Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Milton Rosenberg charged with grand theft from clients

By Shari Kaplan

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's office has filed a criminal complaint against Los Gatos resident Milton D. Rosenberg on charges of grand theft and an allegation of excessive taking. The defendent, age 67, was admitted to the California Bar Association in 1955. He resigned from the state bar on Aug. 15 of this year. Rosenberg pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Oct. 23. At press time, he remained in custody, with bail set at $250,000.

During the time when the offenses allegedly occurred, he practiced law at the law firm of Rosenberg and Rosenberg, at 16275 Los Gatos Blvd.

At the arraignment, defense attorney Tom Ferrito argued for a reduction of Rosenberg's $250,000 bail, which prosecuting deputy district attorney Matthew Harris argued against. The judge scheduled a bail hearing for Oct. 28, at which time the court's Supervised Own Recognizance Program personnel will present more information.

The charges against Rosenberg stem from thefts of more than $500,000 he allegedly committed against his clients between 1988 and 1995, according to Harris, who works with the D.A.'s Economic Crimes Unit.

The D.A.'s office filed a criminal complaint against Rosenberg on Oct. 17. He self-surrendered to D.A.'s investigators on Oct. 22. The Los Gatos Police Department took the initial complaint earlier this year, but the D.A.'s office took over the investigation because of the type of crime involved.

A statement from the D.A.'s office details the seven-year period during which Rosenberg represented Jack Logan and Logan's business, Rose Electronics, as well as Logan's children, who were beneficiaries of multiple life insurance policies and trusts.

According to reports filed with the municipal court, current Rose Electronics president Leslie Logan told investigators from the D.A.'s office that her father, Jack, hired Rosenberg to be his business attorney in 1965 because the men were close friends and former roommates. Over the next 30 years, Rosenberg continued to represent Rose Electronics and later became Jack's personal attorney.

Rosenberg was also a trustee for three different Logan family trusts and was executor of the Logan estate. The family removed him from all his positions in May 1995, when Jack's wife, Rosannah, discovered several hundred thousand dollars missing from the trusts, as well as the accounts of the Logan family and Rose Electronics. Rosannah told investigators she had been trying to get Rosenberg to provide an accounting of trust deposits and disbursements since 1993, but he continually put her off. Jack Logan died in 1988.

When Rosannah hired a new attorney in May 1995, the attorney reviewed trust records and found them to be incomplete. Among the documents absent from trust files were papers referring to the status of a lawsuit that Rosenberg had brought against an insurance company on behalf of one of Jack's life insurance policies.

Although Rosenberg had told the Logan family the lawsuit was never concluded, according to the statement from the D.A.'s office, the new attorney found out the lawsuit had actually concluded in 1989, with a settlement paid to the Logan trust.

Further investigations showed that Rosenberg had also diverted proceeds from several of Jack's life insurance policies as well as monies paid by individuals who repaid various debts to the Logans, according to the D.A.'s office.

According to Ferrito, Rosenberg's attorney, his client has actually signed a multi-page confession and had been making restitution by transferring assets to the victims.

"He got into a situation where he was not acting out of greed," Ferrito said of his client. "In his own mind, he was borrowing money to cover some losses."

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