Scam artist strong armed Attorney
I was arrested. The next day I bailed out ($5k), My wife had called several attorneys. Upon release we went directly to see one.
He seemed interested and asked all kinds of questions. He Told us that he has 2 options for retainer/fees payments. One is by the hour @$200 the other is a flat fee of $5000.00 that will cover everthing except a private investagator up and through pre-trial.
My wife is an x para legal. She said there's alot of work involved in pre trail. (An adult female falsily alleges I attacked her- charges fall under a measure 11) The attorney confidently told us after I explained exactly what took place that Measure 11 didn't apply.
We obtained the $5k. The typed aggreement said $5k covers to pleading. I questioned it. He said don't worry He'll take us through pretrial and to trail the we can go from there.
We provided him with a detailed written statement. That exlplained times positions of peoples bodies. Subject topic, our histories. Everthing we could think of to show that her accsations are false and her brief statement was a lie. The day of pleading arrives- At his office he says did you get the offer I said No what offer ( I had told already that I would not plea bargin to this as I didn't do it and the ramifications from it) So he brings out a letter that is from his office dated 2 weeks ealier which he highly recommends the offer. (We still have not recieved the mailing) I said No. He got a liitle upset.
We plead Not Guilty. Trail is set for june 20. Asked how long we need he says 2 days- The judges looks up suprised and then asked the Da they say 4 days the judge aggrees.
I've been researching. Find all kinds of discoveries and motions that we could be filing. At this point we have no defense set up that I'm aware. I write him a letter explaining my concern outline some discovery that we should we looking at and request an apppintment.
The next day at the appointment. I explain that I feel we have no defense (meaning we're not working on it) He says thats why I said to take the offer. In reality we have all kinds of defense. So the we start to go over the list. He shoots down everything from obtaing copies of the polivce investigation and recordings of her interview saying the ploice don't record or take written statements. They recorded my interview I said. Thats because your accussed he said. HUH? So I started asking him some questions about what I had written . To see if he had read it. He hadn't. Then he says it sounds like you want another opinion. I said what about pretrial.
He said we're going straight to trial. I said if I get another attorney how much will you give me back. Nothing he says. I said so your just going to rip me off. He jumped up yelling at me ( Ithought he was going to hit me) to get out of his office, he quit he says. I jumped out of my chair away from him and your fired. He then moving aggressively toward me chased me out of his office into the parking lot, yelling get out of my parking lot. Scared the crap out of me. Then I thought he might call someone and tell them i was a flight risk and have my bail revolked.
He is an x DA :twisted: . so anything is possible. Bottom line is he took my money and was sending me to prison. Never had any intension of defending me. My new lawyer would rather focus on my case which is what I prefer. He did say for the amount of work done I over paid him.
What can I do? This guy should be in jail, shouldn't he? What he did was extortion and the strong armed me. About 2 weeks have past and it still gives me that shakey feeling when I think about that day.
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