Dead 95-Year-Old Woman’s Trusted Hemet Lawyer Arrested: Did He Steal Her $320,000 By Faking Trust Account Changes?

A Hemet attorney accused of fraudulently altering a senior’s trust account to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars after her death was behind bars Friday.

Trent Wayne Thompson, 44, was arrested following a Riverside County District Attorney's Office investigation that also snared another attorney, Quinton Ray Swanson, who allegedly conspired to aid his co-defendant and business partner.

Thompson is charged with grand theft, identity theft, forgery, perjury and money laundering, with sentence-enhancing white collar crime allegations. He was being held on $321,000 bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside and slated to make his initial court appearance Friday.

Swanson is charged with identity theft, forgery, perjury and being an accessory to a felony. He’s free on a $10,000 bond.

According to the DA’s office, Thompson established a living trust for a 95-year-old woman, whose identity was not disclosed, in May 2019. The trust specified that the defendant, designated the “trust protector,” had no beneficiary interest in the event of the victim’s death, prosecutors said.

The woman directed that 100% of her estate go to a children’s hospital after her passing, according to investigators. She died in November 2019, and the DA’s office said that the next month, Thompson allegedly renamed himself trustee in whole, giving himself full authority over the proceeds.

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Dead 95-Year-Old Woman's Trusted Hemet Lawyer Arrested: Did He Steal Her $320,000 By Faking Trust Account Changes