Tacoma attorney allegedly embezzled from injured woman’s $1.6 million, blamed her spending
After a serious motorcycle accident that left her unable to work at 55, a woman was awarded about $1.66 million that a former Tacoma attorney helped her manage.
Seven years later, she had $20,000 in the account, according to court records. By the end of 2019, she only had $15.
Over half a million dollars ended up in the lawyer’s bank accounts, court documents allege.
The attorney allegedly embezzled over $570,000.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a grand jury indicted 65-year-old Colby Parks on Oct. 2 with twelve counts of wire fraud. He became the trustee in 2010 for the victim’s living trust account, and allegedly siphoned funds from it for about a decade.
Brett Purtzer, the lawyer representing Parks, told The News Tribune Friday evening via phone that Parks will be entering a plea of not guilty on Thursday when he appears in court. He said he wasn’t certain all of the representations in the indictment were accurate, and that they’ll take a look at the evidence.
The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, gives the following account:
The woman Parks represented was a passenger on a motorcycle when it was hit by another vehicle in 2007, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury that led to cognitive impairment, according to the indictment. She was awarded $2.88 million in damages in a King County Superior Court case that followed. That left her with $1.66 million in a trust account after she paid all legal fees and expenses. She lived in Tacoma at the time.
Her attorney in the case introduced the victim to Colby Parks, identified as Arthur Colby Parks in the indictment, in the interest of helping her find a person to wisely invest the money to last over the course of her life. Parks’ law firm, A. Colby Parks, Attorney at Law, P.S., became the trustee of her living trust via an agreement in 2010, allowing him to administer the funds for her welfare. In 2015, the victim named herself the trustee in a restated agreement, but Parks continued to have access and control over the trust bank accounts.
From 2010 to 2020, Parks allegedly made about 600 transactions transferring funds from the victim’s checking account, where he transferred money from the original trust account, to his law firm and personal bank accounts. The total amount he transferred into his own and his law firm’s accounts was $880,000, allegedly paying himself about $570,000 more than he was due.
When the balance in her checking account fell to $15, the victim was forced to sell her home — and paid Parks another $9,650 after he told her she owed him for bills he had paid on her behalf in the last four months.
“As the funds were depleted, Parks falsely blamed Victim 1 and her spending choices for the trust’s exhaustion and attributed Victim 1’s concern about the diminishment of her funds to her poor memory,” the indictment said. “In reality, Victim 1 made a limited number of substantial purchases, including the home she purchased in 2011 that nearly doubled in value by the time she sold it in 2020.”
The news release says that Parks initially told Adult Protective Services, which began an investigation, that he was being paid a flat rate of $24,000 per year to represent the victim. He changed that amount to an average of over $54,000 per year when asked for supporting documentation. The indictment alleges the actual amount was well over $80,000 a year, according to the release.
The Washington State Bar Association also investigated the case, and Parks gave up his law license rather than receive discipline, according to the release. Wire fraud can lead to a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with comments from Parks’ attorney.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 2:24 PM.
