No Quick Freedom for Ex-Lawyer Whose Phone Calls Revealed Missing Money

Massachusetts’ highest court is keeping a former lawyer behind bars for at least another 30 days so a lawyer who listened to his recorded jailhouse conversations to find missing money can persuade a judge that more cash is hidden overseas.

The Supreme Judicial Court said Richard Birchall can be released after a hearing if a former client is unable to prove Birchall can pay $1.5 million still owed, the Boston Globe's Metrodesk blog reports.

Birchall maintains he is trapped in a debtor’s prison despite a lack of any evidence that he has hidden assets. He has been held in jail for almost 2½ years on a civil contempt charge.

A former client, Suzanne D'Amour, claims Birchall still owes her $1.5 million that she invested with him after obtaining proceeds from a life insurance policy on her murdered husband. D'Amour was acquitted of the murder but convicted of lying to a grand jury about the slaying.

D’Amour’s lawyer, Jennifer Vecchi, has already recovered $1.3 million from Swiss bank accounts, using information gleaned from Birchall’s recorded jailhouse conversations, the story says. Vecchi also managed to keep records from being destroyed after intercepting a letter in which he ordered an associate to open a locked briefcase and destroy a manila folder inside.

The Globe calls the case "part Charles Dickens and part Raymond Chandler."