After 3 Years, Search Continues for Judge Accused of Theft From Clients : Justice: John Fairbanks fled in 1989 after he was indicted on charges that he stole more than $1.8 million. His case has been featured on three TV crime shows.

Last year, when Cpl. Robert Adams retired from the New Hampshire State Police, his fellow detectives gave him an unusual gift: a framed picture of John Fairbanks.

Adams had headed the search for Fairbanks, a 69-year-old ex-judge who fled three years ago after he was indicted on charges that he stole more than $1.8 million from clients. Now, Adams was retiring, and all he had to show for his efforts was Fairbanks’ photo.

“I hate to see any case not be solved,” Adams said. “But this one probably bothers me more than others because the man held an office of trust and judged others.”

He was, in fact, a pillar of the community--a well-respected lawyer and district court judge in Newport, a town of 6,100, for more than 30 years.

But then, in 1989, his life began to unravel.

At least 25 former clients or their estates--including three of Fairbanks’ sisters, two insurance companies, a bank and the Town of Washington--filed claims against Fairbanks totaling more than $6 million. Some of his clients were elderly retired people who entrusted their life savings with him.

Fairbanks’ sisters said their brother served as trustee and controlled a trust named after their mother. It was valued at $500,000 in 1985, but had dwindled to about $40,000 by July, 1989.

Fairbanks resigned from the bench in June, 1989. Two months later, the New Hampshire Supreme Court stopped him from practicing law.

On Dec. 27, he was indicted. On Dec. 28, he vanished.

Fairbanks had been living in his second home in Ogunquit, Me., since his disbarment. His wife, Miriam, told police she last saw him that morning, when he went downtown for his morning coffee.

His pickup truck was found the next day in a parking lot 5 miles away.

The investigation into his disappearance has yielded few clues. The case has been featured on three national TV crime programs, most recently Fox TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” show earlier this month.

Viewers were encouraged to contact authorities with any information, but in an interview prior to the Fox broadcast, Adams said the shows had not been very productive.

“We’ve gotten about 80 to 90 calls from the two shows,” he said. “Only about 10% were worth looking into, and they didn’t turn up anything.”

He said one of the best leads came in October, 1991, when two people from different parts of the country claimed to have seen Fairbanks on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. The people said they had spoken with a man fitting Fairbanks’ description, but who went by the name “Joe.” The man was said to be purchasing a condominium on the island, he said.

The FBI investigated, but found nothing, Adams said.

From his investigation, Adams said he knew that Fairbanks enjoyed visiting the Caribbean, especially the island of Antigua, near St. Kitts.

“I still feel pretty strongly he moves in and out of the Caribbean,” Adams said.

Adams said he also found evidence that Fairbanks might keep in touch with his wife and children: “They claim they don’t talk to him, but there’s some telephone logs that are very interesting,” he said.

Efforts to reach Miriam Fairbanks for comment were unsuccessful.

Adams said he doubts that Fairbanks will ever be found, especially since the case has been placed on the back burner by state police. But Fairbanks’ disappearance--and the Fairbanks scandal--are vivid in local memory.

The theft was one of the largest in state history. State Rep. Peter Burling has filed a bill calling for a $20,000 reward for information leading to Fairbanks’ arrest.

“He was a trusted local attorney who took the opportunity afforded by that trust to make himself millions of dollars through theft,” he said. “And, he stole from the weakest and most vulnerable people.”

In 1991, those who filed claims against Fairbanks settled for about 15 cents on the dollar. The money came from a state fund set aside to cover fraud by attorneys, and from the Fairbanks family.

But as Sullivan County Atty. Marc Hathaway says, the money--though an enormous sum--was not all that Fairbanks stole.

“The impact on this community goes far behind the mere dollars lost by the victims,” said Hathaway, who appeared often in Fairbanks’ court. “It created an erosion in confidence in lawyers and the judicial system itself. It eroded the trust that has been a part of the relationship between attorneys.”