Attorney allegedly stole $53,000 from client's settlement

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indianapolis attorney is accused of stealing more than $50,000 from a client's settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Marion County prosecutors said Tuesday that 73-year-old Raymond Fairchild faces a felony theft charge for allegedly taking about $53,000 he was supposed to have placed in a restricted trust account for a woman's juvenile daughter.

That woman received a $100,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit she'd filed over her husband's 2015 car crash death.

Court records allege Fairchild deposited about $53,000 intended for the client's daughter in his checking account and wrote more than 80 checks from that account. None of those checks were for his client or her husband's estate.

Fairchild's law license was suspended in September 2016.

A telephone message seeking comment was left Wednesday for Fairchild's attorney.