BATMAN v SUPERMAN

BREAKING:

President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden this morning and announced his choice ..... Kansas .... as the winner of his NCAA BB tournament bracket.  In other news, he also introduced Judge Merrick Garland, Chief of the DC Circuit, as his nominee to the Supreme Court.  Garland won confirmation from the Senate in 1997 to his current seat by a vote of 99-0 (with Marco Rubio the lone missing vote).*


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

CRIMINAL ATTORNEYS IN CIVIL COURT ... WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO ???

In the new movie Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne - better known under his nom de guerre, Batman, embarks on a personal vendetta against Superman.

In civil court last week, it was two heavyweight criminal defense attorneys battling it out in front of Judge Peter Lopez over a civil complaint filed in 2012.

The two combatants in this case were attorneys Nathan Diamond and Stephen Rosen and their dispute goes back 11 years. The jury spoke last week when they awarded at least $800,000 to Diamond for fraud, breach of contract and conspiracy. With punitive damages and interest, the award could reach $2 million dollars.

Intrepid reporter Julie Kay covers it all in a DBR article that can be found here. According to Kay, "The complex complaint filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in 2012 alleged Rosen hatched a scheme to get his legal fees paid through the sale of a multimillion-dollar piece of Florida Keys real estate owned by his client. However, Diamond alleged he was left out of the deal and got cheated out of most of the money."

The criminal case began when Rosen was hired by criminal defendant Liens Abreu, who was charged with first degree murder in 2005. Abreu had hatched a plot to have her children’s father and two other men killed in a $200,000 home invasion robbery. Among those also arrested and charged with murder was criminal defendant Ruben Gonzalez. Rosen asked Diamond to come into the case as Gonzalez’s attorney. Both attorneys were contracted to receive $1 million each.

The source of the money to pay the legal fees was a five acre property owned by Abreu, located in the Florida Keys, that was worth an estimated $5-7 million dollars. According to the civil complaint, to induce Diamond to represent Gonzalez, Rosen had a real estate attorney prepare mortgages for both of them, with Diamond receiving an enforceable first mortgage on the property.

Well, Diamond never received the promised first mortgage and never was paid the promised $1 million fee. Instead, he was paid $200,000 from Rosen's trust account toward his fee. Rosen advised Diamond "that a little issue had arisen on the property" based on the recording of the deed.

In the criminal case, Ruben Gonzalez, the shooter, pleaded guilty in 2010 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Liens Abreu pled guilty and received a five-year sentence.

In the civil case, jurors return on April 11^th to consider punitive damages.

*(Actually the vote was 76-23).

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com