Monday, June 06, 2011

Connecticut Attorney Gets Nine Years After $804K Escrow Cash Ripoff From 11 Clients, Leaving At Least One Victim Facing Foreclosure

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, the Connecticut Post reports:
  • A Stratford lawyer was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for stealing more than $800,000 from nearly a dozen clients. "I just want to apologize. I know I've hurt a lot of people, but I just totally underestimated how sick I was," John M. Rodia told state Superior Court Judge George Thim, contending that an addiction to OxyContin led to his crime.

  • Moments later, Debra Turner, of Prospect, walked slowly up to the front of the courtroom after meekly raising her hand for attention. She had hired Rodia to pay off her $125,000 mortgage, but instead he stole the money. "My life is still upside down," she told the judge, crying. "The bank says they were victims too and they want their money." In addition to the original mortgage amount, she said she is also being billed thousands of dollars in late fees that she can not pay.

  • Thim lamented there is nothing he can do for her since Rodia claims he has no money.(1) Then facing the defendant, he continued: "Taking addictive drugs is not an excuse for illegal conduct. Our legal system gave you a license to practice law and protect clients and you violated that trust." He then sentenced Rodia, a former state trooper who previously pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree larceny and five counts of third-degree larceny, to 15 years, suspended after he serves nine years in prison and followed by five years probation.

  • Senior Assistant State's Attorney Robert Brennan said the 47-year-old Rodia stole a total of $804,640 from 11 clients.(2) He has not paid any restitution and is not expected to. "We just don't know where the money went because his records disappeared," Brennan told the judge. "He may have gone into the practice of law to help people, but all he did was help himself."

For more, see Lawyer sentenced 9 years for stealing $800,000.

(1) If he wasn't half-asleep, Judge Thim (or the court's crime victim's advocate, for that matter) could have referred Ms. Turner and the other victims to the Connecticut Client Security Fund, which is a fund established by the rules of the Connecticut Superior Court to provide reimbursement to individuals who have lost money or property as a result of the dishonest conduct of an attorney practicing law in the State of Connecticut, in the course of the attorney-client relationship. The fund provides a remedy for clients who are unable to obtain reimbursement for their loss from any other source.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that cover the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.

(2) Reportedly, another victim claimed that after he hired Rodia to handle the sale of his parents' home, Rodia kept $186,000 from the sale and stuck the victim with the closing costs; a third victim hired Rodia to handle the refinancing of the mortgage on his condominium, but Rodia kept the $360,000 that was to pay off the old mortgage, leaving the condo currently in foreclosure, according to police. In addition, a 63-year-old woman, who was injured in a car crash in Fairfield, reportedly hired Rodia in 2006 to represent her in a lawsuit against the other driver, but police said the woman later learned that Rodia had settled the suit for $2,500 and kept the money, the story reports.

posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 4:00 AM