• GAZLO
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Former attorney sentenced for stealing client's money

JANESVILLE — Former Rock County attorney John E. Sanborn will spend five years on probation after he admitted stealing money from his clients.

Sanborn, 68, pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced in Rock County Court to one count of theft by fraud and paid $12,500 to the clerk for partial restitution to the victim.

Reserve Judge Daniel La Rocque placed Sanborn on probation and ordered assessment and counseling, prohibited Sanborn from holding or accept money in a fiduciary capacity and ordered Sanborn to pay an additional $12,500 in restitution and various court costs.

The judge did not order jail time, however, because of Sanborn’s numerous mental and physical health issues, according to a news release from the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office.

“Lawyers who steal money from their clients must be held accountable,” Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement.

According to the criminal complaint, Sanborn obtained money from a former client by falsely representing that he was providing legal services on behalf of the client’s husband.

Sanborn pleaded guilty in May in a separate theft case involving another former client. According to the criminal complaint in that case, Sanborn retained money from his client by improperly converting an accident settlement check to his own use or to the use of another person. Sanborn made full restitution in that case of $2,675, and La Rocque sentenced him to three years probation.

Special agents from the Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation investigated both cases against Sanborn. Assistant Attorneys General Erik Kinnunen and Michael Schaefer prosecuted the cases.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court revoked Sanborn’s law license in 2002 after a state probe into 70 allegations of misconduct.

In 2002, Sanborn told The Janesville Gazette that his depression and attention deficit disorder are not an excuse but are reasons why he had trouble in his law practice.

“I thought things were OK,” he said then. “Obviously, I should have quit right after my wife died. For a year there, I was a mess.”

A psychologist diagnosed him in spring 2000 as suffering from depression and hyperactivity attention deficit disorder, Sanborn said.

“It doesn’t amount to a legal excuse, but my wife was sick with cancer. She was diagnosed in 1993. She lived for three years,” he said in 2002.

“I was severely depressed after my wife died,” he said at the time. “For me, with a learning disability and depression together, it’s hard, impossible to function.”

Sanborn admitted, too, that he was disorganized.