Samuel Joseph “Joe” Brydon

John A. Davis let out a sigh Friday morning as deputy sheriffs led Samuel Joseph “Joe” Brydon out of a courtroom to prison.

Brydon, a once prominent Butler County attorney, stole $544,000 from three clients' estates, including that of Davis' father, also named John Davis.

Judge William Shaffer earlier this month sentenced Brydon, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of felony theft, to serve 9 to 18 months in prison, 15 years of probation and 600 hours of community service.

Brydon, 58, of Slippery Rock was to report to the county prison on Friday morning, but instead he first appeared in court where his attorney Michael Jewart of Butler made an unsuccessful eleventh hour plea to Shaffer to reconsider the prison portion of the sentence and instead assign Brydon to house arrest.

Jewart argued that justice would be better served if Brydon were on house arrest so he could work to earn $76,000 that still is owed to the Davis estate as well as repay family members who lent him money to cover the other $468,000 he took.

Alternatively, Jewart asked the judge to grant Brydon work release for 60 hours a week while he is in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia McLean opposed both ideas. She noted that Brydon's family, who reportedly lent him the money because they love him, are not victims in this case, and their interests should not be factored into the sentence.

Additionally, she argued that granting Brydon work release would be the equivalent of allowing him to return to the scene of the crime. Since he was disbarred, Brydon has been working as a paralegal for attorney Kathryn Linn-Stevenson, who took over Brydon's practice in Slippery Rock.

McLean told the judge about a telephone call she'd received earlier from one of Brydon's victims: a 67-year-old woman who had been banking on her inheritance to pay the property taxes on the home she had raised her nine children in. When Brydon stole her inheritance, the woman lost her house and the 14-acre property, McLean said.

“She said she's sad about that every day,” McLean said. “It's a life sentence.”

Davis, who attended Friday's hearing, said he learned from investigators that the portion of his father's $1 million that he'd entrusted to Brydon, $356,137, was spent by Brydon in six months.

“It was even more incredible when it was revealed he was earning $110,000 a year as the county Juvenile Court Master,” Davis said. “It was no comfort eventually to learn two other estates were involved.”

This spending, Davis said, was shocking to him as he leads a modest lifestyle: he lives in the condominium that had belonged to his parents. He drives a 2007 Honda Fit. He bought his suit for court at Target.

The inheritance that he should have split with his sister, Sally Davis of Euclid, Ohio, he said, would have gone a long way to ease his lifestyle.

Davis worked for Borders Books for 16 years until the chain closed in 2004. Since then he's been trying to get an academic librarian job more suited to his degree in library and information science.

“This is not over for me,” Davis said Friday after the court hearing.

Davis said Brydon has asked the bankruptcy court to dismiss the remaining $76,000 owed to his father's estate. However, Davis hired a lawyer to fight the move.

Brydon's attorney in court Friday, Jewart, told the judge that Brydon does not plan to ask the bankruptcy court to forgive him this particular debt. But Davis said a different lawyer represents Brydon in the bankruptcy matter and that lawyer said Brydon is trying to erase that debt.

Davis noted that Brydon did not ask the bankruptcy court to forgive him of the money he borrowed from his own relatives.

“My parents died six years ago,” Davis said. “I've been told my father's estate could have been settled in weeks. As of now, it could be another five years — or never.”