Lawyers ripped him off, now a house is his payback
Patrick Coulton’s lawyers ripped him off to the tune of $ 275,000 and left him to rot in prison.
But Coulton is getting payback: He now lives in his former lawyer’s home — a threebedroom house in Miramar that he will eventually own as part of a court- ordered punishment of the two misbehaving attorneys.
“Even though they threw me under the bus … There’s a certain sense of unease about acquiring a house in this fashion,” Coulton said after moving in last week. “I almost feel sorry for them.”
The way Coulton and two federal judges tell it, this is the story of two very bad lawyers — Emmanuel Roy and Peter Mayas — and one very good one, Paul Petruzzi.
“Guys like them are the reason people hate lawyers,” Pe-
truzzi said. “They took everything fromhimandhis family … I took it personally because this is what I do for a living. Lawyers are supposed to help people.”
The bizarre legal soap opera began inMarch 2008 when Coulton was arrested on federal drug and moneylaundering charges for smuggling cocaine and marijuana.
His family hired Roy, who was a lawyer in New York and Florida at the time, and Roy brought his friend, Mayas, a Plantation attorney, on board too.
Coulton admitted responsibility, cooperated and pleaded guilty within two months of his arrest. Hewas sentenced to14years in prison with the understanding that prosecutors would later recommend his punishment would be reduced as part of his plea agreement.
He never heard fromRoy and Mayas again and when prosecutors tried to give him the promised break, they couldn’t get the lawyers to respond either, court records show.
Petruzzi, a Miami attorney, was brought into the case and set to work, first getting Coulton’s prison sentence cut in half. But as he delved deeper, he said he was shocked by how Roy and Mayas had ripped off Coulton and the extent of their greed.
“If there’s anything I’ve garnered in this, it’s that things have a tendency to comearoundin a full circle,” Coulton said. “I would never have guessed it would have turned out this way in a million years.”
‘ Outrageous’ behavior
U. S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff held numerous investigative court hearings over a couple of years to figure out what happened. He eventually issued two scorching rulings.
Roy’s and Mayas’ conductwas “disgusting, abhorrent” and the “most outrageous” he’d seen in 25 years on the bench, the judge wrote. He said they lied in court, hid their assets and wasted everybody’s time.
He ruled that neither man had been qualified or legally permitted to practice in federal court in South Florida and that they had wrung cash and property out of Coulton’s family for doing a minimal amount of work. Petruzzi estimated the case should have cost Coulton less than $ 50,000.
Among the long list of property Roy and Mayas took from Coulton were a Coconut Creek townhome he rented out, a Porsche Cayenne, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry— including a goldmedal he bought at the Vatican.
Coulton was even billed for the cost of flyingRoy and his wife to England where Roy personally removed a $ 23,000 wedding and engagement ring set from the finger of Coulton’s thenwife, after a breakfast meeting in London, according to court testimony.
Roy had to be arrested in New York and brought to Miami in handcuffs where he later invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself more than 80 times in an hour under questioning in court by Petruzzi.
U. S. District Judge Joan Lenard — who had the final say on the case — ruled that Roy and Mayas must repay every cent of the $ 275,000 or more they received from Coulton’s family.
Though Petruzzi initially said he didn’t want to be paid for his work on Coulton’s behalf, the judge disagreed and ordered the pair to pay him close to $ 100,000 in legal fees and costs for close to four years’worth of work.
Interest is piling up every day they don’t pay.
Mayas, 49, of Plantation, already has surrendered his home and a $ 5,000 car to begin paying off his debt.
Roy, 47, of New York City and South Florida, began serving a seven- year federal prison term in January for unrelated mortgage fraud convictions in New York. He has been permanently disbarred.
Judge Lenard also ordered the U. S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida to investigate Roy and Mayas on allegations they committed perjury in court and the possibly fraudulent “short sale” of Mayas’ former home. The Florida Bar also is investigating a related complaint againstMayas.
Roy is appealing the ruling from prison, saying he has no ability to pay, his attorney Richard Della Ferra said: “I think everything would show that he’s broke.”
“Wow, he’s doing more time than me,” Coulton said when he heard that Roy is serving more than seven years in prison.
Full circle
After serving more than 5 1⁄ years in federal prison
2 plus some time in a halfway house, Coulton said he doesn’t feel like he’s in any position to judge people or take delight in others’ misfortunes but understands that others may rejoice on his behalf.
As he sorted through junk thatMayas left behind — including a framed Florida Supreme Court certificate that admitted him to the Florida Bar — Coulton said he is just relieved to have somewhere to live.
The father of three, who got out of prison early because of good behavior, is already working as a technician.
But Coulton is facing a host of legal problems and a long list of repairs to carry out before he can truly consider the house his home.
The house, in a gated community in Monarch Lakes, is in foreclosure and, according to testimony, Mayas transferred the title to an acquaintance to try to hide any assets that could be seized.
Coulton said it might sound odd, but his legal odyssey was not a totally bad experience.
His incarceration made him examine his conduct and his whole life, something he said his former lawyers might want to do too.
“You get time to do a selfevaluation,” Coulton said. “You get to think about ‘ Where did I go wrong and what do Iwant to change?’”