A prominent Portland criminal defense lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation, three months of home detention on weekends and 500 hours of community service for failing to pay employment taxes.

Gary B. Bertoni, 67, also must pay $181,898.21 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

The sentence fell far short of a year and a half in prison that a prosecutor urged.

Stuart A. Wexler, a tax division attorney with the U.S Department of Justice, argued that Bertoni took the money for personal enrichment and has displayed a pattern for more than 15 years of misusing client money and "seeing what he can get away with,'' as evidenced by state bar disciplinary actions.

Bertoni should be held to a higher standard because he's an officer of the court, Wexler said.

Without sending Bertoni to prison, "his pattern of behavior will continue at the expense of his clients and at the expense of the government,'' Wexler said. "What has come before has not worked at all.''

Defense lawyer Kevin M. Sali said Bertoni struggled to keep himself, his employees and his family afloat after a downturn in his business and poor investments. He disputed Wexler's characterizations of Bertoni's state bar problems and argued no evidence existed of any "extravagant living'' in the Bertoni household.

Bertoni, wearing a blue suit, his hands clasped behind him, stood and addressed U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon.

"I was going to say I made a lot of bad decisions, but I think it boils down to I just made the wrong choices,'' he said.

He said he closed his business "to stop the bleeding'' and is sorry to everyone he's affected.

"The pain, the humiliation, the shame that I brought down on my home, my wife, is certainly something that I struggle with and deal with that's probably more damning,'' he said. "I let so many people down because of these choices. ... I thought foolishly I could take care of it, fix it, it would all work out.''

Bertoni admitted that between the second tax quarter of 2009 and third quarter of 2011, he failed to pay taxes withheld from the wages of employees at his law firm, Bertoni & Associates. He also failed to fund employees' health insurance plan for a period of time, Wexler said.

Prosecutors alleged that Bertoni used the thousands of dollars that he failed to pay to the IRS for his personal benefit.

Bertoni bought a home in Arizona in 2003 and still owned it in 2012, with $275,000 of equity in that property, Wexler said.

He could have used the equity to cover his unpaid employment taxes, the prosecutor said. Between 2009 and 2011, Bertoni paid $63,000 alone in maintenance fees for that property, about a quarter of his tax obligation, Wexler said.

In the same time period, from 2009 to 2011, Bertoni withdrew about $470,000 from the firm, Wexler said.

His actions reverberated within the community. He has routinely failed to uphold his responsibilities,'' Wexler said.

Sali said Bertoni "wasn't thinking'' and was "trying to keep things afloat'' by a "series of economic upheavals in his firm.''

Bertoni pleaded guilty to 10 counts of willful failure to pay taxes, each count a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $25,000 fine. As part of the plea deal, the government agreed to dismiss a felony indictment filed against Bertoni and not file additional charges.

The plea deal doesn't affect any civil liability Bertoni may still face from the IRS, according to the agreement.

The judge said a restriction on Bertoni's liberty was warranted. He said Bertoni must remain at home on weekends from 9 p.m. Fridays to 5 a.m. Mondays over the next 90 days. The exceptions are for medical emergencies and religious services.

Bertoni also was ordered to complete at least 100 hours of community service a year for the next five years. The judge pre-approved service to a community food bank or a homeless shelter.

"I came close to ordering a period of incarceration,'' Simon said. If Bertoni doesn't follow his probation conditions, the judge said he won't hesitate to put him behind bars.

Cynthia Statham, a former officer manager who worked for Bertoni for 10 years until she left in 2008, attended the sentencing and said afterward she wasn't happy with the outcome.

"This is absolutely BS,'' she said. "He's only sorry he got caught.''

Bertoni continues to practice law while he appeals a February 2017 sanction – a one-year license suspension – delivered by a disciplinary board's trial panel for not preserving client property and failing to keep clients informed. The panel cited Bertoni's "extraordinary repetition of negligence.'' After Bertoni appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, the state bar, in its response, defended its action and argued for a harsher penalty, a two-year suspension, citing Bertoni's failure to communicate adequately with imprisoned clients, properly handle their money or refund unearned fees.

Two other complaints involving Bertoni are pending review or under investigation by the bar.

In 2012, the trial panel suspended Bertoni's license for 150 days for mismanaging client money.

In 2011, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Bertoni for allegedly falsifying business records to cover his use of client money, saying the statute of limitations had expired.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian