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Albany-Area Town Justice

Guilty Of Mishandling Trusts

 Related Case Against Cooperstown Man Still Pending
Richard Sherwood

ALBANY – The state Attorney General’s Office today announced the guilty plea of lawyer and former Town of Guilderland Judge Richard Sherwood for, with an alleged co-conspirator, extracting over $11 million from family trusts they were responsible for overseeing.

Sherwood pleaded guilty before Albany County Court Judge Peter A. Lynch to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree (a Class C felony). As a result of these charges, he previously resigned as Guilderland Town Judge. Sherwood faces up to three to 10 years in prison.

As detailed in the complaint, since at least 2006, Sherwood and alleged co-conspirator Thomas Lagan of Cooperstown provided estate planning and related legal and financial services to Capital Region philanthropists Warren and Pauline Bruggeman and Pauline Bruggeman’s sister, Anne Urban. In 2011, the Anne S. Urban Irrevocable Trust (AUIT) was created using some of the funds from the Bruggeman trusts with Sherwood named trustee and Lagan named successor trustee.

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