Visiting Judge Neal Bronson sentenced James Thomas Jr., 38, of Brookville, to 4.5 years in prison and ordered him to pay $208,094.65 in restitution to the victims, on Tuesday, June 17.
Thomas was charged in April with three counts of theft from an elderly person or disabled adult and three counts of falsification after an investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) found that Thomas took hundreds of thousands of dollars from four victims’ bank accounts between 2007 and 2013.
“While he lived with, he left [the victim] to live without,” said Sarah Michael, the now-guardian of the estate for a victim. “[The victim] has trust issues of all attorneys since the actions of Mr. Thomas, as she believes that all people, including I and the support, are doing the same things to her that Mr. Thomas did,” said Michael. “This Christmas, she was not able to buy gifts for her grandkids because she did not have any extra-allowable funds to do so … she could not personally buy Christmas presents for her grandchildren, but it is doubtful that Mr. Thomas denied that luxury to his step-children.”
Thomas apologized to his victims and said, “none of it was intentional. I love each and every one of you and I always did.
What I did to you was horrible, horrible, there’s no excuse for it; I have no excuse.”
The case was prosecuted by Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Special Prosecutions Section, and investigators with the Preble County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.
Full Article and Source:
Preble Attorney Sentenced for Theft From Clients
See Also:
Ohio Attorney James Thomas Jr. Sentenced for Theft From the Elderly
4 comments:
The government is supposed to protect its citizens; why is it allowing lawyers to steal from them?
Four and a half years of prison for six years of thefts. And he's still trying to pretend that it's some sort of "accident" that "happened" to the victims and to him.
Why do we even have Commissioners of Account or court review of finances if this egregious misconduct can go on for six years?
I'd love to agree with this lady that this man is a disgrace to the legal profession. Unfortunately, he's all too typical.
If he had just claimed those $200,000 in stolen funds were fees, and gotten another attorney co-consipirator to vouch for him and churn these accounts with some imagined dispute, he probably would never have been caught. They both could have bilked these clients for years.
And why isn't government holding the lawyers truly accountable?
I knew it! I hired him back in 2009, and all he did was take all my money and did a horrible job a defending me. I knew something was up with him after I sat in prison and heard stories about him.
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