Ex-attorney
gets prison for cheating clients
FLINT
THE
FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Wednesday,
November 21, 2007
By
Paul Janczewski
pjanczewski@flintjournal.com
• 810.766.6333
A
former Flint attorney wept and said she committed
"deplorable" acts as she was sentenced Tuesday to prison
for embezzling from clients.
Shannon
H. Pitcher, 36, of Saginaw was sentenced to 23 months to 10 years in
prison by Genesee Circuit Judge Judith Fullerton.
Pitcher,
who practiced law for 10 years and graduated from prestigious
universities, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of embezzlement of
a vulnerable adult, a 10-year felony, as part of a plea deal with
prosecutors.
Fullerton
called the crime a "serious breach of trust" in sentencing
Pitcher, who cried through most of the hearing.
"I'm
sorry, Mom. Please take care of my boy," she said as a deputy
led her from the courtroom in handcuffs.
Officials
said Pitcher mishandled the accounts of people that Probate Court
judges had deemed incapable of managing their own finances.
They
determined Pitcher stole $288,137 from 27 victims.
Police
recovered $95,710, some of the cash found in cans buried in her yard.
Shortly before her sentencing, they discovered $143,948 in frozen
bank accounts in Oakland County.
Fullerton
ordered her to pay $48,478 in restitution.
A
classic automobile Pitcher owns will be sold and those funds used to
repay some of the restitution.
Attorney
David S. Grant Jr., who represents Pitcher, asked Fullerton for
leniency and probation.
"Something
changed" in Pitcher's life to cause her actions, Grant said.
"But there's no excuse for an attorney taking clients'
money."
In
a pre-sentence document, Grant said Pitcher, who graduated from the
University of Michigan with an undergraduate degree and the
University of California at Berkeley with a law degree, married a man
in 2002 who "physically, mentally and emotionally abused"
her.
Grant
said Pitcher had problems stemming from her childhood, when she was
physically and sexually abused by a neighbor and a step-brother..
Grant
said Pitcher began drinking heavily to bury her growing legal and
personal problems.
"My
actions were deplorable," Pitcher told Fullerton. "The
court put trust in me, and I violated that trust."
Genesee
County Prosecutor David Leyton called it a sad case that gave
attorneys, and the community, "a black eye."
"A
lawyer who steals from clients is reprehensible, and we will not
tolerate that," he said.
As
part of her plea deal, Pitcher also agreed to surrender her law
license in Michigan, waive any appeals from this case, pay
restitution to be determined and never apply for a law license in
Michigan or any other state.
***
|
