Fugitive Attorney Found in Honduras

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Eric Conn, an attorney who had previously pled guilty to fraud charges related to Social Security disability benefits and then fled the country, has been found in Honduras.

The FBI captured him outside a Pizza Hut in Honduras on December 2 and flew him back to his home state of Kentucky on December 5. Conn had been a fugitive for six months.

It all started when Conn pled guilty to stealing from the government and to making illegal payments to Social Security judge David Daugherty, who awarded benefits to Conn’s clients as a “thank you” for the payments. Conn was held under house arrest pending his hearing.

But in June, Conn apparently thought better of going to jail, cut off his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, and fled the state.

He was spotted at a gas station and a Walmart in New Mexico, and the truck he was using was abandoned by the border with Mexico. Conn was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison in a separate fraud case after he disappeared in June.

Conn’s attorney, Scott White, entered a plea of not guilty to escape charges on behalf of his client. There was no consideration of setting bond for Conn—not surprising, considering his apparent propensity to change his mind about serving his time and flee the consequences of his alleged actions.

White did say that if Conn had kept the bargain under his guilty plea in the initial fraud case, he might have been able to reduce his 12-year sentence to nine or 10 years and probably serve only 85 percent of that term.

“It was quite a gamble that [Conn] took” by allegedly escaping, White said. Now he could face additional charges in the disability case. He had been indicted on 18 counts and pled guilty to only two of them—submitting false documents and bribing the judge.

The Social Security Administration is reviewing the cases of 1,500 people Conn represented in their disability hearings. The government suspended disability payments to 900 people, too.