Attorney Sentenced in Brockovich Case

Attorney John Reiner, convicted last month of conspiracy and attempting to extort $310,000 from movie heroine Erin Brockovich and her boss, was sentenced Friday to four months in jail.

Ventura County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley, who unsuccessfully urged the judge to issue the disbarred lawyer a longer sentence in state prison, said he was disappointed.

“I don’t know what someone has to do to go to prison,” Frawley told Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. “This man’s deceit knows no limits, and I think state prison is exactly where he belongs.”

Minutes after receiving his sentence, which included up to six months’ probation, a $10,000 fine and community service, Reiner stood outside the courtroom and proclaimed his innocence.

“I was set up,” Reiner, a Century City attorney, said. “By a district attorney who wrote the case in Ventura County for purposes of glorifying himself, by [the prosecutor] for purposes of advancing his own agenda and not those of justice.”

An emotional Reiner spoke for several minutes, saying that he never intended to extort money from Brockovich or her boss, attorney Ed Masry, and believed he was simply providing legal assistance to Brockovich’s former husband, Shawn Brown.

“And now my life is ruined,” said Reiner, 53, who had his license to practice law revoked earlier this year. “I’ve been disbarred, I’m a convicted extortionist, I don’t even exist except as a criminal. My life is over.”

Reiner, whom a Ventura County Superior Court jury convicted April 2, had faced up to four years in prison for the felony charges of attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit a crime. O’Neill noted that Reiner had no prior criminal record when explaining the lighter sentence.

Prosecutors allege that Reiner and two of his clients, Brockovich’s ex-boyfriend Jorg Halaby and her first husband, Shawn Brown, cooked up the blackmail scheme shortly after the release of the blockbuster movie “Erin Brockovich.” The movie depicts Brockovich’s fight against Pacific Gas & Electric, accused of polluting a desert town’s water. Julia Roberts won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Brockovich.

Investigators say Reiner, Brown and Halaby, portrayed in the movie as Brockovich’s biker boyfriend, threatened to tell the tabloids that Brockovich was a bad mother and that she had an affair with Masry, unless she paid $310,000.

Brockovich and Masry have denied having a sexual relationship.

Defense attorneys maintained that Reiner was set up by Masry, an attorney also portrayed in the movie who won a seat on the Thousand Oaks City Council last November. They maintain that Reiner believed he was helping out in a legitimate business deal.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Brown and Halaby, but have said they may refile charges following Reiner’s sentencing.

Reiner said he is flabbergasted that he will spend any time in jail, arguing that Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury blew the case out of proportion because it involved some high-profile people and was sure to grab headlines.

Reiner added that he is in poor healthbut declined to elaborate.

“I’m scared to death of going to jail,” Reiner said. “Jail scares me absolutely out of my mind.”

Frawley, however, said that Reiner’s statements were designed to gain the public’s sympathy.

“It’s just a dog and pony show,” Frawley said. “I don’t think this is aberrant behavior for him. People don’t just wake up one day and do this. He’s just a dishonest person and this time he just got caught.”