Meridian property manager who bilked clients out of $111k appeals to Idaho Supreme Court

A former Meridian property manager who prosecutors said stole more than $111,000 from his clients wants the Idaho Supreme Court to reduce what he was ordered to pay back.

123Brandon Curtiss, 47, who was released in February after spending a year in the Ada County Jail, claims Ada County District Judge Peter Barton erred in ordering him to pay $94,847 to 13 clients whose properties Curtiss managed.

Curtis, founder and former president of the militia group 3% of Idaho, filed a notice of appeal with the Supreme Court in February. He has an Aug. 13 deadline to submit a document outlining his case for having the restitution order changed.

Curtiss, who owned Curtiss Property Management before changing the name to Liberty Property Management, pleaded guilty in November 2019 to one count of felony grand theft. In exchange, prosecutors dropped 18 other counts of grand theft, each count tied to a different victim.

In two separate orders from Barton, Curtiss is responsible for paying $111,058 in restitution Attorneys for the state and Curtiss agreed to $16,211 to be split among five of the property manager’s victims. With his appeal, Curtiss challenges how much he was ordered to pay his other victims.

At a restitution hearing in late December, his attorney, Sean Wynn, argued before Barton that those victims should split $35,896. Five of the victims, whom Barton ordered to receive between $1,209 and $18,217 each, should not receive anything, Wynn said at the time.

Both the state and the defense hired experts to determine how much Curtiss stole from his clients between 2013 and 2016. They disagreed on how much Curtiss took for his own use.

Prosecution expert Linda Czemerys, a former investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, said she examined records from more than 16 bank accounts Curtiss maintained, as well as money orders, cashier’s checks and deposits. She also examined records from three payment-processing companies used by Curtiss and his victims.

“It is my opinion that Curtiss willfully and intentionally withheld rental income from his clients,” Czemerys wrote in a report cited by the prosecution in its restitution filing. “It’s also my opinion that Curtiss altered records in order to reduce or negate the loss to the homeowners.”

Defense expert Susan Langley, a certified public accountant, concluded that Curtiss owed much less than Czemerys claimed. The prosecution said Czemerys went through records with a “fine-toothed comb,” while Langley only did a spot-check of records.

Barton, in his order, agreed with the prosecution analysis.

Curtiss was ordered to pay Portland residents Aaron and Leslie Boyce $18,217. They were among the victims Wynn said should not receive anything.

In 2015, another Ada County judge ordered Curtiss to pay them $19,726 for rental payments and deposits he never turned over and $48,823 in attorney fees and costs. According to court records, Curtiss has not paid anything on that judgment.

Since his release from jail, Curtiss has paid $3,000 toward Barton’s restitution order, paid in four $750 payments. He was ordered to make payment on the first of each month, until the debt is paid.

While he was jailed, Curtiss sought an early release for good behavior. Barton denied the request, citing the large number of victims Curtiss defrauded, the trust with them he broke, and the large amount of money he stole.

Earlier, Curtiss sought release because of fears of contracting COVID-19 in jail. He said the coronavirus posed a life-threatening risk because of his high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis. Barton also denied that motion.

Curtiss remains on probation through February 2034.

Curtiss first attracted widespread attention after leading a group of armed men from Idaho, Oregon and Washington to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

They provided security for Emmett resident Ammon Bundy and others who had occupied the refuge to protest the treatment of two Burns-area ranchers convicted of federal land arson. They left a few hours later after Bundy told them they weren’t needed.

After Curtiss was featured in a story in Oregonian newspaper in Portland saying he had “built a property management company from scratch,” Leslie Boyce contacted the Idaho Statesman to tell how he had stolen from her.

That brought a series of stories that led the Idaho State Police to conduct a two-year investigation before charging Curtiss with the 19 counts of grand theft.

A former police officer for the Nez Perce Tribal Police Department, Curtiss had his police certification revoked last year. He was decertified by the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training Council following his conviction in the grand theft case.

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