Police: Arrested Longwood lawyer sent taunting texts to former client
By Jeff Weiner and Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel

A Longwood lawyer arrested on charges of burglarizing the home of a former client taunted his victim with several text messages threatening “all out war,” according to a Lake Mary police report released Friday.

Albert E. Ford II, 43, who specializes in environmental and land-use issues, and Kasee Singh, who has owned realty, development and title companies, were locked in a dispute over fees, documents show.

Singh filed a complaint in April with The Florida Bar. The group on July 13 informed Singh that his complaint was being dismissed because Ford’s fees were not excessive or fraudulent. The Bar told Singh he was free to sue Ford if he wanted to pursue the matter.

Messages left for Singh were not returned. Ford’s attorney could not be immediately reached.

Among the Bar documents released Friday was a Feb. 25 e-mail to Ford from Singh demanding payment and stating that his “former friend” owed more than $20,000.

“Well, you, sir, have proven to be a no good liar and I will be compensated for my work one way or another,” Ford wrote, adding he would win a lawsuit against Singh so “the entire community knows what a sleazy, no good, deceitful jerk that you are.”

Ford remained in the Seminole County Jail late Friday on charges of armed burglary to a dwelling, grand theft, burglary to an occupied dwelling and damaging property-criminal mischief.

Police say Ford is the man shown on security video burglarizing Singh’s Lake Mary house Wednesday. He was arrested Thursday at his home, also in Lake Mary.

The armed burglary charge apparently was lodged after Singh told police that he found ammunition and gun parts near his garage. They were taken into evidence.

Singh told officers he arrived home from work to find damage to his house and pool. He also showed police several messages in which Ford offered a “last warning” and referred to Singh as a “weak puppy,” the police report shows.

“I declare all out war against you,” wrote Ford in the first message, received by Singh at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to the report. “I warned you against trying to go after my livelihood. This is your last warning.”

In two other messages in the report received minutes after the incident, Ford asks Singh, “Why are you so weak” and taunts, “What’s up weak puppy.”

Video and still photos released by police show a man driving up to Singh’s house in a black pickup at 5:19 p.m. Wednesday, going to the front door, then walking around back and entering a pool enclosure.

Police say Ford broke the front doorbell, kicked a concrete bench into the pool and removed a pool tank and filter and canister on the side of the house near the pool. The filter and canister were found nearby.

In the video, the man, who was accompanied by a black dog — possibly a Labrador retriever — jiggles a large American flag in front of the house till it dislodges from its holder. He tosses the flag into the bed of his truck along with the tank and filter, then drives off with the dog in the pickup bed, too.

Singh showed police three .380-caliber rounds and pieces of a gun he said he found near his garage along with broken glass from a shattered light, the report says. Before he was arrested, the report states, assistants at Ford’s law firm told authorities that Ford often carried a gun.

Ford graduated from Tulane University Law School in 1995 and was admitted to The Florida Bar the same year. The Bar website has no record of discipline against him during the past 10 years.

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St. Louis Park attorney arrested in sex sting
By ANTHONY LONETREE

A St. Louis Park attorney is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County District Court Tuesday — accused of trying to arrange through an escort service to pay for sex with an underage girl.

But the escort service operator turned out to be a police informant and the “15-year-old” with whom the attorney was to have sex with last Friday was an undercover officer, according to a complaint filed Monday against Ian Laurie, 42.

Laurie, who lives in Maple Grove and who as an attorney specializes in employment law, is charged with the attempted solicitation of a child to engage in sexual conduct, a felony.

According to the complaint:

The informant told police last Thursday that Laurie had contacted him repeatedly over the past few months, “asking him to find a juvenile female for him to have sex with.” He added that he’d offered to set up Laurie with an 18-year-old, but that Laurie declined, saying the girl should be under 16.

Last Thursday, the informant contacted Laurie, saying that he had located a 15-year-old female, and that for a $185 fee, Laurie could have “full sex service.” But the escort service operator had found no such girl, and immediately after the two spoke, he called police.

On Friday, Laurie and the informant agreed to a reduced price of $100 after Laurie indicated that $185 “might be a problem.” During the subsequent meeting with the undercover officer, Laurie asked if she was 15, and after she said she was, he left but said he’d return in 10 minutes — hoping that by then the escort service operator would show up, too.

Instead, officers found Laurie at his office, and they arrested him, the complaint said. Bail was set at $75,000.

Would You Wear This To Work?

Disbarred Attorney Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Elderly Clients
Defendant Diverted Over $4.3 Million of Clients’ Trust Money for His Own Use
July 7, 2010

ATLANTA—M. DEWEY BAIN, 59, of Sugar Hill, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. to serve over five years in federal prison for defrauding his clients of over $4.3 million in trust funds that he had misrepresented were in safe investments earning good returns but which in fact he had stolen.

United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of the case, “This defendant, an attorney formerly licensed in Georgia and Texas, entered into trust agreements with elderly victims, told them that he was placing their money in safe investments, and then lost it all—over $4.3 million in retirement savings and inheritance money—after diverting it to his own personal and business use. His shameful abuse of trust has now landed him in federal prison.”

Reginald G. Moore, United States Secret Service Special Agent in Charge, said, “The Secret Service takes an aggressive approach to the prevention and investigation of con artists who prey upon innocent victims by promising future large financial gain for a small initial investment. This case demonstrates the wide-reaching effects of bogus financial and real estate schemes, the impact on innocent victims, and the importance of cooperation among our law enforcement partners.”

