Ex-Lawyer Released After 33 Months in ‘Debtor’s Prison’
A disbarred Massachusetts lawyer has been released from jail after being held 33 months for civil contempt.
After Richard Birchall was released on Wednesday, he ate a roast beef sandwich with his lawyer at a deli in Orleans, the Cape Cod Times reports. He claims he doesn’t have the $1.3 million, plus interest and costs, that a former client is seeking. In his view, he was in debtor’s prison.
Birchall was released because of a ruling by the state’s highest court that said he could not be held longer than the maximum sentence he would get if convicted of fraud or larceny, the story says. On Wednesday, a local judge ruled Birchall had spent the maximum amount of time in jail.
The former client, Suzanne D’Amour, says she never got back all the money she invested with Birchall 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 criticized the ruling. “What the judge did was invite any Massachusetts attorney to rip off their clients and get away with it,” D’Amour told the Cape Cod Times.
