Illegal Expenses
Patrick Coulton pleaded guilty to drug and money-laundering charges, agreed to cooperate, and got a 14-year prison sentence. That took less than two months, but his attorneys Emmanuel Roy and Peter Mayas took $275,000 in payments to defend him, including a house. According to court testimony, they even took Coulton’s then-wife’s wedding and engagement rings — Roy took them off her finger personally. Yet when prosecutors tried to reduce Coulton’s sentence as they’d promised, Roy and Mayas wouldn’t respond, according to court records. Paul Petruzzi took over the case. He not only got Coulton’s sentence reduced, he got a court to order Roy and Mayas to repay Coulton due to their “outrageous” behavior. And even though Petruzzi was willing to do it all pro bono, Roy and Mayas were ordered to pay him nearly $100,000 for his work. As part of the repayment, Coulton, now out of prison, is living in Mayas’s former home. (AC/South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ...If this makes you hate lawyers, I remind you: Petruzzi is a lawyer.Original Publication Date: 16 March 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.
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