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Former lawyer gets prison time after posing as BigLaw alum, former football player in quest for jobs

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 07:19:39 +0000

Criminal Justice

Former lawyer gets prison time after posing as BigLaw alum, former football player in quest for jobs

March 13, 2025, 9:00 am CDT

(Image from Shutterstock)

Updated: An Ohio lawyer has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for Social Security fraud after using fake identities in a quest for law firm jobs.

Richard Louis Crosby III, 37, of Mason, Ohio, was sentenced Monday, according to Reuters and a March 10 press release. In addition to serving time in prison, Crosby will have to pay $171,000 in restitution to defrauded firms.

Crosby had used the name Richard Williams while applying to firms and claimed at various times to be a former Marine, a former University of Michigan football player and a Kirkland & Ellis lawyer, according to the press release.

He used fake identities to get job offers with at least seven firms that often offered six-figure salaries and, in some cases, signing bonuses, the press release said. One California firm hired Crosby at an annual salary of $250,000 the month before his federal indictment.

Crosby pleaded guilty to three federal counts of Social Security fraud in July 2024. He had used identifying information for his elderly father, his girlfriend, a dead man and others, federal prosecutors said.

Crosby used the fake identities beginning in June 2021, after he indicated that he intended to resign from the practice of law. Crosby was indicted in the state on theft charges in June 2021 and November 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. “After his indictments, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio entered an order disbarring Crosby,” the news release states. However, he applied at a second firm in June 2022.

The Supreme Court of Ohio’s directory still lists Crosby as “Resigned-Discipline Pending,” and an employee in the clerk’s office confirmed that he has not been disbarred by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

He pleaded guilty in the Ohio theft cases in May 2023 and was sentenced to probation the next month.

Updated on March 14 to note that while the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio refers to him as disbarred, the Supreme Court Of Ohio Attorney Directory refers to him as resigned with discipline pending.

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Football coach, wife busted in sex abuse ring learn fate

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 12:42:03 +0000

Left: Emily Brinley; Right: Benjamin Coney appear in booking photos. (Benton County Sheriff’s Office)

An Arkansas football coach and his wife who were busted in an online child sex abuse sting operation after trying to meet with an extremely young child for sex have learned how they will spend the next decade and beyond: behind bars.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Benjamin Coney, 30, and Emily “Grace” Brinley, 26, were accused of one count each of internet stalking of a minor and conspiracy to commit rape, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime. Coney had once worked as a minor league football coach in Little Rock — until the “To Catch a Predator”-like sting operation.

Federal authorities have announced that they have been sentenced to a combined 378 months in prison without the possibility of parole. Coney was sentenced to more than 17 years — 210 months — behind bars, followed by 25 years of supervision, and Brinley was sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervision. They were sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks, a Barack Obama appointee.

According to local CBS affiliate KFSM, Coney and Brinley aren’t done with criminal proceedings: they are also facing state charges.

According to court records, Coney faces charges of conspiracy to commit rape, internet stalking of a child, and 30 counts of distributing, possessing, or viewing child sex abuse material, KFSM reported. His next hearing is set for Tuesday. Brinley, meanwhile, faces charges of conspiracy to commit rape and internet stalking of a child, and her next hearing is set for Feb. 6, 2025.

According to redacted affidavits of probable cause filed in Benton County, the investigation began on Nov. 19, 2023, after an undercover detective received a direct message on an unidentified social media platform from someone with the username “centralsfinest.” Law enforcement allege the username belongs to both Coney and Brinley.

“I’m into some very f—-d-up, sick taboos,” one of those alleged messages reads. “Do you have any [redacted]?”

To which the detective is said to have replied: “I do … Watch yourself … you’ll get banned on here.”

Then, the couple allegedly suggested the conversation continue on an encrypted messaging service. On Nov. 27, 2023, the messaging continued, encrypted, and the couple allegedly explained they preferred a certain “age range” and identified an unknown number as “the perfect age,” according to the affidavit. The probable cause documents go on to reference additional messages that include increasingly graphic and detailed child sexual abuse.

The affidavits also allege that Coney and Brinley provided verification photographs of themselves as requested by the undercover officer — including one photograph with Brinley exposing one of her breasts, which the detective wrote, was not requested.

The couple was nabbed by law enforcement after agreeing to meet with the undercover detective.

In separate interviews, the husband and wife allegedly admitted to varying degrees of culpability.

According to the affidavit, Coney confessed that investigators “would located child sexual abuse material on his devices.” The male defendant allegedly suggested that while “he could talk a big game on the phone, he did not think he would actually do anything in real life” and repeatedly said he changed his mind. When pressed by the detective about specific alleged comments regarding the children he believed to be at the location, Coney allegedly replied that his wife wouldn’t have done anything without him.

