The end of the legal careers of Michael F. Swensen and Patricia Jean Ryerson, onetime husband-and-wife attorneys, can be traced to a mansion in Minneapolis, a house in Mound and a trail of forged signatures, falsified records and unethical real estate dealings.

In November 2007, the state disbarred Swensen, then said to be practicing in Minneapolis. Earlier this month, the state announced its plan to do the same with Ryerson, who’s based in Crystal. The two, who are no longer married, got involved in two real estate deals with a Wayzata woman who complained that she was deceived and defrauded by the lawyers and lost tens of thousands of dollars.

The Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility investigates violations of the code of conduct that licensed attorneys must follow in Minnesota. The findings of the investigations into Swensen and Ryerson offer an insight into the how the state built its case - and how long it took to impose punishment.

“This one probably could have moved quicker,” said Patrick Burns, the office’s First Assistant Director. “It has some unique aspects to it that caused it to take the track it did. Primarily, when at one point we were ready to go, new complaints would be made about very serious misconduct that needed to be investigated.”

In court records, Linnea Johnson contended that she didn’t know much about real estate when Ryerson and Swensen described a plan to buy fixer-upper homes, renovate them and sell them for profits that they would split. In 1999, Johnson put up the cash to buy 4882 Edgewater Drive in Mound, a town on western Lake Minnetonka, and the home at 1721 Mount Curve Avenue in Minneapolis, an imposing federal-style edifice built in 1906 and later divided into rental units.

Though they hadn’t put down a penny to buy it, Ryerson and Swensen moved into the Mount Curve mansion in 2002. They didn’t keep their promises to refinance and reimburse Johnson, she contended. Instead, without Johnson’s knowledge or understanding, the properties and mortgages were shifted among different people and organizations, including an elderly relative of Ryerson’s and Swensen’s father. Signatures on some of the documents were forged, a forensic document examiner hired by the state concluded.

The investigations concluded that Ryerson and Swensen were not just business partners with Johnson, but also had an attorney-client relationship that they used to take advantage of her. Johnson sued the two lawyers in 2004, contending their true purpose with the transactions was to pocket the proceeds from various refinancing schemes.

In June 2005, the suit was settled and the houses finally conveyed to Johnson. Swensen had moved out of the mansion by then, but Ryerson had to be evicted by a judge to get her to leave. In depositions taken in 2005, Swensen testified he had no assets at all, and Ryerson said she was living on food stamps.

I spoke to Swensen this week, and he denied the lawyers’ office findings that he committed misconduct. He acknowledged that he missed a deadline for filing his own argument, and therefore offered no formal defense. When I asked him whether anyone else, including his ex-wife, did anything unethical or improper related to these real estate deals, he said, “That I can’t say.”

He also said he didn’t know how I might contact Ryerson, whom he divorced in 2006.

The investigation into Ryerson’s misconduct revealed three other examples: in 1999, she forged a signature to obtain money from the closing of a house in West St. Paul; in 2001, she got a new $43,000 GMC Yukon by forging signatures of her elderly relative; in 2003, she pocketed a $2,800 security deposit from a man who had planned to rent the carriage house of the Mount Curve mansion, and then lied about it.

This summer, the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility finally suspended Ryerson’s license to practice law and indicated it would move forward with disbarment. In proceedings earlier this year, Ryerson didn’t offer any detailed response. “Respondent’s actions and appearance in these proceedings indicate that she has mental, chemical dependency and/or physical problems, but no evidence was submitted in regard to these problems, and accordingly, they were not considered as mitigating factors,” the state Supreme Court referee found.

The misconduct in question sure sounded like criminal activity to me. But Burns, the lawyers office first assistant director, said his office has an “informal policy” of not referring cases to the county attorney for possible prosecution.

“We rely quite heavily on the cooperation of attorneys,” he said. “It’s our feeling that if it were our regular policy to automatically refer matters to criminal authorities, we would probably see less cooperation from attorneys.”

These days, the Minneapolis mansion’s fortunes have risen. It’s no longer divided into apartments. After a sumptuous restoration, the 7-bedroom, 11-bathroom showplace is on the market for $4.95 million.

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