A Fayette County lawyer who previously served as an assistant district attorney and solicitor is accused in federal court of misusing client funds.

John William “JW” Eddy, 39, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He is expected to plead guilty, according to the agreement entered on his docket sheet, and the amount of loss attributable to his actions is $242,975.

Eddy also is the subject of a three-year suspension from his law practice, retroactive to September 2019.

The plea agreement, dated Jan. 6, calls for him to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. There is no set sentence, but Eddy will receive an enhancement for abusing a position of trust.

According to the criminal information filed in the case, Eddy was admitted to practice law in 2008 and served as an assistant district attorney in Fayette County, as solicitor for the city of Uniontown and ran his own private practice, Eddy Law Office.

As part of that practice, Eddy was required to maintain a trust account for client funds, which was to be used to collect proceeds from legal settlements, and to disperse fees for services and clients.

However, according to the criminal information filed against him, from June 2016 to early 2020, Eddy misused the trust account. It was out of balance from May 2017 until early 2020 “because he misappropriated for personal use client funds that had been entrusted to him,” the information said.

The deficit in May 2017 was $6,000, the filing said, but continued to grow steadily because of additional misuse.

While the criminal information shows the total amount misused was nearly $243,000, none of his clients lost money. Instead, Eddy received a series of personal loans to repay clients whose funds he had misappropriated, the document shows.

According to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eddy’s law license was suspended on June 4, retroactive to September 2019.

According to the board’s recommendation and report, Eddy has a history of depression but stopped receiving treatment and taking medication when his doctor retired in 2012, which he “testified was ‘the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.’”

Then, in 2015, he developed a substance abuse problem, starting with prescription medication he received after surgery, the report said. By 2017, Eddy had moved from Vicodin to heroin and cocaine and was using on a daily basis, the board said.

From 2017 to 2019, Eddy was occasionally treated for narcotics withdrawal and mental health issues, including several hospital admissions, but never achieved complete sobriety, the report said. During that time, the report continued, Eddy said he became careless with his trust account and client funds and allowed his records to fall into disarray.

He was arrested by the state police in June 2019 on charges of drug possession and driving under the influence, police said.

During his testimony with the board, Eddy said he has been sober since October 2019, following hospitalization and in-patient treatment.

“(Eddy) expressed sincere and genuine remorse and was upset, embarrassed and ashamed of his misconduct,” the board wrote.

The board said Eddy had no prior history of discipline and is a third-generation lawyer; his mother is Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Vernon and his father, John D. Eddy, practices in Pittsburgh.

No date is yet scheduled for his plea hearing. His attorney, Steve Townsend, declined to comment.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)