HUNTINGTON — A former Social Security judge who was serving prison time for his connection with former attorney Eric Conn has died in a Kentucky prison.
David Daugherty was serving a four-year prison term. He was incarcerated at Federal Medical Center through the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), according to the BOP's inmate locator. Daugherty was 83 at the time of his death Oct. 19.
Daugherty approved at least 3,149 disability cases filed by Conn between 2004 and 2011. More than 1,700 have been deemed fraudulent by government investigators.
Daugherty had admitted to getting more than $600,000 in bribes through a scheme and was ordered to repay that amount.
A federal judge sentenced Daugherty to a four-year sentence in August 2017. He was also ordered to pay nearly $95 million in restitution to several government agencies for the scam. He was supposed to serve a year of supervised release upon his release from prison and do 200 hours of community service.
Former administrative law judge Charlie Paul Andrus was sentenced to six months in federal prison for the role he played in July 2017.
Conn and Daugherty were accused of colluding to obtain nearly $600 million in federal disability payments for thousands of claimants.
Authorities discovered Conn had been bribing a doctor and Daugherty to approve disability claims based on fake medical evidence.
Conn pleaded guilty in March 2017 to stealing from the federal government and bribing the judge. He fled custody in June 2017 but was captured in December 2017 in Honduras. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Conn claimed Daugherty was the one who started the scam. Daugherty admitted in a plea that he received $10,000 monthly from Conn for his role in the scheme.
Daugherty was disbarred in 2014 after the Lawyer Disciplinary Board filed a complaint against him.
