A remorseful disbarred lawyer from Niagara County admitted to a gambling addiction Tuesday when he was sentenced in Erie County Court for stealing almost $34,000 from a client’s estate.
Judge Sheila A. DiTullio ordered David R. Schnell, 53, of North Tonawanda, to repay the $33,937 and serve six months in jail and five years on probation for stealing the money from the estate.
“I’m extremely sorry and remorseful for my actions," Schnell told the judge. “My clients put their trust in me, and I [betrayed] that trust.”
The defendant, who previously had pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny, also apologized both to his own family and to other attorneys for his actions.
His attorney, Joel L. Daniels, told the court that Schnell makes no excuses for what happened and blames no one but himself. “The lure of those casinos, Judge," Daniels told DiTullio. “You go there enough, and it becomes an addiction.”
Schnell currently is serving two consecutive one-year sentences in Niagara County, after pleading guilty to grand larceny for thefts from other estates there.
Saying she’s deeply bothered by legal professionals taking money from clients, DiTullio said she is most concerned about ensuring that Schnell make full restitution to the state Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.
That fund is in the process of paying the victims in the Erie County case, said John C. Doscher, who heads the district attorney’s Special Investigations Bureau. But fund officials are asking to be reimbursed for their payment. “You admit to taking the money, you’re remorseful, and you admit to a gambling addiction,” DiTullio told the defendant.
The sentence includes six months in jail concurrent with Schnell’s Niagara County term.
Schnell was ordered to pay the full amount back over 10 years, at $282.81 per month.

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