The Press Herald is reporting on another case of a lawyer stealing from their client.
A state ethics board has recommended that a Boothbay Harbor lawyer be disbarred for allegedly stealing at least $70,000 from a private trust that he controlled.
Information regarding the conduct of Franklin A. Poe also has been turned over to the financial crimes division of the state Attorney General’s Office, for a criminal review.
Poe was an attorney for Josephine Davis Day, who owned the Trailing Yew boarding home on Monhegan Island from the 1920s until her death in 1996, at age 99.
Poe prepared Day’s will and a trust that provided for the continuing operation of the Trailing Yew Inn. As the sole trustee, Poe was supposed to pay for the inn’s expenses, then divvy up profits to several beneficiaries. Instead, Poe was allegedly siphoning off profits for himself, and he stopped sending out payments entirely in 2003, according to court documents.
Because Poe never responded to the grievances filed against him, the state Board of Bar Overseers, under its rules, considered that an admission of guilt. Lawyers for the board are seeking to have Poe disbarred by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Downeast Law 