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Saturday, November 06, 2010
Ind. Courts - "Evansville Attorney Charged With Felony Theft"
I looked back and found three earlier ILB entries on Douglas W. Patterson, from June 13, 2008 and June 14, 2008 ("Supreme Court issues 3 year suspension") and another from June 20, 2009, headed "What Constitutes 'Practicing Law'?"
Today Courtney Gousman reports for Evansville News25:
We are following the case of an Evansville attorney now answering to charges filed against him. Prosecutors tell NEWS 25 the bankruptcy attorney embezzled money from more than 20 of his clients, totaling tens of thousands of dollars. * * *He had his own office on Evansville's Westside, but Vanderburgh County prosecutors tell NEWS 25, he left a number of his clients high and dry.
"They didn't get the help and they basically didn't get their money refunded to them," says Brent Weil, a Deputy Prosecutor with the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office.
Weil specializes in white-collar crimes for the prosecutor's office. He's handling the Patterson case, in which this bankruptcy attorney is now facing three counts of felony theft.
Weil tells NEWS 25, when Patterson closed-up his office in 2008, he refunded a number of clients their money, by writing them checks that eventually bounced.
"There's more than 20 victims who made police reports as detailed in the probable cause affidavit with amounts varying from $275 to over a thousand dollars," says Weil.
Weil says grand total, Patterson made away with $16,000 to $17,000 in client money for services never rendered.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 6, 2010 04:13 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts