Attorney guilty in false claim case

Further charges against her are still expected.

TOLEDO (AP) — A pregnant attorney who police said made up a story about being kidnapped and driven from Ohio to Georgia pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of making false alarms.

Authorities said Karyn McConnell Hancock, 35, who was missing for three days in December, told them a man with a gun and two others abducted her outside a juvenile court building in downtown Toledo and forced her into the back of a van. She later recanted.

McConnell Hancock’s attorney Jerry Phillips said he also expects her to be charged with theft and forgery based on accusations from former clients who say she stole money from them.

At least 10 of her former clients have come forward since her arrest, claiming that she stole money from them.

Hancock settled one claim Tuesday with a man who said she stole $128,000 from an insurance settlement. “She admitted to forging checks and receiving the funds she wasn’t entitled to,” Phillips said.

Hancock, a former city councilwoman, also met with prosecutors about the other claims of missing money and has acknowledged wrongdoing, her attorney said. Phillips said it would be wrong, though, to call her guilty because she hasn’t faced a trial.

He said he did not know what she did with the money or why she did it. “You’d have to ask Karyn that,” Phillips said. “I’m not sure what was going through her mind.”

Sentencing on the false alarms plea was scheduled for March 19 in Toledo Municipal Court. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Hancock’s husband has said she had a “meltdown” and that she was seeking treatment.

She was reported missing Dec. 5 and was found three days later after she flagged down a motorist near Six Flags in Austell, Ga. Her car was found nearby.

Hancock, seven months pregnant with her second child, appeared relaxed in court and smiled often while speaking with her attorney before the hearing.

She declined to comment afterward.

Investigators said she drove by herself to the Atlanta area in December.

She told police she was tired and wanted to get away.

Hancock’s father, C. Allen McConnell, is a Toledo Municipal Court judge, and her husband is church bishop.

Investigators have said they don’t think her husband or anyone else knew what she was doing.