Editor's note: Your ProbateShark wishes some of the scumbag lawyers in the Probate Court of Cook County should be made to weep. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Crystal Lake lawyer gets 9 years for stealing from clients
A Crystal Lake attorney wept Wednesday as he apologized to families from whom he stole $1.2 million before a judge sentenced him to nine years in prison.
Curt Rehberg, 50, of Cary, pleaded guilty in September to multiple counts of theft and was ordered Wednesday to pay his victims back.
"I want you to know how incredibly sorry I am," Rehberg said in the McHenry County courtroom, which was packed with his victims. "You trusted me ... we were friends ... you couldn't have seen it coming. There is no security system to protect you from what I did."
Rehberg said he felt ashamed for stealing from his clients. He thought he would be able to pay back the money, but said, "I could not pay it back, and when you asked, I lied, I drank ... I hoped for a miracle, but that miracle never came."
Addressing the impact his crimes had on his own family, Rehberg said his children will have to live with people calling their father "a scumbag lawyer who stole from his clients."
Many victims said they had met Rehberg through relatives and had always trusted him. Rehberg had helped many of them with family legal matters for more than 20 years.
In many cases, the money Rehberg stole had come from settlements, wills or trusts that were placed in accounts that he controlled. When beneficiaries tried to collect money due to them, it was gone.
One such fund for more than $525,000 was earmarked for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
Ronald Kalemba said that money had been willed to St. Jude's by his longtime girlfriend, Sharon Naert. Kalemba, of Cary, said he had done business with Rehberg since 1994 and trusted Rehberg to see that the hospital got the money, which Kalemba said it never did.
"I trusted him. That's what you have a lawyer for," said Kalemba, whose girlfriend died in 2010 of from cancer, the illness that prompted her choice to give the money to the children's hospital. "I feel sorry for the kids at St. Jude's."
Martin Ochwat, of Crystal Lake, said his aunt and uncle had left his family more than $468,000. He said his uncle, who owned Arrowhead Roofing, worked hard his whole life and wanted "his money to go to the family." Eight beneficiaries were to split the inheritance, which Rehberg also stole.
Joy Hoffman, of Algonquin, said her mother and aunt had left her more than $60,000 for medical and other bills — money that was placed in a joint trust that Rehberg handled.
She said each time she would call Rehberg's office asking when she would get the money, she would get answering machines and no return calls. She drove to his office in August 2013 to find it had closed down.
"I never heard from him," Hoffman said.
Others who testified at the sentencing hearing told similar accounts of waiting for checks from Rehberg and never receiving them.
Assistant State's Attorney Robert Zalud described Rehberg as a "grave robber" who stole from "sick children and blue-collar people."
"People work their whole lives ... they want their memory to live on ... they want to leave something to make (other people's) lives better," Zalud said.
Rehberg's attorney, Henry Sugden, touted Rehberg's charitable contributions and said if his client could pay everyone back the money he stole, he would. He said Rehberg takes responsibility for his actions, but what he did was "a result of his circumstances."
"This is not a crime of greed," Sugden said. "He was trying to sustain his business and pay the clients back. ... Alcohol kept him making worse and worse decisions. He lost his (law) license, his reputation with his family, friends and peers, peers in this courthouse. He was trying to pump the gas, fill the holes. He was not a greedy man. He had lost 75 percent of his business."
Before handing down her sentence, Judge Sharon Prather said what Rehberg did was "unspeakable" and a "disgrace and a dishonor to the system."
Rehberg faced a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Curt Rehberg, 50, of Cary, pleaded guilty in September to multiple counts of theft and was ordered Wednesday to pay his victims back.
"I want you to know how incredibly sorry I am," Rehberg said in the McHenry County courtroom, which was packed with his victims. "You trusted me ... we were friends ... you couldn't have seen it coming. There is no security system to protect you from what I did."
Rehberg said he felt ashamed for stealing from his clients. He thought he would be able to pay back the money, but said, "I could not pay it back, and when you asked, I lied, I drank ... I hoped for a miracle, but that miracle never came."
Addressing the impact his crimes had on his own family, Rehberg said his children will have to live with people calling their father "a scumbag lawyer who stole from his clients."
In many cases, the money Rehberg stole had come from settlements, wills or trusts that were placed in accounts that he controlled. When beneficiaries tried to collect money due to them, it was gone.
One such fund for more than $525,000 was earmarked for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
"I trusted him. That's what you have a lawyer for," said Kalemba, whose girlfriend died in 2010 of from cancer, the illness that prompted her choice to give the money to the children's hospital. "I feel sorry for the kids at St. Jude's."
Joy Hoffman, of Algonquin, said her mother and aunt had left her more than $60,000 for medical and other bills — money that was placed in a joint trust that Rehberg handled.
She said each time she would call Rehberg's office asking when she would get the money, she would get answering machines and no return calls. She drove to his office in August 2013 to find it had closed down.
"I never heard from him," Hoffman said.
Others who testified at the sentencing hearing told similar accounts of waiting for checks from Rehberg and never receiving them.
Assistant State's Attorney Robert Zalud described Rehberg as a "grave robber" who stole from "sick children and blue-collar people."
"People work their whole lives ... they want their memory to live on ... they want to leave something to make (other people's) lives better," Zalud said.
Rehberg's attorney, Henry Sugden, touted Rehberg's charitable contributions and said if his client could pay everyone back the money he stole, he would. He said Rehberg takes responsibility for his actions, but what he did was "a result of his circumstances."
"This is not a crime of greed," Sugden said. "He was trying to sustain his business and pay the clients back. ... Alcohol kept him making worse and worse decisions. He lost his (law) license, his reputation with his family, friends and peers, peers in this courthouse. He was trying to pump the gas, fill the holes. He was not a greedy man. He had lost 75 percent of his business."
Before handing down her sentence, Judge Sharon Prather said what Rehberg did was "unspeakable" and a "disgrace and a dishonor to the system."
Rehberg faced a maximum sentence of 15 years.
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