Houston personal-injury attorney Steven Alexander Bearman was sentenced today to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of misapplication of fiduciary property. At a sentencing hearing that lasted several hours this morning, 183rd District Judge Vanessa Velasquez of Houston also ordered Bearman to pay restitution to his clients. Bearman, whose Texas law license has been suspended since March 30, 2007, was indicted in December 2006 for misappropriating client funds. The indictment alleges that from around July 13, 2004, through Sept. 16, 2005, he “intentionally, knowingly and recklessly, by failing to properly safekeep money and distribute the money, did misappropriate property” from 16 individuals. He was charged with misappropriating about $1.67 million from clients by failing to pay their medical bills or failing to pay them settlement funds. Prosecutor Lester Blizzard, major fraud division chief for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, asked Velasquez to sentence Bearman to the maximum punishment of life in prison for the first-degree felony. “When he looked into the eyes of these people who really needed help, he helped himself,” Blizzard told Velasquez during final argument. Bearman’s defense attorney, Houston solo Tommy LaFon, asked the judge to sentence his client to deferred adjudication, because he’s a “changed man” who has paid tens of thousands of dollars in restitution to clients, and is battling his alcoholism through a 12-step program. LaFon told the judge that if Bearman can continue to work, he could pay more restitution to clients. “I’d like Mr. Bearman to get opportunity to right a wrong,” LaFon said in his final argument. But Velasquez said it’s not just about money. “You’ve stolen from so many people,” the judge said before sentencing Bearman. “Yes, it’s about money, but it’s a whole lot more than that.”
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
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