Lawyer Placed On Probation In Estate Case

A disbarred Cherry Hill lawyer was sentenced to five years of probation yesterday on a charge of misusing more than $100,000 from the estate of his late brother.

Camden Superior Court Judge Mary Ellen Talbott also ordered the disbarred lawyer, Paul S. Slotkin, to perform 300 hours of community service and pay an undetermined amount of restitution.

Slotkin pleaded guilty last month to misapplication of entrusted property for misusing funds from the estate of his brother Barney Slotkin, who died in 1979. Slotkin was the trustee of a fund set up to benefit his brother's children, Jill and Neal, now teenagers.

Deputy Attorney General Mark P. Cronin said Paul Slotkin admitted using the money in the trust fund "as his own." Some of the funds were lost in bad loans to borrowers who signed notes payable to Slotkin, Cronin said.

Cronin said Slotkin would be responsible for paying restitution for any losses not covered by a surety bond covering the trust fund.

Slotkin was acquitted in 1982 of charges that he conspired with Superior Court Judge Peter J. Coruzzi to solicit a bribe from the father of a Woodbury man facing drug charges. The money was never paid, and the defendant received a three-year prison sentence.

Cronin said Slotkin had been disbarred after the indictment.

Coruzzi was convicted of four counts of bribery, conspiracy and official misconduct in connection with three sentence-fixing schemes.