Lawyer Says She Didn’t Know Client Funds Were Tainted; Prosecutors, Client Say She Did

Is veteran San Jose, Calif. criminal defense lawyer Jamie Harley a conniving crook who knowingly laundered money on behalf of a dirty client, as prosecutors allege, or an overly trusting person who didn't know what her client was up to, as she and her lawyers suggest?

The answer rests with a federal jury in San Jose, which began deliberations Thursday in a high-stakes money laundering trial against the prominent 53-year-old lawyer, better known in local legal circles by her previous name, Jamie Harmon, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

Harley is on trial on charges that she laundered more than $127,000 on behalf of Christian Pantages, a former client who pleaded guilty last spring on charges of trafficking in stolen computer equipment and who testified for the government during Harley's weeklong trial in federal court in San Jose.

Prosecutors allege that Harley knew Pantage's money was tainted when she put it in her client trust account and then returned most of the money in the form of checks back to Pantages and his then-wife while keeping about $25,000 of the allegedly tainted funds for her representation.

"She used her client trust account as a washing machine," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cheng told the jury in closing arguments Thursday, according to the newspaper. "Don't let her get away with this."

Harley, who testified on her own behalf, said she didn't know the money came from stolen goods or that Pantages was operating an illegal business.

"I believed he was entitled to those funds and had a right to them," the Mercury News quoted her as telling the jury.