Prosecutors have filed grand theft charges against a lawyer they say stole from two clients, including one of his former high school teachers.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published February 28, 2004
CLEARWATER - Zolia Byrd fixed breakfast for the homeless people in her neighborhood almost every morning. The 96-year-old woman with failing eyesight brought plates of eggs and toast to her front porch and let the transients eat.
The Clearwater woman's family warned her that the vagrants might steal from her. They suspected some of her silver already had vanished.
But after Byrd died in 2002, authorities say her family discovered it wasn't the homeless who posed the greatest threat to her possessions.
It was her attorney.
Pinellas prosecutors say Wayne T. Phillips, who last practiced law in Clearwater, stole more than $85,000 from two clients, including Byrd.
Last Friday, Phillips was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on two charges of grand theft. He was released the same day after posting $30,000 bail.
Investigators say Phillips stole about $70,000 from Byrd's estate after her death. Byrd's sister, June Gaston, said Phillips was Byrd's attorney for decades, even though her family had their suspicions.
"She loved people, she loved everybody and nobody could be bad," Gaston said Friday. "It's a shame that it had to come down to this with her estate. Because she was so free with her money."
Prosecutors say Phillips also stole more than $16,000 from Harry N. Ingraham, an 84-year-old retired Dunedin High School teacher who had taught Phillips in class. Knowing that Phillips had become an attorney, Ingraham hired him to help him obtain a portion of his late wife's estate.
Prosecutors say Phillips collected some money for Ingraham but kept most for himself.
Phillips, who lives in Tampa, could not be reached for comment Friday.
The Florida Bar suspended Phillips in May 2003 after Ingraham filed a complaint, preventing Phillips from practicing law. A referee who heard the evidence surrounding the Ingraham case has recommended that the Florida Supreme Court disbar Phillips, said Tom DeBerg, a Bar attorney.
Phillips has until March 9 to dispute the recommendation. Phillips hasn't put up much of a fight so far, though "he has consistently denied doing anything wrong," DeBerg said.
DeBerg said three other people have made complaints to the state Bar about Phillips. Those complaints still are pending.
Phillips has been in trouble with the Bar before. He was privately reprimanded in 1987, then publicly reprimanded in 1995 after he overcharged the estate of an elderly client by nearly $10,000.
"He only picked on the people who were so old they couldn't do anything about it," Gaston said. "They were near the end of their life."
Before that, Phillips, a Clearwater native, had sought a seat on the Safety Harbor commission and a judge's seat. He was pounded in the commission race in 1989, but narrowly lost to current Judge Phil Federico in 1994.
In a fairly ugly campaign for a judge's race, Federico printed fliers accusing Phillips of having a "checkered past."
Borrowing heavily from Phillips' divorce file, Federico claimed his opponent was behind on child support, owed a lot of money, had troubles with the IRS and lied on financial disclosure statements.
Phillips called the allegations untrue and filed a complaint with the Fair Campaign Practices Committee, which later said the flier was misleading, inaccurate and unfair. Federico pulled the plug on the fliers but stood by his allegations.
However, Phillips admitted to the Times he was behind in alimony payments and had bounced three checks because of money problems in his practice. The Bar reprimand came a year later.
Gaston said she showed her sister an article published in the Times in 1995 about the reprimand, but her sister still thought Phillips was "grand."
"We couldn't get my sister to realize what he was capable of," said Gaston, 81, who lives in Clearwater. "He was so great to my sister and took her out to dinner pretty regular except when he was out in Las Vegas gambling. She loved him."
Byrd, a former singer, poet and author who suffered from a bad heart, died at home on Oct. 12, 2002. She had no children but gave freely to people in need, her sister said.
Three weeks after her death, Phillips opened an account for Byrd's estate and more than $73,000 was deposited. Seven months later, only $47.16 remained in the account.
Bank records also show 51 checks were written from the account to Phillips, an affidavit states.
Gaston said her family retained some of Byrd's possessions, including her house and a bank holding.
"He tried to get that, saying she wasn't in her right mind and it wasn't her signature and things like that," she said.
Gaston said Byrd had been a client of Phillips' father but switched over to his son years later.
Phillips, who graduated from the University of Florida in 1971 and Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala., in 1974, worked in his father's Clearwater law firm before launching his own practice in 1983.
Besides the criminal charges, Phillips also faces a summary judgment ordering him to pay Ingraham, who sued him last year, more than $74,000.
"I feel most attorneys are ethical and above-board," said John K. Finch, a Safety Harbor attorney who represents Ingraham. "When something like this happens, it affects everyone in the legal community. And we want to make sure it doesn't happen to any more clients.
"A person has the right, when they go see an attorney, to trust that attorney and know they are doing the right thing for them," Finch added. "That's why we're here."
- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com