Brinley allegedly confirmed her role was secondary.

“Grace stated that she was just trying to be a good wife, and that she was not interested in children,” the affidavits read. “Grace said that she went along with Ben and repeated stuff she heard Ben say.”

The female defendant went on to say that she just wanted to make her husband happy and suggested she was uncomfortable with how “sketchy” the meeting was.

As for Coney’s time as a football coach, that’s all over now.

“We are aware of the situation involving Ben Coney and have terminated his employment with the team,” the Punishers wrote in a post on X following his arrest in December 2023. “We do not support or allow his actions at all.”

Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.

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NFL quarterback Prescott denies sex assault claim in lawsuit

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 19:32:31 +0000

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) throws a pass against the Green Bay Packers during an NFL wild-card playoff football game, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Paul Jasienski via AP)

A woman in Texas has been sued in civil court by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott after the famous football star claimed the defendant and her lawyers are attempting to extort him with false accusations that he sexually assaulted her six years ago.

The 14-page complaint, filed in Collin County, Texas, against resident Victoria Baileigh Shores and her attorneys Bethel Zehaie and Yoel Zehaie slams a letter they sent to him in January.

In the letter, which is attached to the civil lawsuit filed Monday, Shores alleged that she and Prescott became acquainted through the social media app Snapchat and that he “invited her to hang out” in February 2017 along with members of his “entourage” and a few other “additional female friends.”

Shores said it was during this encounter that Prescott first got into a black SUV with her and other members of his crew.

Then, her attorneys wrote on Jan. 16:

You directed Ms. Shores to the further back row so you could all head to [redacted]. On the ride to [redacted], you exposed your genitalia. Ms. Shores did not want to engage in sexual intercourse and made sure to verbalize these wishes.

Afterwards, the car came to a stop at your destination. Once this occurred, everyone got out the car except you, and you further signaled to one of your entourage members to leave you and Ms. Shores alone.

It was at this point that Shores alleges Prescott “used physical force and sexually assaulted her … by penetrating her vagina against her consent.”

While Shores says this has caused her has years of mental anguish, Prescott’s lawyer contends the allegations are nothing more than an extortion and defamation scheme by Shores and her attorneys that seeks to drain their client of $100 million “at the height of Mr. Prescott’s success.”

“This case arises out of a blatant attempt by Victoria Shores and her legal team to extort Plaintiff Dak Prescott by weaponizing patently false, yet heinous sexual assault allegations with no basis in reality,” the lawsuit states.

“Defendants and her legal team have unleashed a campaign of extortion and defamation, threatening to go public with a completely fabricated story of sexual assault from nearly a decade ago and demanding that Mr. Prescott immediately pay $100,000,000, in exchange for her silence. Defendants’ horrible lies not only threaten to destroy the legitimate legacy of a great man and cost him tens of millions of dollars, but Defendants’ conduct is criminal,” wrote attorney Levi McCathern II.

Prescott said he has reported Shores and her lawyers to the “appropriate authorities.”

“To be clear, Mr. Prescott has never engaged in any nonconsensual behavior with anyone,” McCathern wrote Monday.

At the time of the alleged assault in 2017, Prescott was at the “end of [his] rookie season … single, and in fact, the timeline of events and Defendant Shores’ actions in the seven years since the alleged assault are consistent with being involved with only consensual actions with Mr. Prescott.” [Emphasis original]

Dallas NBC affiliate KXAS reported Monday that Shores’ lawyers responded sharply, calling Prescott a “liar and a rapist” and saying that he had met Shores outside of the XTC Cabaret in Dallas. She was not employed there, her attorneys said.

Prescott’s lawyers say after the quarterback received the letter from Bethel Zehaie and Yoel Zehaie, he had his attorneys call them, believing that “surely” they were not engaging in a blatant extortion scheme. But once on that call, McCathern said the motive was revealed: Shores’ attorneys allegedly told him that they knew all civil avenues had expired. They threatened to go public with the sexual assault story and forgo criminal charges altogether, however, if he paid up.

Meanwhile, Bethel Zehaie claims that Prescott said he knew Shores and that he was “with her the same night she was sexually assaulted” and that at no time prior to this lawsuit had he denied this incident.

“The lawsuit is frivolous and is filed as a bully tactic. Levi McCathern is using the typical victim blaming and victim shaming techniques. We stand on the truth that my client was sexually assaulted by Dak Prescott. We are not afraid of Dak or his legal team. We will be fighting back,” Bethel Zahaie told Law&Crime in an email Tuesday.

Denying any and all wrongdoing, Prescott’s lawsuit notes that he is “committed to donating any and all recovery obtained as a result of this lawsuit to the Joyful Heart Foundation, whose vision is a world free of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.”

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