David A. Horan, 67, of Manchester, is accused of stealing from his client’s trust account, spending the money on himself including for the purchase of Boston Red Sox season and playoff tickets.
The first felony account of theft by unauthorized taking was that Horan took unauthorized control over his client’s money.
The second relates to the issuance of multiple personal checks written to himself from an account owned by an individual identified only as “M.B.,” who is currently 79 years old.
Both offenses are Class A felonies that upon conviction would carry state prison terms of up to 15 years.
In June 2017, Horan agreed to be disbarred from the practice of law to complete an investigation by the Attorney Discipline Office that looks into complaints brought against lawyers.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court unanimously voted a month later to accept that recommendation that stemmed from Horan’s supervision over the finances of a client identified as MB.
Records indicate MB hired Horan in 2013 to represent him in trying to revive a corporation the elderly man had run.
According to the disbarment order, MB had sold shares of Prudential Insurance stock back to the company and was paid $32,300 in January 2014.
“MB was spending money erratically and unwisely and thus Mr. Horan convinced MB to sign the Prudential check over to Mr. Horan,” the decision said.
What followed was a litany of withdrawals Horan made from MB’s client trust account for his own personal use, according to the ruling.
Horan was supposed to pay MB $2,000 a month from that account to cover living expenses but he failed to do that, the ruling states.
The order charged Horan with falsifying reports to banking institutions and the public guardian’s office about his stewardship of the money.
The order maintained that Horan often comingled his own personal accounts with the money he held for clients.
According to that decision, Horan used client money on several occasions for Red Sox tickets.
“Mr. Horan had an arrangement whereby his friends would contribute to the purchase price of Red Sox tickets, he would purchase the tickets, and thereafter he and his friends would divide up tickets for particular game days,” said the disciplinary order.
The trust fund of MB was overdrawn in September 2016 and that’s when officials at the Bank of America reported this matter to the Attorney Discipline’s Office.
At the time he was disbarred, Horan had been a criminal defense lawyer in sole practice with an office on Coolidge Street in Manchester.
During the 1990s, Horan was an assistant county attorney in Hillsborough County and had risen to the rank of its chief criminal prosecutor.
A graduate of Boston College Law School and undergraduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Horan was first admitted to practice law in 1977.
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Disbarred Manchester lawyer indicted for felony theft
, they got it wrong. “Contemporary neuroscience tells us we have these evolved capacities to care for the vulnerable, to protect those that need protecting,” Keltner says, explaining that kindness is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. “When you really practice it, it’s like an athletic regimen.”
