Well-known profession being probed
Jan 25
Exclusive
Wednesday, Mar 16th 2011, 4:00 AM
The Nassau County district profession is probing decorated counsel Dominick Barbara for swiping $56,000 from a father of a Taconic Parkway wrong-way driver, a Daily News has learned.
Although a high-profile profession claimed he took a box pro bono, The News was told Barbara pocketed income due Daniel Schuler from his passed wife’s $100,000 life word process – and another $10,000 Schuler gave him.
Barbara, already dangling from his use by a state for 18 months since of veteran misconduct, told a family a income was placed in an escrow account, sources told The News.
But when Schuler recently asked for a $110,000, he was told it was unavailable, according to one source. Only $34,000 went for legitimate authorised fees, and Barbara coughed adult a small $20,000 final week, a source said.
“The income was for a family and [son] Bryan’s recovery,” according to a source. Bryan Schuler was a usually survivor of a wreck.
During his prolonged career, a media-savvy Barbara has represented Joey Buttafuoco, Jessica Hahn and a Long Island alloy who sued his ex-wife for a lapse of a donated kidney.
The phone to his bureau is disconnected, and there was no answer yesterday during his Shelter Island home.
The Nassau County district profession declined to criticism on a case, though a private questioner hired by Barbara to examine a Schuler box reliable a probe.
“We have been oral to by a Nassau County district attorney’s office,” pronounced Thomas Ruskin, boss of a CMP Protective and Investigative group.
Ruskin told The News that payments from Barbara for other cases had been fraudulently altered and pronounced Schuler’s name was scribbled in a memo territory of checks already cashed by CMP.
Barbara afterwards private a income from a escrow criticism – nonetheless no one was wakeful of a fraud until Schuler asked for a income after training of a lawyer’s authorised woes, a source said.
Schuler’s wife, Diane, was speeding with pot and ethanol in her system, going a wrong approach on a Taconic Parkway, when she slammed into an approaching automobile and killed 8 people in 2009.
mlysiak@nydailynews.com