WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A former attorney from Lackawanna County, disbarred amid allegations he lied to clients and forged signatures to hide his misdeeds, has been sentenced in Luzerne County after a plea.
James Conaboy pleaded guilty last week in Luzerne County court to two counts of forgery and two counts of tampering with records. He was sentenced to five years probation for the forgery charges and was sentenced to 30 days to 12 months in prison on the tampering charges.
Conaboy, 52, was disbarred last year.
Charges against Conaboy filed earlier this year involved three parties in Monroe, Lackawanna, and Luzerne Counties.
In the Luzerne County case, Conaboy let a man named Paul Grace believe for years that he was entitled to a $517,000 settlement to be paid by the state of Pennsylvania. Grace worked in the Wilkes-Barre office of the state Department of Labor and Industry's Bureau of Disability and brought claims in 2013 because of an alleged hostile work environment.
Conaboy had documents bearing Beemer's signature — a forgery, authorities charged — to try and explain why the money was not disbursed.
Grace learned the truth in March 2023, more than four years after a judge dismissed the case.