Suspended KCK lawyer convicted of mistreating disabled man
A longtime Kansas City, Kan., lawyer has been found guilty of misappropriating money from a disabled man’s trust fund.
A Wyandotte County judge found Don Charles Ball guilty of felony mistreatment of a dependent adult and misdemeanor passing a worthless check.
Ball, 64, will be sentenced Feb. 26.
His law license has also been suspended by the Kansas Supreme Court.
According to Wyandotte County prosecutors, Ball was the attorney for a conservatorship that managed the affairs of a man who had sustained a disabling brain injury. The man now lives in an assisted-living group home.
The man’s assets were sold and proceeds were put into a trust that a probate judge ordered Ball to hold and not spend without court approval.
When the court ordered Ball to pay out money in the trust, he wrote a $32,000 check that the bank rejected for insufficient funds.
A judge determined guilt after Ball waived his right to a jury trial. The judge announced the guilty verdicts Tuesday.
He found Ball not guilty of another charge of theft. In that case, prosecutors said Ball accepted money to represent a client after his law license had been suspended.
Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, @trizzkc
This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 7:53 AM with the headline "Suspended KCK lawyer convicted of mistreating disabled man."