Astor and other cases highlight lawyers, trust betrayal, grave robbing

(AP Photo)

In addition to convicting Anthony Marshall, son of Brooke Astor, on 14 of 16 counts for looting his mother's estate, a Manhattan jury also found estate planning attorney Francis Morrissey guilty of five criminal counts including forgery.  He now faces up to seven years in jail.  This is not Morrissey's first brush with professional impropriety and it brought to mind an article published last month in the Cape Cod Times. 

The Astor estate looting case provided repeated opportunities to emphasize how estates of far more modest values can be subjected to the same looting actions as perpetrated by Marshall and Morrissey.  The Cape Cod Times recently helped make this point:   

They called him Jack.

They didn't think of him as a lawyer. They thought of him as a trusted family friend.

So when thousands of dollars went missing and the paper trail led to attorney John "Jack" Roberts of Dennis, they were at first shocked, then hurt and finally angry.

Roberts, now disbarred, pleaded guilty to stealing $137,000 from the estate of Alice May of Sandwich and was sentenced to house arrest. On Friday, he was arraigned on a charge of larceny by a single scheme in the theft of $650,000 from Norm Sasville, a Middleboro builder. Prosecutors said they plan to seek jail time if Roberts is convicted again.

"He pulled the carpet out from me," Sasville said in an interview before Roberts was indicted. "He was a good friend. He was a goombah."

Roberts was released on $1,000 bail after his arraignment in Barnstable Superior Court on Friday.

Estate theft is not always viewed as a crime - a point not lost on many would-be grave robbers.  With this, it becomes fair to ask if stealing from the dead is becoming more appealing as Massachusetts, like many other states, responds with little more than tepid action.  Here's The Times accounting of another estate case:

..."You go through stages where you feel betrayed, you feel hurt, you feel angry," Lundquist said.

Nancy Allen, whose inheritance was partially stolen by Roberts, expressed similar feelings. Her mother, Alice May, had considered Roberts a friend. She said it felt like she had been "physically assaulted" when she figured out Roberts had grabbed the money to feed his gambling habit.

The Times reports that the May estate was ultimately awarded $137,000 by the Clients Security Board, a quasi-state panel that reviews cases of clients swindled out of money.  When asked if these high profile cases are a trend or strange coincidence, the paper quoted Michael Frederickson, a spokesman for the state's Board of Bar Overseers, as follows:   "The percentage of bad lawyers is actually very small with only about one-quarter of 1 percent of the state's 80,000 lawyers convicted of stealing from a client. But like other professions involving the public, it's the bad attorneys who get the attention." 

Frederickson was further quoted:

We're not seeing an increase in the number of thefts.  Sometimes you'll have a cluster, as is the case with the Cape, and sometimes when the economy tanks you'll see a spike, but right now things are about the same as they always are. 

People who have experienced Involuntary Redistribution of Assets (IRA) actions - especially at the hands of attorneys - could offer a different view. 

First, look at the location of these "clusters."  Might they be focused in retirement communities or other locales popular with an elderly population?  Never underestimate the predatory nature that can be associated with any profession - especially the legal industry.

Second, from an "it's the economy, stupid" perspective, tough economic times prompting more of these actions shouldn't be a surprise.  Nor should the growing entitlement mentality simultaneously transforming our nation into the Land of the Gimme-Gimmes and the Home of the I-Want-Mores.  

And while Michael Frederickson appears to correlate a low conviction rate of lawyers stealing from clients as indicative of integrity, his metric should perhaps be viewed in a context that acknowledges the many obstacles existing for a party to attempt any degree of justice upon being harmed by an attorney.  It is incredibly tough - some would say near impossible - to interest a district attorney in the prosecution of a dishonest attorney - especially with regard to estate thefts. 

Portraying estate crimes as family court issues allows a relegation of these cases to civil venues where they quickly become cost prohibitive for many legitimate complainants.  Those who can afford and choose to venture into this territory often feel disenfranchised as non-legal industry participants pitted against attorneys who are represented by attorneys with the cases being heard before judges who are usually former attorneys.  The expense is enormous with the proceedings sometimes appearing to take a back seat to legal gamesmanship which regularly includes stalling tactics designed to diminish financial resources as well as emotional resolve. 

Calling the cases of clients bilked out of money "tragedies", Frederickson said the small percentage of cases should give people faith that most lawyers are trustworthy.

The cases that become public are believed to be only a fraction of the "tragedies" occurring.  Despite attention generated by the Astor trial, people shouldn't be fooled.  That the bad acts of one attorney, Francis Morrissey, resulted in a conviction, the acts of all too many others are never even questioned.  The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates the overall reporting of financial exploitation at only 1 in 25 cases.  Estate abuse is on the rise with attorneys too often playing a significant role.  It happened in Manhattan, it's happening in Cape Cod and it's likely happening in your town. 

For more info: 

Astor grandson speaks on elder abuse, inheritance rights (Oct. 14, 2009) 

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