California Attorney Admits Breaking Into Foreclosed Clients' Former Homes On Their Behalf At Least A Half Dozen Times In Squatting Protest

In Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reports:

• Jim and Danielle Earl had fallen behind on their mortgage payments after a business reversal. But the six-bedroom house that they shared with their brood had already been sold to an investment company, [Ventura County Superior Court] Judge Barbara A. Lane pointed out. The eviction would stand.

• Incensed, [attorney Michael T.] Pines vowed to hire a locksmith and enter the vacant house illegally. "I'm going back there," Pines declared, gripping the lectern. "And I hope I get arrested." "I certainly hope not," Lane shot back. "That is a blatant disregard of this court's order."

• With Pines, the threat at the October hearing couldn't be written off as courtroom theatrics. The 58-year-old attorney admits to breaking into homes at least half a dozen times, including one before with the Earls, leaving the clients to squat in their homes while he defends their legal right to possession. His unconventional methods have gotten him fined by a judge in San Diego, arrested in Newport Beach and threatened with contempt — and jail — in Ventura.

***

• Pines has yet to wrest a house back. His most high-profile client, baseball legend Lenny Dykstra, took Pines' advice last July to move back into his foreclosed Thousand Oaks mansion against a bankruptcy judge's orders. That move, followed by a victory party at the estate, brought an order barring the former outfielder from the property. Dykstra fired Pines after one month and lost the house in a foreclosure sale in November.

For more, see Lawyer advises foreclosed clients to break back into their homes (Michael Pines, who was baseball legend Lenny Dykstra's attorney, admits to breaking into homes at least half a dozen times, leaving clients to squat while he defends their legal right to possession).