BRAXTON ATTORNEY GETS PROBATION FOR $70,000 EMBEZZLEMENT

(09/29/2012)

By Kyla Asbury-Kanawha Bureau/WV RECORD CHARLESTON - A Braxton County attorney will remain a free man after admitting to embezzling nearly $75,000 from a trust account he was appointed to oversee. Thomas J. Drake on Sept. 13 was indicted via information on a single charge of embezzlement. According to the indictment, Drake converted $70,798.57 belonging to the ATS Settlement Trust between July 2009 and August 2011. No details are provided about the trust, and when Drake was made its trustee. The only other information available is that Drake's embezzlement of the funds took place in Elkview. In exchange for agreeing to plead guilty, Assistant Kanawha County Prosecutor Rob Schulenburg offered to recommend Drake get probation for a term to be determined by Judge James C. Stucky. Also, as a condition of his probation, Drake was to make court-ordered restitution. As of presstime, Stucky's sentencing order was not available. According to his attorney William C. Forbes, Stucky placed Drake on two years probation. The amount of restitution, Forbes said, has yet to be recommended by the probation office. According to the state Bar's Web site, Drake, 36, is a sole practitioner in Gassaway. He was admitted to the Bar on Sept. 26, 2000.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001