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Disbarred Syracuse lawyer gets new trial after appeals court throws out conviction
Attachment 2059
Quote:
Disbarred Syracuse lawyer gets new trial after appeals court throws out fraud conviction
A disbarred Syracuse bankruptcy lawyer, who spent nearly four years in prison, will have a chance to clear his name after an appeals court threw out his fraud conviction.
Christopher Chadick was found guilty by jury in 2011 of defrauding 114 clients by taking their money and doing no legal work. He was ordered to pay $94,500 in restitution and sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. He served the minimum before being paroled, said his lawyer, Salvatore Lanza.
But an appeals court ruled in November that retired County Court Judge William Walsh erred in striking the testimony from the prosecution's key witness, Hugh Fox, who served as Chadick's office manager.
Prosecutor Beth Van Doren believes Chadick and Fox worked together to take clients' retainer fees without doing any work.
But during trial, Fox testified that Chadick had not done anything wrong and that Fox only pleaded guilty to fraud to avoid harsher penalties, the appeals court noted.
In response, Judge Walsh improperly struck all of Fox's testimony from the record, the appeals court ruled. If Fox's testimony had been allowed to stand, it could have provided evidence pointing toward Chadick's innocence, the court ruled.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s..._fraud_co.html
When lawyers are afraid to speak the truth for fear of harsher penalties you know the system is in need of some serious reforms.
