Here we have another black woman who decided she needed someone else's money more than they did.
A former top judge in Illinois accused of stealing the life savings of a World War Two veteran has been ordered to pay back $1.2million.
www.dailymail.co.uk
- Patricia Martin, who sat on the bench in Cook County for 24 years, was in charge of handling Oscar Wilkerson Jr's life savings
- But his family and the state legal disciplinary agency claim she stole $240,000 of his money and sunk more than $100,000 into cryptocurrency
- Wilkerson was a highly decorated Tuskegee airman and civil rights pioneer who was one of the first black military pilots to fight for the United States in the war
- She was a judge for 24 years and was presiding judge of the Cook County juvenile court's child protection division when she retired in 2020 a month after she took control of Wilkerson's finances.
The veteran's attorneys then wrote to the judge to ask Martin to demonstrate why she shouldn't be held in contempt of court and order her to return the money and show where she put it.
They then reported that a total of $383,236.75 had been taken out of his accounts and other people had to come together to pay the money owed to Wilkerson's retirement home.
And the lawyers asked for Martin to be sanctioned for not answering the questions or providing records of where the money went and asked for a default judgement of $1,229,384.31.
This order was signed and granted by Judge Demacopoulos on May 24 and Martin was ordered to pay more three times what she allegedly took for damages, fees and court costs.