Barry Levinson, Vegas lawyer disbarred for HOA fraud, is hospitalized

Disbarred attorney Barry Levinson, a convicted player in the scheme to take over and defraud homeowners associations, has been hospitalized in federal custody with life-threatening health problems, his lawyer said Tuesday.

"He's not receiving the treatment he needs to recover," Brent Bryson said. "Without treatment, I'm told, in all likelihood he's going to die."

Bryson blamed Levinson's ill-health on the stiff prison sentence last month that District Judge Michael Villani handed Levinson on unrelated state charges of stealing money from his clients.

Levinson, 48, began having "heart issues" after Villani ordered Levinson taken into state custody Aug. 13, Bryson said.

Villani ignored a plea agreement and sentenced Levinson to at least eight years in prison to run consecutively to a 6½-year federal sentence for his role in the massive HOA scheme.

The plea agreement had called for a minimum of two years in prison to run concurrently to the federal sentence.

He appeared to show remorse before Villani, apologizing for his "bad choices" and saying he was "embarrassed" by his actions.

But some of his former clients urged Villani to be tough on him.

Bryson later filed court papers asking Villani to reconsider the sentence, and he is to argue his case before the judge on Thursday.

"This whole thing could have been avoided if Judge Villani had followed the plea agreement," Bryson said. "Unfortunately, Judge Villani's sentence has been tantamount to a death sentence for Mr. Levinson at this juncture."

Bryson said the sentence created confusion between state and federal prison authorities about who has primary custody of Levinson. A Nevada corrections department official said U.S. marshals took custody of Levinson on Aug. 27.

Officials with the U.S. Marshal's Service and the federal detention center in Pahrump, where Levinson was detained before he was hospitalized, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

A district court spokeswoman said Villani cannot comment on a pending case.

Levinson agreed to permanent disbarment as part of his federal plea deal, and the Nevada Supreme Court made it official earlier this month.

In the HOA fraud case, federal prosecutors said Levinson betrayed the trust of homeowners as general counsel for the Park Avenue HOA board. His real loyalty was to the scheme's central figure, convicted former construction company boss Leon Benzer, who was seeking a lucrative contract for construction defect work, prosecutors alleged.

Levinson was among 42 defendants convicted in the long-running scheme regarded as the largest public corruption case in Southern Nevada.

Three defendants who pleaded guilty died before they could be sentenced. Attorney David Amesbury hanged himself, and Darryl Scott Nichols and Arnold Myers, both HOA board members paid by Benzer, died of natural causes.

Three other deaths have been linked to the investigation.

Construction defect attorney Nancy Quon, who prosecutors alleged helped bankroll the takeover scheme, killed herself in March 2012. Former Las Vegas police officer Christopher Van Cleef, an HOA board member friendly with Benzer, shot himself to death days after a sweeping FBI raid in 2008, and Robbi Castro, another board member close to Benzer, died of a drug overdose in 2010. All three were not charged in the case.

The last HOA defendant, former Strip dancer Stephanie Markham is currently standing trial in federal court on charges of lying about her role in the scheme to the FBI and a grand jury.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter @JGermanRJ