Saturday, May 17, 2014

Ex-attorney for county linked with forged wills

Ex-attorney for county linked with forged wills

By Bob Shiles bshiles@civitasmedia.com
14 days 10 hours ago |4341 Views | 2 Comments | | Email | Print
LUMBERTON — A Superior Court judge this week ruled that two wills naming former Robeson County Attorney Hal Kinlaw as executor were forgeries.

Judge Mary Ann Tally, during a hearing in Robeson County Superior Court, ruled in favor of petitions submitted by Jessie McFadyen Tolar, of Red Springs, requesting that the wills of her mother, Louise B. McFadyen, and father, Robert Lewis McFayden, be “removed and set aside” and authentic wills be substituted in their place.

The Robesonian has been told that Kinlaw as well as his late father had business relationships for many years with Lewis McFayden. According to the petition filed by Tolar, Kinlaw resigned as executor of both of her late parents wills on March 26, 2013.

The petition to the court said that on the same day Kinlaw resigned as executor of the estates, Tolar was appointed administrator of her parents’ estates and executor of their wills. After her appointment, according to the petitions, she discovered that Louise McFadyen’s 2009 will naming Kinlaw executor was “in fact a forgery and never executed by the decedent.” She also found the 2005 will of Lewis McFadyen to be a forgery.

According to the petitions, Kinlaw would not have received anything of value in either of the forged wills.

A court official confirmed that the action taken Monday did not include any criminal charges. It was unclear Friday, however, if further action will be taken in criminal court. An assistant to Tolar’s attorney, Hilton T. Hutchens Jr. of Fayetteville, told The Robesonian that Hutchens would “not make any comment at this time.”

Attempts by The Robesonian to get a comment from Kinlaw were unsuccessful.

Kinlaw resigned as Robeson County attorney in June 2013 after it became public that he is being sued by BB&T for almost $18 million in unpaid loans. He had been the county’s attorney for more than 20 years.

Although he has officially resigned his position, County Manager Ricky Harris confirmed that Kinlaw is still on the county payroll, getting a stipend of $5,000 a month.

“He works for me,” Harris said, referring to the county manager’s office. “He is paid with county funds.”

BB&T filed six lawsuits against Kinlaw at the Robeson County Courthouse on April 15, 2013. In addition to the attorney, his wife Marcia, Anita Jo Kinlaw Troxler, and five companies were named as defendants.

The bank in its lawsuits have cited Kinlaw with making 56 transactions that date back to 2001 and total about $17.8 million.

Kinlaw told The Robesonian shortly after the lawsuits became public that he was in a “bad investment scenario” and “trying to work out a way to pay everything back.” He said that his problems center on several tracts of land he had purchased over the years in Onslow and other coastal counties for development companies. None of the land is in Robeson County, he said.

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