A-Rod’s battle with his ex-brother-in-law could end in a summer showdown
NEW YORK — Like a modern-day Forrest Gump, former Yankee Alex Rodriguez seemed to be anywhere and everywhere in the nation’s capital Wednesday, when Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president.
One photo showed Rodriguez giving a fist bump to former President Barack Obama while another image had the star-crossed slugger lounging on the Capitol steps with Lopez.
Rodriguez, 45, has put his sordid past in the rearview mirror — but one legal matter continues to dog Rodriguez over five years after the original civil complaint against him was filed in Florida state court. The plaintiff is Constantine Scurtis, the younger brother of A-Rod’s ex-wife, Cynthia, and the dispute stems from a real estate venture the two men started in 2003. That year, Rodriguez was still playing for the Texas Rangers and won his first of three MVP awards, although he later admitted to using banned substances during the three seasons he played for Texas (2001-03).
By 2008, Rodriguez was divorcing Cynthia, the mother of their two daughters, and that same year, Scurtis was ousted from ACREI (Alex Constantine Real Estate Investments), according to the complaint. Only a couple months after Rodriguez finished serving his suspension for the entire 2014 season, Scurtis filed his complaint, accusing A-Rod of breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment, among other claims.
“This is the last thing in the world I want to do,” Scurtis told the Daily News in 2015, when discussing the lawsuit. “I’m not trying to draw attention to myself. But what’s right is right.”
Since those remarks, the complaint has survived Rodriguez’s multiple motions to dismiss. The ex-Yankee’s 2018 rebuke that the suit is “frivolous,” and that Scurtis “has gotten absolutely nowhere with it in court,” has proven hollow. In perhaps one of the most explosive developments, A-Rod is accused of racketeering and civil theft in a recent claim added to the complaint. A Florida civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) claim is one of 59 counts in the filing.
Scurtis has also hired a new legal team to represent him, and two of the attorneys that are part of his counsel, Katherine Eskovitz and Eric Rosen of Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP (RCF), are former federal prosecutors. Rosen led the federal case — the college admissions bribery scandal dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” — that ensnared celebrity actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
Meanwhile, the current judge presiding over the Scurtis/Rodriguez case, Michael Hanzman, has set a firm trial date for early August, and has signed an order that there be no further delays. There is a mediation hearing scheduled for March, although there has been no indication of any settlement talks in the years since Scurtis first filed.
If the case goes to trial and Rodriguez were to lose, the former slugger stands to take a significant financial hit, not to mention the potential dent it would cause to his reputation. But Scurtis has significant challenges ahead of him, too, including successfully proving the RICO claim. His legal team potentially introducing a mountain of complex financial information to jurors in trial could prove daunting as well.