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Lawyer on the Lam Spotted in New Mexico

By William Vogeler, Esq. on July 20, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Attorney Eric Conn, awaiting his sentence for a $550 million disability fraud scheme, was not about to trade in his pinstripes for prison stripes.

Before he got to the courthouse, he cut-off his ankle monitor and kept on driving. He had planned it long before authorities figured out he was cheating the system.

"In fairness to the FBI I had a year to plan for this," he said in a fax two weeks later.

Con's Plan

After Conn was arrested, the FBI had asked the judge not to let him out of custody. They said the attorney told employees at his law firm that he would flee rather than go to jail.

But Conn, who pled guilty to submitting false disability claims and bribing a judge, asked for home detention. The court set bail at $1.5 million and ordered an ankle monitor, pending sentencing.

When Conn fled, it was no surprise to those who knew him best but a big surprise to those who knew only his public persona. Everybody in Lexington, Kentucky, knew him as that flamboyant lawyer who drove a Rolls Royce and hired sexy models for his television commercials.

"He's not one to walk away from a fight," the narrator says in one of Conn's videos.

Where's Eric?

Conn has been on the run since June 2. He left a trail, but authorities believe it is a fake.

The FBI said he started out in a truck, which was abandoned near a Mexico border. He emailed a local newspaper that he flew out of the country using a fake passport.

But surveillance videos showed him at two stores in New Mexico the next day. In one photo, he appears to be leaving a Walmart with a bicycle.

Meanwhile, the judge sentenced Conn in absentia to the maximum 12 years. According to Scott White, his attorney, Conn faces more serious time now.

"If I was Eric, I would not want to be caught," White said.

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