Initially on Probation for $166K Client Theft, Ohio Lawyer Gets Over 8 Years for Probation Violation
Agatha Martin Williams asked an Ohio judge on Thursday for another chance to try to straighten out her life. But she didn’t get it.
“Doesn’t happen that way, particularly does not happen when you’re an attorney,” said Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. at a Thursday hearing. He sentenced Williams to over eight years in prison. the same 102-month term that was suspended earlier this year when she got probation in a $166,000 client theft case.
A 52-year-old suspended attorney with an admitted gambling problem, Williams was found to have violated her probation by–as she also admitted, under oath in an August attorney disciplinary hearing–leaving the state that month to gamble in a Pittsburgh casino, recounts the Canton Repository. An earlier Repository article provides additional details.
She had asked the judge to be placed in an in-patient treatment program, tellling him “Otherwise, it’s the demon I will have to fight on my own.”
Williams was admitted in 1991 and, a little over a decade ago, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on Massillon Municipal Court.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Help is Available for Lawyers with Addiction Issues”
Canton Repository: “Attorney admits stealing more than $160,000 from clients”
