Three of the four family members embroiled in an alleged
tow-and-sue scam pleaded no contest to dozens of felony charges,
leaving only the family’s patriarch, Vincent Cardinalli Sr., as
the
”
last man standing.
”
Three of the four family members embroiled in an alleged tow-and-sue scam pleaded no contest to dozens of felony charges, leaving only the family’s patriarch, Vincent Cardinalli Sr., as the “last man standing.”
Cardinalli’s son, tow truck operator Paul Greer, 33, pleaded no contest to 59 felony counts Friday afternoon, according to the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney. His charges included 26 counts of attempted grand theft, 14 counts of perjury, 13 counts of subornation of perjury, three counts of embezzlement, and one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, presentation of false evidence and burglary. Greer will receive eight years in prison, Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman said.
Cardinalli’s daughter, Rosemary Ball, 35, also pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of attempted grand theft and one count of perjury, according to the District Attorney’s office. Her husband, Michael Ball, 39, pleaded no contest to one felony count of attempted grand theft. They will be sentenced to between four and six months of county jail and 150 days of electronic monitoring, respectively.
The owner of now-defunct B&C Towing – a company with former locations in Gilroy, Hollister and Clovis – Greer towed vehicles and sold them without giving the owners prior notice, as required by law, Lohman said. He subsequently filed small claims lawsuits to recover what he claimed were thousands of dollars of still-unpaid towing and storage fees. Greer deceived judges into ruling in his favor by falsely representing that he had given the owners notice before selling their vehicles, a prerequisite to such lawsuits, Lohman said.
In at least one case, Greer presented fabricated evidence in court to substantiate his claim, prosecutors said. In some cases, Greer filed lawsuits against individuals or companies that had sold the vehicle in question years earlier. Other times, he sued people who had never owned the vehicle based solely on the similarity of their name to that of the true owner, Lohman said.
Despite evidence challenging whether he was suing the right person, Greer obtained judgments, garnished bank accounts and in some cases even sought the arrest of those who failed to pay his fraudulently obtained judgments, prosecutors said. Greer also inflated the amount of his claims by convincing at least three local process servers to falsify court documents concerning fees Greer had paid them to attempt service of his lawsuits, prosecutors said.
By failing to give notice not only of the pending vehicle sales but of the subsequent lawsuits as well, Greer won quick default judgments against unsuspecting victims, Lohman said.
With the help of process server Jeffrey Horan, who falsified proofs of service for use by Greer in court, Greer misled judges into thinking that the people he sued had been notified of the lawsuits against them when they had not, Lohman said. Horan pleaded no contest in June 2008 to conspiracy and six counts of perjury for his role in the scheme.
“It’s just nice to see some justice done at this point,” said Greg Adler, an attorney for an auto-salvage company that was a target of Greer’s scam. “It’s hard to believe I’ve been working on this for over four years.”
Unlike many of Greer’s victims, Adler prevailed in three lawsuits brought against him by the tow truck operator and had Greer and Cardinalli declared vexatious litigants – which effectively stopped them from filing lawsuits. According to testimony from the family’s preliminary hearing in May 2009, Adler’s research is what spurred the investigation by the District Attorney’s Office.
“This was an extremely complex scam that few people wanted to touch,” Adler said. “The defendants would probably still be victimizing people today if someone as smart and thorough as Dale Lohman hadn’t been assigned to the case.”
According to prosecutors, the family’s scam involved hundreds of fraudulent lawsuits and spanned nearly a decade, targeting motorists in both San Benito and Santa Clara counties.
Greer’s attorney, Eben Kurtzman, was not available for comment.
The three defendants will be sentenced August 16, the same date Cardinalli is slated to stand trial for 99 felony counts of conspiracy, forgery, perjury, attempted grand theft and other felony charges. At that point, Greer and the Balls will still be treated as if they’re defendants and will not take the stand against Cardinalli, Lohman said. She had no intention to call them as witnesses anyway, she said.
“It’s a non-issue,” she said. “It’s not like we cut them a deal on the condition that they testify.”
Greer, Rosemary Ball and Michael Ball each entered pleas Friday in open court before Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown, who presided over the defendants’ five-week preliminary hearing last year. Their pleas came after a scheduled settlement conference, Lohman said. They had until Friday to respond to the plea agreements, which were offered by the court.
“I’m very comfortable with the offers that (Brown’s) made,” Lohman said.
Cardinalli, who was confined to a wheelchair during the preliminary hearing, was not present at the plea hearing. Prosecutors are still trying to settle his case before it goes to jury trial.
“That’s always the hope,” Lohman said. However, “We’re ready for trial,” she added.
If convicted, Cardinalli faces a total of 186 years in prison.
When asked what he thought about the future of the case, Adler said, “Mr. Cardinalli would be wise to follow his son’s lead and take a plea bargain if he wants to have any chance of getting out of prison.”
Cardinalli and Greer were originally arrested in June 2007 on 88 felony counts. The number of charges eventually ratcheted up to 158.
Cardinalli originally posted bail but was subsequently re-arrested in January 2008 after the court discovered, thanks to reporting in the Hollister Free Lance, two arson convictions in 1979. They qualify as one strike under the California Three Strikes Law.
Since then, Cardinalli has been sitting in a Santa Clara County Jail cell on $500,000 bail awaiting his day in court. Last year, Cardinalli represented himself during the preliminary hearing that, at times, inched along while he stumbled through his own defense. Late last year, Cardinalli heeded the advice of Brown and secured attorney Tammy Miller-Holmgren through the county’s Independent Defender’s Office.
