Nassau DA: Attorney charged with stealing $25,000 from clients

First, he was disbarred.

Now, former attorney Timothy Daly, 53, of Hempstead, has been arrested — charged with stealing $25,000 from clients he represented in the sale of their home, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced Wednesday.

“Attorneys have a special obligation to act in the best interests of their clients,” Singas said in a statement. “This defendant is charged with stealing from clients who entrusted him with their home purchase and using their money to pay his rent and line his pockets. My office is committed to holding him accountable.”

Singas said Daly was hired to represent clients in the sale of their home in Queens and said that on closing day in August 2011 he “agreed in writing to hold in escrow” $25,000 of the sale proceeds — until he sent two original satisfactions of existing mortgages to the title company for recording of the sale.

Instead, Singas said, Daly failed to obtain those contractual satisfactions — and the clients never got their money.

Daly was disbarred on July 24, 2013, for “unprofessional conduct” unrelated to this incident, Singas said.

The district attorney’s office began to investigate the incident related to the home sale this June, when Singas said the homeowners represented by Daly in the 2011 incident filed a complaint.

Charged with third-degree grand larceny, Daly was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court on Sept. 16. If convicted, he faces 2 1⁄3-to-7 years in prison.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”