Prosecutors act to revoke former attorney's probation

McHenry County prosecutors are asking a court to rescind the probation sentence former Cary village attorney John Roth received in 2006 after his conviction for possession of child pornography.

If granted, that request could land the suspended lawyer in prison for as many as five years.

The move comes about three weeks after county authorities arrested Roth on a felony theft charge claiming he stole $9,500 from a former client.

Roth, 49, of McHenry, has been serving a 30-month probation sentence since August 2006, part of a plea bargain in which he admitted guilt to three counts of possession of child pornography.

The terms of that sentence, prosecutors say in recently filed court documents, bar Roth from violating the law while on probation. Prosecutors say he violated those terms when, just one month later, he stole funds belonging to a client he represented in a real estate deal.

Roth's attorney, Jeffrey Altman, declined to comment on the allegations Friday.

Before his arrest on child pornography charges in 2004, Roth was a respected municipal attorney whose clients included the villages of Cary, Wonder Lake, Port Barrington and Richmond.

Last year, the Illinois Supreme Court suspended his law license for at least two years as a result of the child pornography conviction.

Roth is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 16 on both the theft and probation violation claims.