Racine woman who stole $775,000 from two dozen estates gets 21-month sentence

Kathleen Fetek, who stole more than $775,000 from clients of her father's Racine law firm, was sentenced to 21 months in prison Wednesday — a penalty that is about half the minimum recommended in federal sentencing guidelines.

"My public defender clients get a lot more time for stealing a lot less," said Jakelyn Karabetsos, who appeared at the Fetek sentencing hearing on behalf of one of the more than 100 individual victims of Fetek's scheme that ran for three years.

Fetek, 56, earlier pleaded guilty to fraud for pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars that were earmarked for the beneficiaries of about two dozen estates being administered by her father's law firm.

Fetek's father, James Fetek, was a longtime probate attorney whose health and legal skills were deteriorating in 2014 when she went to work for him. The office "was a mess," Fetek's attorney, John Campion, told U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman during the sentencing hearing. The father has since died.

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Fetek's scheme was relatively simple. Fetek "wrote checks to herself approximately 225 times over a 27-month period," federal prosecutor Richard Frohling wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "On each occasion, she had to change a payee or forge a signature, typically impersonating her mother. She cashed checks at banks, liquor stores and other locations."

To avoid detection, Fetek altered bank records, lied to beneficiaries and filed false accounting statements in probate court, Frohling, the first assistant U.S. attorney, said.

Much of the money was spent on gambling and cocaine, the lawyers said.

"She didn't seem to steal it to live lavishly," Adelman said, adding she did not "buy a yacht."

Frohling's memorandum noted that "she was at the highest tier of gamblers at the (Potawatomi) casino, receiving free food, drinks, rooms and a personal casino host." Frohling worte, "Ms Fetek's status at the casino is not surprising given that she lost over $212,000 there in 2015 and 2016 alone."

She estimated her cocaine habit cost her up to $100 a day, Frohling said.

Frohling asked that Fetek, who had no prior criminal record, be sentenced to 48 months in prison. Sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 41 months to 51 months, though Frohling noted that since 2017 Adelman's sentences fell below the guidelines 95% of the time.

About 20 victims attended the hearing and they made clear their disgust for Fetek and said she should spend significant time behind bars.

"They're not billionaires, they're not millionaires, they're everyday working people," Frohling said of Fetek's victims.

Karabetsos noted that she sometimes takes public defender cases. Often in those cases, her clients are people who, unlike Fetek, grew up in poverty and stole to survive.

Fetek, on the other hand, "stole ... to throw it away on gambling and drugs," she said.

Victoria Krocka, the niece of a woman whose estate was robbed of $300,000, lashed out at Fetek, calling her "despicable and deplorable."

"You disgust and sicken me as a human being," Krocka said.  Turning away from Adelman and pointing her finger at Fetek, who was seated in a wheelchair, Krocka exclaimed, "Who the hell do you think you are?" 

Fetek suffers from a variety of ailments, including COPD, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and recently was in a car accident that resulted in her breaking bones in an ankle, Adelman said.

Even Campion, Fetek's lawyer, acknowledged that the "victims' rage and grief is understandable" because they know their  "loved one's intentions were denied."

But, he argued, there was an "absence of malice" in Fetek's crimes because she stole because of her gambling and cocaine addictions. He asked that Fetek be sentenced to probation and — if Adelman thought prison was necessary — a six-month sentence.

"There is no doubt she has to go to prison," Adelman said. "This is just too serious of an offense."

In addition to the prison sentence, Adelman ordered that Fetek serve three years' supervision and pay $748,735 restitution. The judge, however, acknowledged that Fetek is "unlikely to make much of a dent" in the restitution.

Two of the beneficiaries have sued James Fetek's legal malpractice insurance company for repayment. The insurance agency is arguing her crimes are not covered by the policy.

In fact, the $778,000 that prosecutors say she stole may actually be light, Frohling wrote in his memorandum.

That figure covers only checks written to Fetek, Frohling wrote. "Victims have reported that cash, jewelry and personal property also went missing from inventories of decedents' home," the prosecutor wrote.    

Contact Cary Spivak at (414) 223-5467 or cspivak@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cspivak or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cary.spivak