Texas estate laws make stealing from the dead an easy crime
Attorney Terry Erwin Stork systematically mismanaged or stole from three estates worth more than $800,000 over two decades, according to prosecutors and court records. Each time, elderly people with no living children had chosen him to divide their belongings among organizations and loved ones who usually had no idea they had an inheritance.
Attorney Terry Erwin Stork systematically mismanaged or stole from three estates worth more than $800,000 over two decades, according to prosecutors and court records. Each time, elderly people with no living children had chosen him to divide their belongings among organizations and loved ones who usually had no idea they had an inheritance.
An Austin American-Statesman review has found that state laws make it alarmingly easy for the executor of a will — usually a family member, friend or lawyer — to steal or squander what people often spent a lifetime building, frequently with little chance of getting caught. State probate laws don't ensure that a deceased person's assets actually get to heirs — or require executors to tell the heirs they're named in a will.
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Breach of Trust
Attorney faces up to life in prison
An Austin attorney pleaded guilty to stealing from the estates of three elderly women that he was in charge of overseeing after their deaths. Terry Erwin Stork will be sentenced Aug. 13 on three felony theft charges. He faces up to life in prison on two of the charges and up to 20 years behind bars on the third.
The American-Statesman reported on allegations against Stork in a December 2006 story about estate theft and how Texas probate laws often cannot guarantee that people's belongings reach their family members or friends after they die.
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Longtime attorney pleads guilty to estate thefts
See also:
Estate Theft - Civil or Criminal?
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