DEL NORTE — Visiting Judge Scott Epstein Oct. 16 sentenced former attorney Alex Frank Gallegos, 57, of South Fork, to two years in prison for felony theft related to a trust account for which he had responsibility .

The judge ordered Gallegos to pay $506,593 restitution to the William H. Sherman Revocable Trust.

Gallegos was arrested in May following an investigation into the trust fund account and the allegation that he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the trust between February and November of 2008.

Gallegos bonded out shortly afterward and remained on bond until his sentencing on Friday.

Sherman died in an automobile accident on Jan. 20, 2008, naming Gallegos as executor of his estate. Rio Grande Hospital was the sole beneficiary of the trust, which had an approximate cumulative value of more than $1 million at the time of his death, At the time investigations began the hospital had received nothing while Gallegos had been drawing funds from the various trust accounts since shortly after Sherman’s death.

Gallegos was the personal representative and trustee of the estate until the court replaced him in January.

In April, the Colorado Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Gallegos from practicing law in Colorado. He had been admitted to the Colorado Bar since 1994.

Gallegos could have been sentenced to up to six years in prison, but the judge considered his reportedly failing health in deciding on a two-year sentence, Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Rieman said following the sentencing.

Rieman said Gallegos is very ill and Gallegos’ attorney asked the judge for unsupervised probation, given his medical condition.



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