Three concurrent five-year prison sentences boil down to less than six months behind bars for Ted Roberts

San Antonio attorney Ted Roberts spent one month in state prison on his conviction of theft-related charges for threatening litigation to extract money from two men who had sexual relations with his then-wife in 2001 and 2002. Now he’s getting out. On June 14, Judge Sid Harle of the 226th District Court in San Antonio granted Roberts’ motion for shock probation and placed him on probation for 10 years, according to a new release from Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Susan Reed. San Antonio solo Robert L. Mays Jr., who represents Roberts, says shock probation “is used to give someone convicted of a crime a taste of prison” to convince him not to reoffend. According to the June 14 news release issued by Reed, the state had objected to Roberts’ request for probation and argued before Harle that Roberts should remain in prison. Texas Lawyerwas unable to contact Reed for comment. Roberts tasted prison life very briefly. Mays says Bexar County incarcerated Roberts in its jail on Dec. 22, 2009. Roberts remained in the Bexar County Jail to be present for three hearings on his application for a writ of habeas corpus. Mays says Roberts then was transferred to the state prison system. Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, says the prison system received Roberts on May 7 and released him to Bexar County on a bench warrant June 7. Mays says he expects his client to be released from jail sometime this week. As noted on the Court of Criminal Appeals website, the CCA denied Roberts’ habeas writ application on June 9 without a written order. In March 2007, a San Antonio jury convicted Roberts on two counts of theft and one count of a continuing course and scheme to commit theft with regard to two of the four men with whom Roberts’ then-wife Mary Roberts, a San Antonio solo, had affairs. In June 2007, Harle sentenced Ted Roberts to five years in prisonon each of the three charges, with the sentences to run concurrently. In December 2007, another jury convicted Mary Roberts, now Mary Schorlemer, of five counts of theft stemming from allegations that she helped Ted Roberts extract $155,000 from the four men with whom she had sexual liaisons. Harle sentenced her to 10 years on probation. San Antonio’s 4th Court of Appeals upheld Mary Roberts’ conviction in March. But she says, “I am going to file a petition for discretionary review” in the CCA. Victoria solo Leslie Soliz, Mary Roberts’ attorney, says that on June 10, she filed a motion with the CCA for an extension of time to file Mary Roberts’ petition. Mays, Ted Roberts’ attorney, says, “If this is the sort of conduct that deserves punishment as far as society’s concerned, then he has been punished.” Neither Ted nor Mary Roberts can practice law. The State Bar of Texas hassuspended their law licenses pending the finalization of their appeals. As noted on the State Bar’s website, the Bar suspended Ted Roberts’ license in October 2007 and suspended Mary Roberts’ license in June 2008.
-- Mary Alice Robbins