Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita, III announced that 45 year old former attorney, David Widenor, of 446 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo, pleaded guilty, as charged, to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree before Erie County Court Judge Michael Pietruszka.  This was the highest charge for which the defendant could have been convicted had he gone to trial.  In other words, Widenor did not receive a so-called “plea bargain” and was  prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

Widenor admitted that on February 20, 2009, and in connection with a civil matter, he received approximately $207,000 which he was to hold in his escrow account pending a resolution of that matter.  Widenor instead spent that money for family trips to Disney World and to pay off personal loans  -  completing the spending of this money on December 31, 2011. 

Widenor faces a maximum prison term of five to fifteen years in state prison in connection with today’s plea when he is sentenced on September 18, 2014.

Today’s plea is in addition to Widenor’s previous guilty plea on April 15, 2014 as to which he is also awaiting sentence.  That plea related to a separate theft by Widenor of approximately $18,500 from his escrow account  -  these monies belonging to someone other than the complainant in today’s plea.   Widenor faces a possible additional 2-1/3 to 7 years in state prison in connection with this earlier plea.   Sentencing in this matter also is scheduled for September 18, 2014.

The cases were successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Brian P. Dassero who is assigned to DA Sedita’s Financial Crimes Bureau.