Suspended lawyer with East Hartford ties accused of violating conditions

Jun. 28—A suspended lawyer, who has lived in East Hartford and received a two-year prison sentence for tax evasion, is now facing accusations that he violated "supervised release" conditions, including failing to pay required restitution to the federal government and failing pay taxes due since his conviction.

The new accusations against the lawyer, Donald J. McCarthy Jr., who would now be in his early 70s, are in a document filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport by U.S. Probation Officer Jesse Murray.

Accusations

DEFENDANT: Suspended lawyer Donald J. McCarthy Jr., who is now in his early 70s and has lived in East Hartford.

ACCUSATIONS: Violating supervised release conditions, including failing to pay required amounts of restitution, failing to file income tax returns or pay taxes on income received since his conviction, failing to give probation officer accurate and complete financial information, and failure to notify probation officer of change of address.

Judge Stefan R. Underhill, who sentenced McCarthy in 2017, has scheduled a hearing on the accusations for July 14, to be held via teleconference.

Supervised release is similar to probation.

Online federal court records show that McCarthy is now represented by Assistant Federal Defender Josh B. Ewing.

An attempt to reach Ewing by telephone Monday was unsuccessful, as was an attempt to reach McCarthy via Facebook today.

When McCarthy was sentenced in December 2017, federal prosecutor Christopher W. Schmeisser called him a "serial tax avoider" who had failed to pay more than $1.4 million in federal income taxes over 19 years.

The judge ordered McCarthy to pay restitution as part of the sentence — in a lump sum, if possible, or at a rate of at least $500 per month, or 10% of his gross monthly income, whichever was greater.

"Since the start of Mr. McCarthy's term of supervised release, Mr. McCarthy earned an average monthly income of between approximately $8,750 and $12,000," Murray wrote in petitioning the judge to summon McCarthy to court. "This income included several lump-sum payments including one of $26,720. At no time did Mr. McCarthy pay restitution in any amount greater than $500."

He added in the petition, dated June 3, that McCarthy's last $500 payment had been on Feb. 17. He said McCarthy owed a restitution balance of more than $1.5 million.

Another condition of McCarthy's supervised release was that he file tax returns on time and cooperate with the IRS in payment of all taxes, interest, and penalties.

The probation officer wrote that McCarthy earned "significant taxable income" in 2019 through 2021, but failed to file tax returns or make income tax payments.

The probation officer's petition also includes accusations that McCarthy has failed to provide him with complete and accurate financial information, as required by the supervised release conditions.

One example he gave was that McCarthy had maintained that "a rotating monthly payment of approximately $8,750 was the result of pension income." The probation officer said it was later determined that the payment was the result of "a prior business arraignment" and was paid by McCarthy's former law firm's payroll department.

McCarthy's supervised release conditions also required that he live at a place approved by his probation officer and notify the officer 10 days in advance of any change of address.

Murray detailed a series of unsuccessful attempts to reach McCarthy from March to late May. He said McCarthy finally contacted him after a May 31 "round of calls and emails" and admitted under questioning that he had moved from the address he had previously reported.

After McCarthy's federal sentencing, Superior Court Judge David Sheridan suspended him from the Connecticut bar for five years, starting on Jan. 31, 2018, when he was scheduled to report to prison.

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