A court-appointed attorney who plundered the fortune of former Judge John Phillips has been temporarily stripped of her license to practice law — but District Attorney Charles Hynes won’t commit to opening a criminal investigation into her wrongdoings.
Hynes claimed he was protecting Phillips, a retired Civil Court judge and a potential political rival, when his office had the then–77-year-old former judge declared mentally incompetent and his estate placed in the hands of court-appointed guardians. But it was guardian Emani Taylor who posed the real threat.
Taylor, who served as Phillips’s guardian from 2003 to 2006, failed to account for $328,000 that she withdrew from Phillips’s account and was not willing to cooperate with the committee investigating her guardianship of Phillips’s estate.
As a result, the New York State First Appellate Division suspended Taylor’s license on Dec. 27 in a harshly worded decision.
“While [Taylor] was entitled to be compensated for the work she performed, self-help to guardianship funds is not the way to proceed,” the five-judge panel wrote.
The panel also questioned why Taylor failed to file tax returns for the estate, what happened to Phillips’s Social Security and pension payments, and why several of Taylor’s relatives were compensated for “services” they allegedly provided, including Taylor’s mother, who was paid for serving as a “self-styled ‘nurse in charge’” of Phillips’s care.
Despite all these allegations, Hynes’s office would not commit to reopening its investigation of Taylor, which was closed in 2006 after Hynes’s staff determined that “the evidence did not demonstrate that respondent committed a crime.”
“I couldn’t say [we would investigate],” said Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Hynes.
“We wouldn’t talk about that kind of thing. We wouldn’t want to say whether we would or would not investigate.”
Taylor was the longest-serving of the round-robin of guardians that followed Hynes’s staff’s successful move to have Phillips — who was considering a run against the long-serving District Attorney — declared mentally incompetent in 2001.
At the time, Hynes’s staff said it was concerned that unscrupulous types were plundering Phillips’s substantial estate. But Hynes has never prosecuted anyone for doing anything of the sort — yet under the guardianship of court-appointed lawyers, including Taylor, Phillips’ estimated $10-million estate virtually disappeared.
Now, Phillips is living in a Park Slope assisted living facility, while his current guardian sorts out his finances.
His supporters once again called on Hynes to prosecute someone for the crimes committed against Phillips.
“Hynes won’t indict anyone,” said John O’Hara, though Hynes actually did indict someone — O’Hara — for once voting from the wrong address.
But O’Hara looked on the bright side.
“The U.S. attorney may get her on tax charges, though,” he said.
Taylor could not be reached for comment.
