A disbarred Dutchess County attorney who embezzled more than $450,000 from incapacitated individuals has been sentenced to 4 to 12 years in state prison.
County Court Justice Edward McLoughlin also ordered John Ferdinand Murphy III on May 27 to repay his victims.
Murphy, 68, of Hopewell Junction, practiced real estate law and ran a real estate brokerage firm. For many years, he served as a court-appointed guardian and trustee for incapacitated individuals
In 2019, Surrogate Court Judge Michael G. Hayes noticed discrepancies in how Murphy handled a special needs trust. For two years, for instance, he failed to file annual accounting reports.
Murphy admitted that he had paid $80,000 to himself from the trust, according to a Second Appellate Court disciplinary record. And he told judge Hayes that money had been waylaid but he was unable to explain what had happened to the money.
Hayes ordered him to file the accounting reports. When he failed to do so and failed to show up for a hearing, Hayes referred the matter to prosecutors and to the local attorney grievance committee.
The Second Appellate Court disbarred him in 2021 on 27 charges of professional misconduct for misappropriating funds, commingling funds, failure to maintain funds and bookkeeping records, and “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.”
One victim, according to the state attorney general’s office, was an 89-year-old retiree and family friend.
A grand jury indicted him last year on five counts of grand larceny and a scheme to defraud from 2015 to 2021, for allegedly draining trust accounts and issuing checks to himself and his family.
He pleaded guilty to one grand larceny charge and the scheme to defraud.
Murphy was investigated by the office of State Attorney General Letitia James, the state police financial crimes unit, the inspector general for the Office of Court Administration, Dutchess County district attorney, and New York City Justice Center.
