2 face extortion charges

A Costa Mesa attorney and Newport Beach personal trainer were indicted Friday by an Orange County Grand Jury for allegedly trying to extort a woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by threatening to tarnish her reputation.

James Toledano, 65, a Costa Mesa resident who practices law in Newport Beach and is the former chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party, and Michael Earl Roberts, 44, who lives in Corona del Mar, were indicted on charges of conspiring to commit a crime and attempts to threaten or extort a woman out of $350,000.

The pair were charged with the same crimes last year and pleaded not guilty. An indictment allows the case to move to trial sooner because prosecutors do not have to argue their case before a judge and show cause for a trial in a preliminary hearing.

The defendants could not be reached for comment.

From 1995 to 2005, Roberts worked for the victim and her husband as a personal trainer, prosecutors said.

Roberts was fired in 2005. Between 2006 and 2008, he allegedly made dozens of calls to the woman and her friends saying that he planned to sue her and make her life difficult.

In May 2008, Toledano met with the victim on Roberts’ behalf and said Roberts wanted $350,000 to not release damaging information about the woman, authorities said.

Roberts said he’d smear her reputation in newspapers and broadcast news with lies, according to prosecutors.

Each man is free on $100,000 bail. They are scheduled to be arraigned Friday.