Crooked judge gives new meaning to ‘chutzpah’

Remember the joke about the kid who killed both parents, than asked for mercy from the court because he was an orphan? It’s often cited as a way to illustrate chutzpah.

A trio of agencies this week closed in on another trio — three citizens who stand accused of defrauding Social Security. No pikers this group. They operated over eight years and are alleged to have defrauded SSA for $5 million. The Justice Department says they conspired to obtain an eventual $600 million. The investigation was carried out by the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigative Service and the Social Security Administration’s inspector general.

The Justice press release also sounds like the beginning of a joke: “A retired judge, a lawyer and a psychologist …” Only they didn’t walk into a bar, but rather into an 18-count indictment.

The retired judge charged in the case, 81-year-old David Black Daugherty, was a retired Social Security administrative law judge. According to the FBI, attorney Eric Conn had psychologist Alfred Adkins create phony disability cases for some 2,000 claimants, then steered the cases to Daugherty for decisions.

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