Lawyer sentenced to two to four years. His son received probation

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The former attorney was sentenced to two to four years. His son received probation.
By RICK LEE

http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_4809796

The case:
Mark David Frankel and son Stephen Frankel were charged with multiple counts of theft
by failure to make required disposition of funds received for an approximate $1
million shortage in their personal injury law firm's client escrow account.
The trial:
After a November bench trial, Mark Frankel, 58, was convicted of 58 counts of theft.
Stephen Frankel, 35, was acquitted of the theft charges and convicted of
misappropriation of property, a misdemeanor.
The sentences:
Mark Frankel was sentenced to 23 months and 20 days in county prison and is eligible
for work release after serving six months. He must serve an additional 12 years on
probation and make restitution of $447,000 to his former clients. Stephen Frankel was
sentenced to two years' probation, 500 hours of community service and $40,000 in
restitution. Both men also owe the client security fund $308,000 for money the fund
provided to some clients.
Disbarred, disgraced and convicted of bilking his clients out of more than $1
million, Mark David Frankel threw himself on the mercy of the court.
He left in handcuffs after the judge decided he was trying to avoid serving his
two-to-four-year county prison sentence.
Frankel had asked that his prison reporting date be postponed for 30 days to allow
him to get his affairs in order. Senior Judge Edward G. Biester Jr., after some
discussion, doubled his bail to $200,000 and gave him a week.
But upon learning that Frankel planned to appeal his conviction, a visibly perturbed
Biester ordered him taken into custody. Frankel has 30 days to file his appeal and,
had he posted bail and filed immediately, he could have delayed serving any prison
time until that appeal is heard.
"Your honor," Frankel began.
"We're adjourned," Biester said.
Once the area's best-known personal injury attorney, Mark Frankel had walked into a
Judicial Center courtroom Friday morning that was packed with family members, former
associates, the media and the curious. He sat at the defense table next to his son.
The men did not speak to each other.
Frankel has acknowledged he is not on good terms with his oldest son. Stephen Frankel
joined his father's law firm after earning his degree only to inherit a financial
mess after the older Frankel was disbarred for sexual impropriety in June 2004.
It was later that year that associates of the firm turned the Frankels in to
authorities, accusing them of misappropriating money from the firm's client escrow
account.
After a seven-day bench trial before Biester, Mark Frankel, 58, was convicted of 58
felony and misdemeanor counts of theft. Stephen Frankel, 35, acquitted of 28 theft
charges, was found guilty of misdemeanor misappropriation of entrusted property for
$40,000 he took from escrow to buy a 2004 H2 Hummer.
Son gets probation
Biester sentenced the younger Frankel on Friday to two years' probation, 500 hours of
community service he hoped would be "helping the weakest and poorest ... people who
have not had your opportunities," and $40,000 restitution.
Biester said he recognized the influence the father had over the son but said it did
not excuse the son's actions.
"We do not create our fathers," he said. "But they sure do have an awful lot of
impact on us."
He said he tried to imagine how Stephen Frankel, whom he considered another victim of
Mark Frankel, felt with the "incremental discovery of the flaws in his father."
Stephen Frankel, his wife and his attorney left the courtroom before Mark Frankel was
sentenced.
Biester sentenced Mark Frankel to two years less 10 days to four years in prison.
Frankel must serve 23 months and 20 days in York County Prison, with eligibility for
work release after six months. For the remainder of the sentence, he will be on
probation.
He also received a consecutive 10 years on probation for two convictions involving
settlement funds owed to minors.
Mark Frankel apologizes
Mark Frankel's sister, a former firm associate and a longtime friend all asked
Biester to consider leniency in sentencing.
Local attorney Larry Markowitz told Biester that Frankel "really has become the
laughingstock of the community," that he was deeply concerned about Frankel's mental
health and that he felt Frankel was a threat to himself.
Frankel, when asking to delay his reporting date, assured Biester he was not
suicidal.
"I don't intend to take my life. If I wanted to do that, I would have done it
before," he said.
Biester also ordered Frankel to pay restitution to the clients he defrauded first,
then to the client security fund that provided money to other clients who were owed
by the now-defunct firm.
Frankel apologized to his parents, for sullying the family's name, and to his
estranged wife, his children, the public and the legal community.
"One of the biggest heartbreaks of my life is what happened to my son, Stephen," he
said.
Senior deputy attorney general George Zaiser told Biester that Mark Frankel "used his
license to practice law as a license to steal." He said the people bilked by the
Frankels "were the injured, sick, old and unsophisticated in the legal system."
WHAT THEY SAID
Here are excerpts from Friday's sentencing hearing for Mark David Frankel and Stephen
Frankel.
"He went to his mother and father. He tried to persuade them to put money back in the
escrow account. The money taken out for the Hummer. This was a thing that could not
be ignored."
-Attorney Jim West, explaining that Stephen Frankel initially tried to fix the firm's
financial problem before surrendering to his desires
"He should have gone to the disciplinary board (about his father and the escrow
account). But he was fixated on 'I want a new Hummer.' It was a very childish thought
process. But then, he had a very bad role model."
-Senior Deputy Attorney General George Zaiser, on Stephen Frankel
"When push came to shove and you knew you shouldn't touch that money, you were told
not to touch the money, you took the money and you bought a Hummer. Your values
became skewed. These were people in desperate straights. Their hope of owning a
clunker was almost beyond them. That was a terrible, atrocious, greedy, self-centered
decision."
-Senior Judge Edward G. Biester Jr. to Stephen Frankel
"I'm sorry ..."
-Stephen Frankel. The rest of his statement was inaudible because of his family
members' crying.
"There is no evidence he has reverted back to self-medication."
-West, on Stephen Frankel's past cocaine use that he blamed on the stress of
inheriting his father's beleaguered law firm
"Your son Stephen was a victim. It doesn't excuse what he did."
-Biester to Mark Frankel
"He came out of law school with a bright future ahead of him."
-Attorney Joanne Floyd, on behalf of Mark David Frankel
"For 25 years I practiced law and never had a complaint."
-Mark David Frankel
"He's a very good man who made some very bad decisions."
-Barbara Frankel, on her brother Mark David Frankel
"I think he is a suicide risk. A 59-year-old man of Mr. Frankel's reputation will not
fare well in prison."
-Longtime friend Larry Markowitz, asking Biester not to send Mark Frankel to state
prison
"The prisons are full of people with worse mental health issues than this man."
-Zaiser, on Mark Frankel
"It snowballed out of his control. It became more difficult to say, 'I screwed up.'
His pride issue has caused him to fall greatly."
-Former Frankel associate Darryl Cunningham, on why Mark Frankel didn't seek
financial help
"Out of 355 (friends at his surprise 50th birthday party), the friends I have left
can be counted on one hand."
-Mark Frankel
"The strong must always protect the weak, especially when they are paid to do it."
-Biester
"He'll be under probation until he's 73."
-Zaiser, on Mark Frankel

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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