Disbarred lawyer sent to jail for stealing $25,000 from client’s estate

By Isabel Gardner

SALEM, Mass. — A disbarred lawyer is going to jail after she pleaded guilty to stealing from a former client.

Deborah Anthony, 68, of Methuen, was charged with two counts of fiduciary embezzlement and one count of criminal contempt. Anthony was the administrator of her client’s estate and had mismanaged over $190,000 in estate funds, Attorney General Maura Healey's office wrote in a statement Friday.

Healey's office said that Anthony had used over $25,000 for her personal expenses, including covering funds she had mismanaged from other clients. Anthony was supposed to use the estate funds to pay off her client’s expenses and distribute the remaining funds to her client’s beneficiaries.

When asked by the Essex Family and Probate Court to turn over the estate’s accounting statements, Anthony provided false written statements, according to Healey.

She was sentenced to serve 18 months at the House of Correction and three years of probation.

Anthony was indicted in March 2018 and practiced law in Andover prior to her disbarment by the Board of Bar Overseers.

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Disbarred lawyer sent to jail for stealing $25,000 from client’s estate