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Court upholds lawyer's bribery conviction for civil settlement offers made to rape victims

The proposed deals were termed civil settlements. Two rape victims would be paid a minimum of $50,000 each to settle their civil claims. The only catch, according to witnesses, was that the victims would say something favorable about the criminal defendant at sentencing.

Citing those facts, the Ohio Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of a Cleveland-area lawyer who represented the rape defendant based on a theory he was aware of the proposals.

Though lawyer Marc Doumbas didn’t make the offers, evidence supported an inference that he supported and encouraged the deals while acting as lead lawyer for the criminal defendant, according to the appeals court. The Northeast Ohio Media Group covered the July 30 opinion (PDF) upholding Doumbas’ conviction on two bribery counts. Doumbas was suspended from law practice last year as a result of his conviction.

The appeals court acknowledged there was little or no direct evidence to support criminal intent by Doumbas. But the court said jurors could “reasonably infer” that Doumbas knew the settlement offers, made through other lawyers, were contingent on the victims seeking leniency for the defendant at sentencing.

One victim was offered $50,000 for a civil settlement, while the other was offered amounts ranging from $50,000 to $90,000.

The decision comes about a month after the Ohio Court of Appeals upheld the bribery conviction of a lawyer working with Doumbas on one of the cases, G. Timothy Marshall, in this June 25 opinion (PDF). Court News Ohio covered the decision in this story.

Doumbas was convicted based on settlement offers extended by Marshall and by another lawyer, Anthony Calabrese III, who is Marshall’s nephew. Calabrese pleaded guilty to bribery and was disbarred June 3, according to Court News Ohio.