UCLA Law Grad Who Came Up the Hard Way Gets Too Close to Gang Client, Admits He Laundered $1.3M
A gang member in a Southern California barrio before he had even reached puberty, Isaac Guillen had racked up a lengthy juvenile rap sheet before he was old enough to vote.
Married with children in his early 20s, he was still in the street life when a rival gang shot up his apartment. As he dodged the bullets with his small children, he decided to turn his life around—and did, the Los Angeles Times recounts.
He stopped drinking, went into alcohol rehab and started community college, then transferred to the University of California-Berkeley, where he graduated in 1994 with high honors. In 1997, at age 36, he earned his law degree from UCLA School of Law.
But Guillen’s rapport with the gang members he went on to defend as an attorney was both a blessing and a curse, according to the newspaper. After initially agreeing in 2003 to pass on some seemingly innocuous messages for a Mexican Mafia member serving multiple life terms for racketeering, the lawyer went on to help manage the businesses in which the man was involved.
Arrested in 2009 by the feds, Guillen was shown a letter in which his client referred to him by his street name and sought to have him “taken out.” The lawyer, who has been jailed without bail ever since, agreed to cooperate with authorities, who helped him relocate his family.
He has pleaded guilty to racketeering and money laundering, admitting that he made $180,000 by laundering $1.3 million, and awaits sentencing in July,
As he testified earlier this year in federal court in Los Angeles, a former mentor from the federal public defender’s office looked on from the gallery, the Times reports. Guillen, paused and looked at her as he left, then walked away with his chin up.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Defense Lawyer Named in Federal Gang Racketeering Indictment in Calif.”
