Ex-Civil Rights Attorney Faces New Charges of Grand Theft

Former civil rights attorney A. Thomas Hunt, cleared last month by a Superior Court judge of cheating clients, has been hit with a new round of grand theft charges.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court, county prosecutors alleged that Hunt, 56, cheated 11 clients of a total of $32,960 from November 1991 through July 1993. Hunt gave up his law license in late 1993.

Three of the 11 counts involve the same alleged victims in the earlier criminal case against Hunt, which Judge Jacqueline Connor dismissed April 11 after finding that prosecutors had not proven Hunt had any intent to steal.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Sousa said Wednesday: “We have additional proof, which I am not at liberty to disclose at this time, which we think will show there was an intent to defraud on the part of Mr. Hunt.”

Defense attorney Mark J. Werksman said the filing “borders on the vindictive,” adding, “This case is like a bad horror movie that’s reaching out to us from the grave. [Prosecutors] know it ought to be dead. They never should have resurrected it.”