BAIN was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $4,354,000 in restitution to his victims. BAIN pleaded guilty to the charge of wire fraud on April 6, 2010. BAIN was disbarred in Georgia in October 2009.

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: Between May 2006 and March 2009, BAIN, an attorney formerly licensed in Georgia and Texas, stole over $4.3 million of his clients’ money based on a fraudulent trust scheme. He entered into trust agreements with the defrauded clients, many of whom were elderly, and agreed to act as their financial advisor and invest their retirement savings and inheritances in safe accounts, such as certificates of deposit and loans to third parties that were allegedly secured by real estate and other valuable property. During the scheme, however, BAIN diverted their money to pay for his own personal expenses and, without their permission, used it to support his business interests. His business, “DnC Multimedia Corp.,” formerly known as “PlanetLink Communications, Inc.,” later filed for bankruptcy. Through early 2009, BAIN falsely assured his victims that their trust accounts were earning good interest based on the investments, when in fact the accounts had no value by at least February 2009.

As an example, under one of the trust agreements, BAIN originally invested the money of an elderly victim in certificates of deposit and paid her personal expenses out of the trust. He later liquidated the certificates based on false pretenses and moved the money to a bank account in his name. He then used the money in his business, even though she had specifically refused to permit such an investment because it was too risky. He also wrote checks off of her credit card account without her authorization. As the result of BAIN’s fraud, this victim lost nearly $1 million and was no longer able to pay for her assisted living residence. She traveled from another state with family and addressed the court at today’s sentencing.

This case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service and by detectives with the Topeka, Kansas Police Department, with the assistance of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Kansas. The case was referred for criminal prosecution by the Office of the U.S. Trustee in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as by the Atlanta Division Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Assistant United States Attorney Stephen H. McClain prosecuted the case.

For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, United States Attorney, or Charysse L. Alexander, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.justice.gov/usao/gan.

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Browse Our Professional Women’s Wardrobe For What To Wear To Work

An attorney who groped the breast and buttocks of his opposing counsel at a downtown Portland office party pleaded guilty to harassment and was ordered to write an apology letter.

A judge also sentenced Jack Levy to two years of probation, to stay away from his victim and attend a class about “gender issues” and professionalism. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jean Maurer told the 42-year-old that his behavior was “offensive and degrading.”

“To say I’m disheartened would understate it considerably,” Maurer said during Friday’s hearing.

Levy admitted committing a Class A misdemeanor for subjecting the woman to “offensive physical conduct” by touching intimate parts of her body. Levy’s sentence is typical for someone with no criminal history.

The victim, a construction-defect attorney, complained to the Oregon State Bar and later to Portland police about the incidents that unfolded March 4, during a 10th anniversary party for the Aldrich law office, another firm that takes on construction-defect cases. The woman said Levy, a partner at Smith Freed & Eberhard PC, started making sexually charged comments about her within earshot. She left the room, only to have Levy “firmly grab my butt” in the hallway, she wrote in a complaint.

The woman told Levy she was sure her husband wouldn’t appreciate that, then continued walking. A while later, the woman said Levy walked across a room toward her, suddenly hugged her. His hand “moved up to grab my breast from underneath. I was appalled and jumped.”

Levy followed up by asking her crude questions about what sexual activity she might engage in with her husband that night, she wrote.

The bar is investigating Levy’s actions. If he is found to have committed misconduct, he could face a public reprimand, suspension or disbarment.

In a letter this week, Levy’s attorney, Wayne Mackeson, said his client’s behavior was “crude and boorish” but doesn’t warrant professional disciplinary action. Mackeson also said that Levy didn’t intend to gain an unfair advantage in the dispute he and the woman were working on.

The woman has said she believed Levy groped her as a “strategic maneuver” to unsettle her in the case. At the time of the complaint, the woman was the attorney for property owners in a case seeking $4.3 million in damages, plus attorney fees and costs, against a developer represented by Levy.

During Friday’s hearing, the woman sat silently next to her husband as prosecutor Don Rees read aloud a five-page letter she’d written. She said she’d gotten little sleep the night of the incident as her mind replayed the events. “Even though intellectually I knew I had done nothing to encourage his conduct, I still felt ashamed.”

The next morning, as she prepared herself to confront Levy at a pre-scheduled meeting, her “stomach was in knots” and her body shook. She said she reported Levy to the bar and later police even though she feared doing so.

“I worried that if I reported the crime, people wouldn’t believe me, would blame me, would think less of me, and that my career would be ruined,” she wrote. “I worried that if I didn’t report the crime, he would do this to other women, that he would be further emboldened in the future, that he would continue to try to bully me, that others would see me as weak.”

Mackeson said his client intended to learn from his actions.

Then Levy, wearing a navy suit and speaking in a soft voice, apologized.

“I was wrong in my conduct,” he said Friday. “I deeply regret it and don’t want to cause any more embarrassment for (the woman) or her family.”

Credit:
Aimee Green, The Oregonian
Portland attorney convicted of groping another attorney
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In the original story, the Oregon State Bar “initially declined the complaint but revived it after the complainant alerted police. The bar will examine Levy’s fitness as a lawyer considering the alleged criminal assault, and if Levy used intimidation to gain an advantage in a pending case, state bar records show.”

Hmmm. Why did they decline the complaint in the first place?