A disbarred attorney will spend about four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing close to $1 million owed to an ex-NYPD police officer to cover his 9/11 related medical expenses.
Gustavo Vila represented Officer John Ferreyra of Kings Park, Long Island, in his quest for money from the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
Ferreyra told the judge that Vila is a devious man and a former cop.
“He was more concerned about his well-being knowing what we had been through, knowing what I had been through and again he walked the same path I did. He was there at Ground Zero,” Ferreyra said.
Ferreyra retired from the NYPD in 2005 and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as a result of his work at Ground Zero.
The judge said Vila was in the wrong to represent Ferreyra as an attorney after being disbarred in 2015 for stealing $90,000 from another client.