3 years for disbarred attorney who wouldn’t call it quits

A disbarred attorney was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for impersonating a former Naperville lawyer in court.

Prosecutors said Timothy F. Eddy, 46, lost his law license in 2002, but went on to represent a defendant in Will and DuPage County courts while posing as a former legal colleague.

The Burbank man pleaded guilty to false impersonation of an attorney Monday in Will County, and again Tuesday in DuPage. He was sentenced to concurrent three-year terms, according to negotiated plea agreements with prosecutors.

A graduate of the Valparaiso University of Law, Eddy was licensed to practice in 1989. But he was disbarred for misconduct after he was accused of pocketing thousands of dollars beyond his 16 percent fee as legal counsel for a debt collection service.

He came under investigation again last year after he began defending a Joliet man in traffic and criminal courts under the name of a Naperville attorney who also once worked for the collections agency but was no longer licensed to practice law in Illinois. Prosecutors said Eddy filed either appearances or motions under the other lawyer’s name in both Will and DuPage counties.

Assistant DuPage State’s Attorney Helen Kapas Erdman said the Naperville attorney told an investigator he never gave Eddy permission to use his name. “He said he hadn’t had contact with (Eddy) since the ‘90s,” she said.

Eddy, who has been held on $150,000 bail since July 26, must serve at least 18 months before he would be eligible for release. Prosecutors said he pleaded guilty to a similar offense in Cook County in 2006.