Disbarred Belleville attorney White may be released from prison

Thomas Andrew White, 51, the disbarred Belleville attorney who was sentenced to 5-20 years in prison in 2015 for stealing money from his clients, has been resentenced and may soon be free.
The Michigan Parole Board said Friday that he had a parole hearing in April and the board has yet to make a decision. Local victims said they had not been alerted to White’s parole hearing and would have been present had they known it was taking place.
It was unclear whether White met with one or more than one member of the parole board, but he was convinced he would be released fairly quickly.
Defense attorney James Murray said he agreed to appeal White’s case since White had been mischarged. He said the racketeering conviction was defective, legally and practically, and the prosecutor agreed.
Murray convinced Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Van Houten to dismiss the most serious of the 20 charges against White: MCL 750.159i, racketeering activity.
Murray said racketeering is impossible for a person working alone, which White was. He said the Wayne County Prosecutor agreed.
Murray had leased space from White at his Main Street office across from city hall where White had been for 20 years. Murray said they ran separate law firms and he did not know what White was doing in his practice. When White asked him to handle his appeal, he agreed.
On March 21, Judge Van Houten resentenced White on his other charges to time served. That amounted to 3 years and 98 days (1,453 credit days). He pled nolo contendere as he did in 2015. On the MDOC website, his earliest release date was changed to 12/28/18.
His previous costs and fees assessed remained in effect at $1,234,329.
Murray said it was unclear when White would be released.
Retired Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dalton A. Roberson, who was on temporary duty with the court, was filling in for Judge Van Houten on April 10, 2015 when White was originally sentenced. Judge Van Houten was recovering from surgery.
Judge Roberson also ordered White to pay restitution of more than $1.1 million to 14 victims, whose names were read by Assistant Prosecutor Trisha Gerard during the proceedings. It was noted by those in the courtroom that there should be 25 names on the list since money White embezzled from several estates affected those who were due to inherit the money.
Prosecutor Gerard said the sentence for White’s first file was five to 20 years, referring to the five charges of uttering and publishing, larceny by conversion, embezzlement by an agent or trustee, and two charges of identity theft that took $73,800 from the Jordan family in Belleville.
Those five charges were filed Sept. 6, 2013, just before the statute of limitations was reached for the crime that took place Sept. 14, 2007.
The 15 other felonies were filed Dec. 18, 2013 and the two cases were consolidated and ran through the system together with innumerable delays.
At the sentencing in 2015, three attorneys spoke for their clients. Jeffrey M. Frank of Alber Crafton Attorneys said his firm represents Western Surety Company and two of White’s victims had their estate money insured by that firm. He said White put the money in his account and “stole it within weeks.”
He said White left both victims with substantial attorney fees.
“We listened to lies after lies,” Frank said. He said Charlotte Devine lost $97,000 and her son got zero inheritance money. White put $129,000 of the Low’s money into his client account and ultimately stole it, Frank said.
He said not only did they lose the money, but now they are obliged to repay the insurance company.
“It was a calculated scheme that lasted for years,” Frank said, adding that White took his family on a vacation to Alaska and has been seen around town dining out and paying the check for large family groups.
“This is why attorneys have a bad name,” Frank said, referring to White’s actions. He asked Judge Roberson to impose the maximum sentence.
Attorney Aaron Silvenis, who grew up in Belleville and now is an attorney with Cohen, Lerner, Rabinowitz, said his law firm represents the Gallaway family whose entire inheritance in excess of $300,000 was stolen by Thomas White.
“For reasons that my clients do not understand, the prosecutor’s office did not include their claims as part of the criminal proceedings even though it was the Gallaway family that was responsible for uncovering the misconduct of Thomas White,” Silvenis said, noting he also represents a host of other victims whose monies have been stolen by White and whose lives have been torn apart by his conduct.
“When a thief who is not an attorney is caught stealing from someone or robbing a store, they get a lengthy term to serve,” Silvenis said. “Here, Mr. White has stolen millions and destroyed lives that will never recover. His crimes far outweigh the amounts taken in a dollar store robbery or a larceny from a person’s home.
“In the case of one of my clients, the money that she had relied on from her house closing and which was to pay for her assisted living obligations were taken from her, leaving her penniless and without the means to pay for her assisted living,” Silvenis said.
“All of the victims here understand that by putting Mr. White in prison, they will stand to receive nothing financially from him unless funds can be located,” Silvenis continued. “While they have not given up the hope that someday the missing funds will be located and accounted for, they have come to the realization that their only relief will come from the knowledge that Mr. White pays for his crime by long-term incarceration.
“This isn’t a matter of revenge. It is a matter of fairness. If Mr. White had any intention of being forthcoming, he would have revealed his finances long ago and he would have stopped his binge at the victims’ expense,” Silvenis said.
Silvenis said White had continued to live with his two sons and “conveniently divorced his wife,” although they got together weekly for family meals. He rented a house and lives just as he had before with no real loss to him, Silvenis said.
“He preyed on average, everyday people,” Silvenis continued. “he used his law degree as a cloak for his misconduct. He betrayed the trust of his office and he betrayed the trust of each of the victims as a human being.
“This Court must hold him to a higher degree of culpability than an average layman who is a defendant. Mr. White knew the law. His knowledge allowed him to manipulate these people. Don’t allow him to manipulate this Court as it hands down its sentence,” Silvenis concluded.
Attorney John Badeen said he was representing Alisa Renier and the estate of her mother Eileen Kuchta. The loss was $223,000 plus. He said White requested the original records “so no one could do the math.”
He read a statement by Renier on the dishonest attorney who was a personal friend of her father. “We trusted him.”
Renier said White took advantage of her grieving after her mother’s death and her confusion over the legalities, since she was executor.
“Mr. White hugged me and took me out to lunch,” Renier wrote. She said what White did required her to hire two attorneys and she’s been using her own retirement funds to pay them. She said if restitution is ordered, she’ll have to reopen her mother’s estate to claim the funds.
“Shame on him,” she concluded. “Shame, shame.”
Assistant Prosecutor Gerard said of White, “He’s the poster child for a bad attorney.”
She said the small town of Belleville is “quite frankly, Mayberry RFD” where people know each other on the street and trust each other.
“He took that trust and used it as a weapon against them,” Gerard said, adding if there was a reason he did what he did, they don’t know, other than “flat-out greed.”
She said that knowing he has to suffer in prison the victims finally can close their eyes at night and sleep. She called his incarceration, “partial justice.”
Gerard was a new prosecutor assigned to the case after the former Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Williams left the Prosecutor’s Office to go into private practice.
White had a series of attorneys during the original case, ending up with Otis Culpepper, who immediately asked Judge Roberson for a delay in the sentencing since he was going on vacation.
According to the Michigan Offender Tracking Information System, White currently is at the Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Gratiot County, a minimum-security facility with a dorm-like setting.
Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Maria Miller referred the Independent to the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Probation Department, for information.