LV lawyer faces $22.4 million judgment

Stan Walton's legal troubles continue to mount.

A district judge ordered in July a $22.4 million judgment against the 52-year-old attorney stemming from a long-running probate case in which millions of dollars is reportedly missing from an estate he was supposed to secure, according to court documents.

The judgment, called treble damages, is three times the $5.6 million that Thomas Sims' estate is believed to be worth, plus the actual value of the estate -- or another $5.6 million.

District Judge Elissa Cadish signed the judgment against Walton. Last week, Cadish held Walton in contempt of court and jailed him for four days after he failed to appear for a debtors hearing, where attorneys for Sims' estate were to question Walton about assets he could put toward the $22.4 million judgment.

Walton was appointed administrator for the estate in 2004. Sims, 46, owned T.E. Sims Construction and was a general contractor. His wife, Lisa Sims, and two teenaged children are the beneficiaries of the estate, according to court records.

For three years as fiduciary of the estate, Walton failed to make an accurate inventory of the assets, which included numerous properties, bank accounts, jewelry, and a Porsche Boxter, according to court records.

After numerous warnings from the probate court and several continuances, Walton conducted an inventory and in December 2008 said the estate was valued at $1.4 million.

According to attorneys representing the current estate administrator, Joe Manos, who took over after Walton was suspended in March 2009, the true value was at least $5.6 million in assets.

"This is something that shouldn't have taken six years," said attorney Michelle Abrams, who along with Brian Tanko represents Manos. Abrams and Tanko said they pleaded with Walton to help them decipher Sims' assets.

"Where are the cars? Where's the jewelry? Where are the bank accounts? (Sims) had millions. Where is it?," Abrams said. "Maybe he (Walton) made bad decisions. But the silence leads us to question marks. We don't want to jump to conclusions."

Currently, there is less than $50,000 available for the three beneficiaries, Tanko said.

"We are giving Mr. Walton every opportunity," Tanko said. "We have been painstakingly patient with Mr. Walton. (He) has continually refused to cooperate."

Attorney Betsy Allen, one of three attorneys now representing Walton, said late Thursday that there are documents "that explain the discrepancies" in the estimated value of the estate.

Allen declined to go into detail but said "I do believe the matter will be cleared up and positively for Mr. Walton."

On Thursday, Cadish ordered Walton and his attorneys to meet Tuesday with Abrams and Tanko to review boxes of documents and help identify assets.

Cadish admonished Walton: "Real progress" must be made toward identifying the assets at the Tuesday meeting.

"It would be nice to know what happened to those things (assets) that aren't there anymore," Cadish said.

Walton has given to Abrams and Tanko boxes of paperwork, filled with partial bank statements, documents and business payroll records, Abrams said. "There's just a mess of things," she said.

If Walton continues to stonewall, Abrams said, a forensic accountant would have to be hired to sort out the assets, which is an expensive option .

A status check in the case was scheduled for October.