Dad who looted trust fund dying wife set up for their daughter can't evade prison term

A father convicted of stealing more than $160,000 from a trust fund his dying wife set up for their young daughter has failed to convince a state appeals court panel that his lawyer was incompetent.

By the way, Gary Blank represented himself during his trial.

The Superior Court's rejection of the Bucks County man's appeal means Blank's 18-month to 4-year prison term will stand. So will an order requiring him to repay $161,495 to his daughter, who was 5 when her mother, Theresa, died from breast cancer in 2002.

The state court's opinion was penned by Judge Jacquelyn O. Shogan, who cited county court filings that stated Blank was a drug addict when his wife set up their daughter's trust. After Theresa's death, Blank secured a $1 million settlement in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

At its height in 2006, the trust account contained $539,000. Blank, 58, and his brother-in-law, Mark Mangano, were co-trustees.

Although the money was supposed to be used only for his daughter's needs, Blank and Mangano started making regular withdrawals for their own use, investigators said.

In one case, Blank withdrew $158,676 he claimed was his share of the marital estate, Bensalem Township police said. They said that at least twice Blank and Mangano, who struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against Blank, withdrew large chunks of money and split it.

The criminal investigation began after an attorney Blank hired to work for the trust filed a lawsuit when Blank refused to pay him. Blank and Mango were removed as trustees in 2009.

Prosecutors accused Blank, who had not been employed since 2002, of using his daughter's money to, among other things, pay his mortgage and utilities, to pay fees to a dating site, buy lingerie and tickets to a U2 concert and pay a bar tab.

A county jury convicted Blank of theft, receiving stolen property, access device fraud and conspiracy charges after a three-day trial in 2012.

Blank acted as his own lawyer for two of those three days. That's the main reason his latest appeal to the Superior Court failed.

As Shogan noted, Blank claimed he was the victim of ineffective assistance of counsel tied to the cross-examination of one of his former lawyers who was called as a prosecution witness. He claimed the questioning of the lawyer violated attorney-client privilege.

Blank was the one who questioned the lawyer, Shogan observed, so that argument falls flat. "We will not entertain (Blank's) claim of ineffectiveness for failure to object to the questioning...which occurred while (Blank) represented himself," she wrote.

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Dad who looted trust fund dying wife set up for their daughter can't evade prison term