Lawyer is accused of forging signatures of judge and prosecutor to get client's ankle monitor removed
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A lawyer in Cornelia, Georgia, is facing criminal charges after he was accused of forging signatures of a judge and a prosecutor to get his client’s costly ankle monitor removed.
Lawyer Paul J. York, who is a solo practitioner and solicitor for the city of Cornelia, was charged with two counts of forgery and one count of filing a false document, Law.com reports. He was arrested July 10.
The Northeast Georgian also has coverage.
York had filed an order for bond modification in March to allow his client to remove the ankle monitor, which cost her $380 every two weeks, according to Law.com. The order contained the purported signatures of the judge and an assistant district attorney.
Three days later, Judge B. Chan Caudell set aside the order, explaining that he didn’t remember signing it and he wasn’t in the circuit on the date that it was signed. Caudell also said the assistant district attorney said she didn’t sign the order.
York admitted in a March 10 conference call with the judge and prosecutor that he had signed the prosecutor’s name but said he did so because he thought that the prosecutor agreed to remove the ankle monitor requirement when she returned from leave.
The order was signed March 4, but York said the judge had actually signed it March 2.
York’s client, who had two children, was accused of violating a no-contact order by contacting her husband. York thought that his client was wrongly accused of violating the order by texting the husband, and he could prove it with phone records.
York didn’t immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.
