Ex-Judge Gets 4 Years in Theft Case

A 69-year-old former lawyer and Superior Court judge was sentenced Thursday to four years in state prison after pleading no contest to stealing from elderly clients, including a woman on life support, officials said.

Huey Percy Shepard was taken into custody after sentencing by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Patricia Titus.

“At long last, we have justice in this case,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller.

Shepard pleaded no contest in April to one count of theft from an elder or dependent adult, one count of perjury, two counts of grand theft by embezzlement and one count of writing a bad check.

Although he was ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution, Shepard has not repaid a penny, Miller said.

Shepard served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge from 1975 to 1981, but has since resigned from the State Bar of California.

He was hired as an attorney by the daughter of a 90-year-old woman on life support and embezzled $99,000 from the mother, forcing the elderly woman to sell her home to pay for medical care. Shepard also bounced a $13,950 check to the woman’s convalescent home and falsely claimed that he had made nearly $10,000 in payments for the victim’s care that actually were made by her daughter.

Prosecutors said Shepard also embezzled more than $62,000 from a probate estate and more than $12,000 from a client’s settlement check in a personal injury lawsuit.

The thefts occurred between December 1992 and April 2002.