Floral Park real estate attorney sentenced to prison for embezzling clients' money to pay for drugs, gambling addiction

A Floral Park real estate attorney was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison Wednesday for embezzling $1.7 million from at least 32 clients, including working families and a church, to fuel his drug and gambling addiction.

Terrance Dougherty, 35, a Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law graduate, admitted to the bar in 2017, pleaded guilty in September to 13 counts of grand larceny and one count of a scheme to defraud after plundering the escrow accounts of his clients between March 2021 and November 2024.

Prosecutors said the lawyer burned through most of the $1,791,600 — made up of clients’ down payments and proceeds from property sales — held in an attorney trust account in that period, spending the money on nightclubs, expensive hotels and dinners.

Over one five-day period alone, Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said, Dougherty spent $200,000 in strip clubs in the city and on Long Island. By the end of his bender, she said, there was just $5.35 left in the clients' account.

"He was living it up while his clients faced having nowhere to live," Donnelly said in a statement. "Seeing their dreams of homeownership dashed, their financial stability jeopardized, and their sense of security forever tainted. Terrance Dougherty is a disgrace to the legal profession, and he will find no luxury accommodations over the next decade in state prison."

In front of Nassau Supreme Court Justice Christopher Hoefenkrieg, Dougherty apologized to his victims and said he was determined to change his behavior.

"I’ve made it my mission to change the person that I am," he told the court, adding, "True recovery is not just staying sober but living with accountability and honesty."

For his victims, Dougherty’s personal journey was not as important as the impact of the money he stole.

"We’re here today not providing forgiveness, but looking for justice," Jason Gentile told the court on behalf of his mother, Ellen Gentile. "When I hired Terrance Dougherty as my attorney, I placed in him the trust any client should be able to place in their lawyer — that he would protect my interests, guide my home sale and uphold the law. Instead, he betrayed that trust in the most devastating way."

Ellen Gentile, in her letter to the court, said the experience has left her shaken emotionally and her trust in people has been shattered.

"This was not extra money," she said. "That money was the product of years of sacrifice and hard work, money set aside to provide stability for my family — meant for improvements to our new home, to soften the blow of the recession, and to serve as an emergency fund in uncertain times. Instead, I was forced into debt just to meet basic needs and to keep my family afloat."

She urged the judge to sentence him to more than 10 years.

Dougherty's defense attorney said her client has owned up to his crimes and wants to make things right with his former clients.

"He had said on the record that this was fueled by some of his addictions," defense attorney Karen Johnston said. "He has taken full responsibility. He did that from the beginning, and he took a plea very quickly, and as he said, he has complete remorse for his actions, and is asking the victims for forgiveness."

The judge also approved a civil judgment against Dougherty for the amount he stole, but with the 3½-to-10-year sentence, it’s unclear when he would begin to pay his victims back.

Sawatti Mohaber, a home health aide from Richmond Hill with four children, said she and her husband were set to purchase a new home when Dougherty blew through her down payment.

"I work hard for my money and then that day I lost everything," she said. "I want back my money. I work hard. Me and my husband work very, very hard."

Prosecutor Jennifer Contreras said Dougherty also defrauded Faith Way Church of Deliverance out of $50,000. The church could not be reached for comment.

Dougherty’s victims can now apply to the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, a state fund established to reimburse the victims of unscrupulous attorneys, for restitution.