Ex-lawyer pleads not guilty to charges in estate theft

4/26/2002

BOWLING GREEN - A former attorney charged with stealing $11,500 from an estate she was handling pleaded not guilty yesterday in Wood County Common Pleas Court.

Patricia Crowley, 43, of Naples, Fla., was indicted last week by a Wood County grand jury on one count of grand theft and four counts of forgery stemming from the alleged mishandling of the estate of Andrew Ruziscska of Rossford in 1998 and 1999.

Crowley, who forfeited her Ohio law license in 1999, is currently serving a six-month sentence in the Wood County jail after pleading guilty last year to grand theft and three counts of forgery relating to another probate case.

Judge Reeve Kelsey scheduled a pretrial hearing in the latest case for May 20.