Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Prosecutor Assigned to Lawyer's Criminal Case

To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest within the Kane County state's attorney's office, an Illinois appellate prosecutor has been assigned to the criminal case against William C. Chesbrough, the local lawyer charged last month with bilking two area residents out of $140,000, Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said.

Elgin police on Nov. 11 arrested Chesbrough, 57, on two counts of felony theft and one count of felony financial exploitation of an elderly person.

Between 2006 and 2009, Chesbrough allegedly stole a combined $140,000 from a 69-year-old Hampshire woman and a man from West Dundee while handling their respective legal affairs. Chesbrough was released from police custody after posting $3,000 bond on his $30,000 bail.

Chesbrough is accused of failing to return more than $120,000 at the end of a three-year probate filing to the Hampshire woman, who had hired the Elgin lawyer to help her with an estate, police said. Chesbrough allegedly wrote the Hampshire woman a check for about $120,000 to cover the missing money, but the check never cleared the bank, police said.

Full Article and Source:
Prosecutor Assigned to Lawyer's Case

See Also:
Attorney Accused of Stealing More Than $140K

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What? Avoid the conflict of interest? I am shocked that anyone would tend to that technicality.

Good going.

StandUp said...

If it will help convict him, then I'm all for it.

Thelma said...

Conflicts of interest should be made known early on.