White-Collar Crime
Lawyer gets probation for forging judge's name on court order and is disbarred by consent
A Pennsylvania lawyer who admittedly forged a Northumberland County judge’s name on a purported court order settling a client’s case was sentenced Monday to two years of probation and 75 hours of community service.
On Tuesday, 63-year-old Stephen Ellwood also agreed to be disbarred by consent, reports PennLive.com.
The forgery came to light when Ellwood’s former client, Robert Bechtel, sought another lawyer’s help last year in collecting on the $250,000 judgment he thought he had obtained.
The new lawyer, Thomas Waffenschmidt, noticed that the judge’s name had been misspelled on the court order and called the prothonotary’s office, soon learning that it did not exist, according to another PennLive.com article.
