Ex-Tacoma lawyer blamed client for missing funds. Turns out, he stole her money
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- A former Tacoma lawyer stole more than $530,000 from an elderly client’s trust account.
- Colby Parks was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He repaid the money he embezzled.
- Parks had been the trustee for the disabled woman’s account beginning in 2010.
A former Tacoma lawyer was sentenced in federal court Friday to 18 months in prison for stealing more than a half-million dollars from a disabled client’s trust account while blaming her for spending too much money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Colby Parks, 66, embezzled more than $530,000 from an elderly woman who had received about $1.66 million due to serious permanent injuries she suffered as a passenger in a motorcycle accident, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington.
Parks, who became the trustee for the woman’s account in 2010, siphoned funds for his own use that were intended to pay the woman’s expenses, the office said in a news release.
“At some point your ethical barometer had to go off over the ten years that you were stealing from a disabled elderly person,” U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said during Friday’s sentencing, according to the news release. “You transitioned from need to greed and that transpired into entitlement.”
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said that Parks betrayed his client’s trust and repeatedly lied to her about it and to those who investigated his financial abuse.
“Only after Mr. Parks was indicted and pled guilty did he settle the civil suit and agree to pay restitution to the victim,” Floyd said.
A grand jury indicted Parks on Oct. 2, 2024, on a dozen counts of wire fraud, The News Tribune previously reported.
He pleaded guilty to one count as part of a plea deal in May and repaid $530,000 to the victim in two installments this past summer, according to a sentencing memorandum filed on his behalf earlier this month.
“Colby recognizes that his actions severely impacted his former client. In addition, his actions ruined his professional life as an attorney, destroyed his good-name, and worst of all, adversely impacted his wife and three daughters,” the memo said. “Even before the Court’s sentencing, Colby has paid a heavy price for his crime. Although he cannot undo the past, Colby has done everything in his power to make amends for his actions.”
The memo also said that Parks has struggled with mental health problems for years and noted that 70 letters of support were submitted to the court on his behalf prior to sentencing.
Parks resigned his law license instead of facing discipline from the Washington State Bar, which could have disbarred him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In all, Parks made more than 600 transfers of the victim’s funds to accounts that he controlled, totaling more than $880,000 — far more than twice as much as he had been entitled to receive in fees for trustee services, according to the office.
“By the end of 2019, the victim’s accounts held only $15,” the office said in the news release. “She was forced to sell her home. And even then, Parks diverted proceeds from the sale by claiming the victim owed him money he had advanced to her.”
The year prior, Parks had the woman take out a reverse mortgage on her home and used those proceeds to fund the trust account when it had dwindled to just $20,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“For ten years I asked for printed statements. I never reviewed one invoice,” the victim said in court Friday, according to the news release. “You were the person I trusted with my funds for ten years. You have devastated my life.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it had asked for a 33-month prison sentence.
