Missing Attorney Speaks From Jail

Royal "Scoop" Daniel was last seen in Colorado in April 2007

A Colorado attorney suspected of stealing up to $1 million from his clients has been arrested in San Diego nearly five years after he disappeared.

Royal "Scoop" Daniel was last seen in Colorado in April 2007. Many of his friends and family believed he was dead.

On Thursday, police officers in Breckenridge, Colo. announced Daniel was in jail in San Diego after being arrested while entering the U.S. from Mexico.

After an initial search by friends and police, authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, alleging he never returned clients' money from real estate transactions.

Daniel was arrested Wednesday trying to cross into the United States from Mexico.

Thursday night, he spoke with NBC San Diego in the San Diego County Jail.

"I got to the point where I just couldn't go farther. So I made a rather sudden decision to leave. Once I made it, I didn't look back."

He says he found a job writing content for a website making $700 per month in Mexico.

Authorities say after his disappearance, an investigation uncovered he kept nearly one million dollars of his clients money from real-estate transactions.

"I figured I had about, I accumulated about 200,000 dollars of hole that I was trying to fill to try to make everything good."

Daniel says he fell on hard times with his law practice.

He now faces counts of felony theft.

Soon he says he knows he'll have to face all the problems he left behind.

"If I hurt some people or made some people unhappy at all I'm really sorry about that. I never wanted to, I don't think I can really say much more."

Daniel has an extradition hearing set for Friday morning.
 

Contact Us