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First Posted: 3/20/2013 SCRANTON &#8212; A federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion to allow a former title search company owner who stole $2.3 million from clients to appeal her 55-month prison sentence.
Elizabeth Sichler, formerly of Harveys Lake, filed court papers in March 2012 seeking to vacate her sentence partially based on allegations her attorney, Marc Neff of Philadelphia, provided ineffective assistance of counsel because he did not follow her directive to appeal her sentence, which also included paying restitution of more than $2.3 million.
Sichler pleaded guilty in October 2010 to one count of wire fraud for embezzling from 92 clients who had deposited money in the escrow account of her Kingston title search firm, Priority Search.
U.S. District Judge William J. Nealon in January ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine if Neff failed to follow a directive from his client to file an appeal.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Blewitt determined that Neff was the more credible witness at the evidentiary hearing, and that Sichler told Neff she wanted to file an appeal but never &#8220;directed&#8221; him to do so after Neff told her he thought the appeal would have no merit.

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