Former lawyer sentenced to 7 years for embezzlement

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --A former city lawyer was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he stole $2.2 million from clients of the family law firm.

John Peck Jr., 52, entered the plea in June in Superior Court. He was also sentenced to five years probation and must pay back all of the money.

In court, the prosecutor detailed a case against a lawyer who over four years preyed upon four vulnerable people with long-standing ties to the Peck family law firm on Whitney Avenue.

The office of the chief state's attorney launched an investigation in March 2005, after an 86-year-old widow complained that Peck had kept $240,000 from the sale of her home in New Haven and kept additional money she sent him to pay down the mortgage of her new home in Woodbridge.

In January 2005, Peck's father died. Three months later, Peck gave up his law license, claiming a physical/mental disability. Peck's lawyer, William Dow, said Peck took his father's illness and death very badly.