Clients confront attorney who stole their money
EAST ST. LOUIS, Mo. - A disgraced Belleville attorney who stole from his clients faced a federal judge Wednesday.
Disbarred attorney Jason Caraway had previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a $1.2 million stealing case.
One of the victims is Stephanie Reynolds–-who was the 25-year partner of fallen officer Ricardo Davis.
Caraway stole the officer’s death benefit and the family didn’t find out for months.
"He’s doing the last will and testament at her table he had already cashed the checks,” Reynolds said.
It's worth $120,000, according to court testimony.
The fallen officer’s son, Rylan Davis, was also there-–with a tattoo of his dad on his arm. He didn’t get his father’s money, but he came to see justice.
“Not just us. Everybody he did it to, you know,” Rylan said.
"He cashed it and I didn’t know about it,” Terri Harmon, another victim, said.
Harmon never received her $70K in neck injury money.
“I never saw a dime,” another victim Melissa Gordon said about her $73,000 in back injury money. “He, in my opinion, showed absolutely no remorse.”
FOX 2 also learned Caraway forged the signatures of judges during his fraud.
“He got guts,” Reynolds said. “I still don’t see how any human being can sit at your dinner table, talk to you–befriend you–come to the funeral! The whole time you had already cashed the check.”
The judge said she was struck by Caraway’s apparent manipulative personality and how he had a privileged upbringing yet still made his criminal choices.
She then sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison.