As I have previously discussed, John Karoly Jr. was indicted with fraudulently creating a will for his brother Peter Karoly. His eldest son J.P. Karoly and Dr. John Shane were also indicted because they were the witnesses to the allegedly forged will. He would later plead guilty to charges of tax evasion so that the charges against his brother and Shane would be dropped. Karoly Jr. was sentenced to 6.5 years in a federal penitentiary. As for the wills, a lower court judge found the wills to be authentic. On appeal, President Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden affirmed the ruling of the lower court and found that Karoly’s sisters “failed to establish ‘by clear, direct, precise, and convincing evidence’ that the 2006 wills were ‘forged and therefore invalid.'”
See Peter Hall, Northampton County Judge Upholds Karoly Wills, The Morning Call, Apr. 5, 2013.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
