‘Stole from children.’ KY attorney sentenced for theft from children of wreck victim.
A former Eastern Kentucky attorney who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from an account set up to benefit the children of a man killed in a car wreck has been sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison.
Timothy Belcher, 56, of Elkhorn City had pleaded guilty to a charge of bank fraud and another charge of filing a false income tax return in the case.
The sentence includes an order to pay a total of $867,813 in restitution — $816,765 to the victims and $51,048 to the Internal Revenue Service.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced Belcher Tuesday. Belcher asked to report to prison later, but Wier ordered him taken into custody at the hearing, according to the court record.
The widow of Samuel Johnson, who was killed in a car wreck in 2001, hired Belcher to represent her in a lawsuit. That case ended with a substantial settlement in 2004, with half going to Johnson’s widow and the other half to be divided between his three children.
Belcher put the money into an account he controlled, then siphoned off much of it for his own benefit for years, according to the court record.
In December of 2007, there was $817,155 in the account, but that had dwindled to just $389.99 by December of 2018, according to a court document.
Belcher acknowledged he used the money for business and personal expenses that included food, mortgage payments, insurance and vacations.
“Instead of seeking work to maintain his law practice and to provide for his own family, he stole from innocent children,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Mattingly Williams said in a sentencing memorandum.
When the children or people acting for them tried to contact Belcher to ask about getting access to the money, he ignored or misled them, according to the court record.
The family ultimately asked for help from Letcher County attorney Angie Hatton, who contacted Ray S. Jones, a Pike County attorney who had worked with Belcher on the original wrongful-death complaint.
When Jones pressed Belcher for an explanation, Belcher said he had spent the money and was “broke and sick,” according to a state Supreme Court order.
The Supreme Court ultimately disbarred Belcher.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
