A former Illinois attorney - disbarred in 2002 after being accused of embezzling from a debt collection service - was sentenced to three years in prison this week for impersonating a former legal colleague in court.
Timothy Eddy, 46, in 2002, was accused of pocketing thousands of dollars beyond his 16% fee as legal counsel for a debt collection service. The name of that company was not revealed.
He came under investigation last year after he began defending a man in traffic and criminal courts under the name of an attorney who also once worked for the collection service but was no longer licensed to practice law in Illinois.
Prosecutors said Eddy filed either appearances or motions under the other lawyer’s name in two Illinois counties - Will and DuPage, near Chicago.
He has been held on $150,000 bail since last July, and must serve at least 18 months before he is eligible for release. Prosecutors said he pleaded guilty to a similar offense in Cook County in 2006.
Eddy allegedly barricaded his door and tried to run away when police came to arrest him in July, authorities said. He allegedly cut a hole through his wall with a butcher knife, escaped into a neighboring apartment and jumped off a balcony before being captured.
A graduate of the Valparaiso University of Law, Eddy was licensed to practice in 1989.
