I”d like to share an experience with the Lake County voters. I was sued in 2002. One of the candidates running for District Attorney, Doug Rhoades, defended me from 2002 to 2005. He did an adequate job until the judgment hearing when the plaintiff lied to the court and said I owed $2,500 in addition to a $6,100 debt to the plaintiff”s attorney for his services from having sued me. I knew the additional $2,500 discrepancy was a perjury, so I balked at paying anything and assumed that if any drastic legal action occurred, Doug would inform me. In retrospect, I guess I was wrong to trust him.
Unbeknownst to me, the plaintiff”s attorney wrote three letters to my lawyer informing him if I didn”t pay, the sheriff”s office would levy against a half-acre of land I owned and would auction it off. Incidentally, I had received this land in the lawsuit.
Desiring information, but still unaware of the impending lot levy, I wrote many unanswered e-mails and even sent a registered letter through the U.S. Post Office, which Rhoades refused to retrieve. So, I wrote directly to the plaintiff”s lawyer who disregarded my letters because I did, in fact, have an attorney of record who had, apparently, misplaced or ignored those letters, as I discovered after the fact. He later claimed he never knew of them.
At the time, it seemed that my only recourse was to file an abandonment and negligence claim against him with the California State Bar. However, a subpoena arrived. I had three weeks to pay the plaintiff”s attorney $14,000 or lose my lot. The original lawsuit sum had grown because of the false $2,500 claim plus 10 percent interest and the money the plaintiff”s lawyer had spent to levy against my half-acre. My name and the plaintiff”s appeared in the Record-Bee legal notices. Several friends, colleagues, and students at the school where I teach mentioned that they saw it. This was embarrassing. I was frantic and finally did get a hold of Mr. Rhoades, who claimed that he knew nothing of the levy/auction and withdrew as my attorney of record the next day.
I now had two weeks to save my land from the sheriff”s auction. I went to another local attorney who helped me, basically pro bono. He also had this to say about Doug Rhoades, “The plaintiff”s attorney, the man who”s suing you, is a lawyer”s lawyer. Believe me, your guy is NOT a lawyer”s lawyer. And get out your checkbook, you”re screwed.” I did obtain all the necessary documentation from my employer (again, embarrassing) to prove that the $2,500 (plus interest) was a lie and got thousands knocked off what I was wrongly sued for. But, I still gave the plaintiff a certified check for $8,100 to save my half-acre.
The State Bar rejected my Abandonment claim as Rhoades said he never received those three letters. Maybe, he didn”t. The plaintiff”s attorney finally did send me copies.
I take no pleasure in airing this unfortunate episode. But, now he wants to be the Lake County District Attorney. I”m ambivalent toward the election”s outcome as I am moving from Lake County in a matter of months. I”ll emit no bitter or vindictive schadenfreude should he lose. No malice is intended. It”s just one person”s honest, candid story, written to withstand dispute or mockery.
Pat Nunes
Kelseyville
