Attorney to Receive 2-Year Prison Term

In a plea bargain under which he will be sentenced to prison for two years, a Woodland Hills attorney pleaded no contest Friday to pocketing $240,000 from the sale of a client’s property.

Bernard Krentzin, 49, entered the plea, legally equivalent to an admission of guilt, just as his preliminary hearing was about to begin in Van Nuys Municipal Court. Krentzin, who was charged with one count of grand theft, could have been sent to state prison for five years, Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Schwartz said.

Schwartz said Krentzin supervised the sale of a house owned by Paula Mintz of Woodland Hills but did not tell the woman when it was sold. Mintz learned of the sale in a conversation with the buyer and complained to authorities, the prosecutor said.

Loren McQueen, a senior attorney with the State Bar of California, said Friday that Krentzin was provisionally disbarred in June and resigned before a decision could be made on permanent disbarment.

Krentzin, who has been free on his own recognizance, is to be sentenced July 31 by Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber. A condition of the plea bargain is that Krentzin make restitution.