveny would share a bevy of reasons why she couldn’t get back to Burk right away: Her dog had died. Her mom was sick. A tree had fallen in her neighborhood and she couldn’t get away, Burk testified.
Later, Burk would discover that Deveny had cashed a $15,000 settlement check that was due to her from the first accident; a $25,000 settlement check from the second accident and $5,000 from a settlement made without her knowledge for the third accident.
“Part of me was mad at myself because I didn’t see it coming. I was angry. I was disappointed that somebody lacks integrity, the moral compass to do the right thing,” Burk said.
“To make money on the backs of people that are already physically injured is appalling to me.”
FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
A co-worker had referred Curtis Elmore of Milwaukie to Deveny after he suffered a lower back injury and whiplash when his car was struck by another vehicle that ran a stop sign in September 2017.
During his first visit with Deveny, he found her eccentric, noticing the taxidermy animal heads that decorated her office. She talked about hunting and the safaris she went on, he said.
Elmore was out of work for two years, unable to lift the granite countertops he helped install. So he drove for Uber to help make ends meet as he struggled to support his wife and five children.
On June 10, 2018, Deveny summoned Elmore to her office, he said. She met him outside. She wanted him to sign a settlement with Country Financial for $20,000.
The day after, Deveny received Elmore’s check and cashed it for herself, according to prosecutors.
When she last met with Elmore, Deveny had already submitted her lawyer’s license resignation form to the state bar. She never divulged that, Elmore said.
In 2019, Elmore filed for bankruptcy, in part because he had $3,500 to $5,000 in outstanding medical bills, he said.
Asked by one of the prosecutors what he thought the proper punishment should be for Deveny, Elmore said he couldn’t say it in court. If he did, he said he worried he might get arrested.
DESPERATE TEXT MESSAGES
Portland Detective Brian Sitton recounted what happened when he told Max Martin that Deveny had taken his $150,000 settlement check in 2014.
“He broke down and began to sob,” Sitton testified.
Martin had been struck in a hit-and-run as he crossed Southeast Powell Boulevard.
He was hospitalized in a coma and suffered a traumatic brain injury that permanently impaired his cognitive functioning.
He lost his job, his girlfriend and suffered mood swings, according to Sitton. He would send text messages to Deveny, desperate for updates, telling her he was about to get evicted because he couldn’t pay his rent.
He eventually became homeless, prosecutors said.
Martin was due $168,247 from the settlement and restitution paid by the driver who struck him.
In four years, Deveny paid him only $16,000.
ONE REMAINING ASSET
Deveny’s long-running scam began to unravel in November 2017 when one of her clients went to the Oregon State Bar.
Margaret Medley reported that she had hired Deveny two years earlier but Deveny hadn’t stayed in regular contact and then settled the case without telling her or turning over the $20,000.
The state bar wrote to Deveny, then suspended her law license when Deveny didn’t respond. On May 24, 2018, Deveny resigned from the bar.
Further investigation revealed Deveny’s crimes dated back to 2002.
She would deposit the insurance settlement checks into her lawyer’s trust account, then transfer the money to her personal bank account or her husband’s or their credit card accounts, prosecutors said. She also would make cash withdrawals, they said.
Her federal defense attorney Mark Ahlemeyer said in court earlier this month that Deveny’s one remaining asset is her house.
“She is prepared to turn that over immediately to apply that toward restitution,” Ahlemeyer told Mosman on Jan. 9. “That will be hundreds of thousands of dollars that will immediately go to the outstanding restitution.”
Hodson is scheduled to hand down Deveny’s sentence on her state criminal convictions next week after hearing from more victims, a federal agent who tallied the victims’ losses and psychologists who evaluated Deveny.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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