Empty Mansions

my family and what kind of weather we’re having.”
    • • •
    The family was still concerned about Kamsler, who was awaiting sentencing. Bock assured them that Kamsler was never alone with Huguette. Still, the family pressed Bock to force Kamsler to resign as her accountant. Bock said Kamsler worked for Huguette, not for him.
    Kamsler reached a plea deal with the prosecutor, pleading guilty in January 2009 to a single felony: attempting to disseminate indecent material to minors. He got no jail time, five years of probation, a $5,000 fine, one hundred hours of community service, and a listing on the state’s registry of sex offenders.
    The felon was allowed to continue working as a certified public accountant. At first the judge on Long Island said in court that a felony conviction would result in the loss of Kamsler’s license. But Kamsler’s attorney said this was not a financial crime and Kamsler should be allowed to make a living. It was his first contact with the criminal justice system, and he was in treatment with a clinical social worker specializing in sex therapy. His attorney also told the judge thatit was important that Kamsler was not accused of meeting with the girls, though the record showed that Kamsler had indeed proposed such meetings. The district attorney didn’t take a position for or against Kamsler’s request, and the judge granted him a “relief from civil disabilities,” which state officials interpreted as sufficient to let him keep his CPA licenseafter he served three months of a two-year license suspension and paid a $2,500 fine.
    Kamsler’s full statement to the court, when his time came to show remorse, was simply this: “I just want to apologize to the Court, to my wife, to my family for what I have done, and the aggravation, and thank the court very much for their consideration and assistance in this.”
    A month after his plea, as the Clark relatives kept pressing Bock, Kamsler met with Huguette and gave her a letter:
    Dear Mrs. Clark: I recently visited with you and explained my legal situation concerning my pleading guilty to a single felony charge involving the use of my computer to attempt to communicate with minors, who in fact were not minors but were undercover agents. Although I do not believe that I had committed any crime, I accepted this plea in order to put this incident behind me and enable me to not have to put my family through the risks and agonies of a trial, as well as the high financial costs involved. The judge believed that this in no way should affect my ability to serve my clients and continue as a professional. He therefore granted me a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities. You have indicated that you want me to continue to serve as your accountant and representative and as one of your Executors and Trustees and in any other capacity that you decide. Please indicate your agreement by signing below
.
    Kamsler, in line for more than $3 million in fees when this elderly client died, had waited a year and five months to tell her about his arrest on sex charges, and even then his letter didn’t disclose that he had explicit sex talk with people who had told him they were underage girls, or that he’d talked with them about meeting him, or that he was charged with multiple offenses over several years, or that he was undergoing sex therapy, or that he would remain a registered sex offender.
    To pacify the relatives, Bock sent them a copy of the letter, signed by Huguette. He vigorously defended Kamsler, his co-executor of Huguette’s estate, saying the accountant “had been changed” by the therapy and was the “victim” of a sting operation, as though he had been entrapped by police into doing something he didn’t want to do.
    The relatives were less than pacified. Kamsler the victim! They discussed whether Huguette could possibly have understood what had happened,but they were stymied. They feared that Bock was failing to protect Huguette from Kamsler, but they also considered that Bock could be protecting her from change, which they thought she feared, based on their knowledge of how she dealt with Bellosguardo.
    One relative who is an attorney, half-grandnephew Paul Albert, urged the family to be cautious:
    Huguette has not asked for our intervention in her financial affairs. She has chosen to be a recluse her entire life and to cut herself off from her family. One of the foreseeable consequences was that she put herself in danger