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20 ¦ NOVEMBER 23, 2020 NEWS

¦ From OUT OF PRISON on PAGE 19
like to pursue a career as a real estate investor and or
flipping homes when her home confinement ends in
October 2022.

Zils Gagne graduated from UCLA Law School in
2000. She worked for several firms before becoming
a solo practitioner in 2006. She pleaded guilty to one
count of mail fraud, and was sentenced to prison in
April 2019.

“I definitely am remorseful,” she said. “I am re-
morseful over the overbilling and the loan and
everything that I did. If I could go back to the begin-
ning and undue everything, I would not hesitate.”

‘Money Just Sitting’
The former attorney was among probate court-
appointed conservators tasked with overseeing
financial or personal affairs of incapacitated adults.
Prosecutors said she used that position for her own
personal gain and, in one case, they said, she de-
frauded a victim of about $130,000.
Former Bristol attorney Jodi Zils Gagne.

Prosecutors said Zils Gagne took $113,000 of that Courtesy photo

money under the guise of an investment when, they ‘Indict My Husband’
said, in fact, it was a 10-year-old note that paid only Zils Gagne said she has regrets and “no doubt if I
a prime rate and was signed between her husband can go back and change some things I would, but I
and her, as the victim’s conservator. The money, au- can’t. Obviously, there were things I shouldn’t have
thorities said, was used to fund done. But I did not do as much
Zils Gagne’s husband Steve’s start- as the government tried to make
up internet radio station in Bristol. people think I did.”
In the interview, Zils Gagne said Zils Gagne said she thought
things weren’t as the government “I was a criminal defense about going to trial as opposed to
portrayed them. attorney, and the past pleading, but said, “They basically

“I overbilled clients, and I admit- few years of that practice threatened that If I didn’t plead,
ted to that. I know one of the things was spent chasing down they’d indict my husband and that
they made an issue of was that I in- dollars,” said Zils Gagne. is why I pled. I have two children
vested my client’s money and part of and didn’t want both parents in
that was for my husband’s radio sta- “I was constantly after prison.”
tion, the Bristol Beat. I understand clients to pay their bills.”
Zils Gagne, who was afforded an
it’s unethical and why my license early release to home confinement
was suspended. But I never thought because she has multiple sclerosis,
it was criminal,” said Zils Gagne. said her 11-month stay in a Dan-
She continued: “My client had a lot of money bury prison for women “was humbling.”
just sitting in the bank, and I thought to invest it to In prison, she said, she made friends for life and
make it work for him and possibly leave some for also earned 12 cents an hour working landscaping
his relatives. I invested in my husband’s business and on the prison grounds from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
mutual funds.” After 2:30 p.m., she said, her days in the min-

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