Porn star’s lawyer in Trump suit took on powerful in Boca cemetery sale
WEST PALM BEACH — The last time California attorney Michael Avenatti took on a sometime Palm Beacher, there were allegations of backroom deals, exploitation and furtive payments of tens of thousands of dollars.
The long and winding lawsuit involving the 2003 sale of a Boca Raton cemetery sullied the reputation of a successful developer, cost a prominent attorney his license to practice law and found a Palm Beach County judge facing unproven allegations that he had surreptitiously telegraphed that he thought Avenatti’s case was “crap.”
Fast forward more t han a decade to a new lawsuit Avenatti has filed against a part-time Palm Beach resident. The allegations of secrecy and deception are much the same — just juicer and aimed at a far bigger target.
As the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, Avenatti is claiming that an attorney for President
Avenatti is claiming an attorney for President Trump paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 so she wouldn’t go public with allegations of them having a nearly yearlong affair in 2006.
Donald $130,000 Trump in October paid Daniels 2016 so she wouldn’t derail the business tycoon’s political campaign with tawdry allegations of them having a nearly yearlong affair in 2006.
real Meanwhile, name is Stephanie Daniels, whose Clifford, is scheduled to perform next Friday and Saturday at the Ultra Gentlemen’s Club, a strip club just a block away from Trump’s golf course west of West Palm Beach.
denied Trump knowing on Thursday that his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels any money — a claim Avenatti has repeatedly described as preposterous and, if true, a possible violation of campaign laws and of profes- sional rules that prohibit attorneys from digging into their own pockets for clients.
against nia Since last month, Trump filing Avenatti the in Califor- lawsuit has been an ubiquitous presence on television talk shows. His Twitter account — which he employs with nearly the same furor as Trump — has exploded with supporters and haters.
ten “OMG!!!” female wrote fan. “He’s one smit- gorgeous, smart, a (freakin) race car driver, Italian AND HE HAS A GREAT DANE !!!! !”
“This schmuck seein $$$ with this whole ordeal.. You think he really cares about anything but a political agenda and money.. Doubt it,” countered another far- less smitten follower.
with old yer, handling Those Ivy who and League-educated against who unwinds Porsches have the by worked 47-year- around man- lawtracks caution from against Sebring underesti- to Spain, mating Avenatti. Sure, he has sued or represented such notables as singer Christina Aguilera, actor Jim Carrey and TV personality Paris Hilton, and he even had a previous legal tangle with Trump when Trump was the star of The Apprentice. But, they say, Avenatti is far from a hackneyed celebrity lawyer. “He’s a very skilled trial attorney. He has tenacity and intelligence,” said Boca Raton attorney William Corn- well. “That doesn’t mean I liked all the tactics he used, but I have immense respect for his talents and intellect.” “He pays attention to the details,” agreed West Palm Beach appellate attorney Bard Rockenbach. “On the Heritage Manor case, he knew every fact like he lived it.” Rockenbach was referring to the lawsuit Avenatti filed in 2005 against Miami developers Edward and Arthur Falcone on behalf of two elderly widows over the sale of Heritage Manor Memo- rial Park, a cemetery and mausoleum their husbands developed on Military Trial in Boca Raton. Avenatti’s lawsuit claimed the widows were double-crossed by their attorneys, who Avenatti said were paid by the Falcones to work both sides of the deal. Corn- well represented developer Edward Falcone, who lived in a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, and his brother and business partner, Arthur. The brothers had paid the widows $6.1 million for the 18-acre cemetery, which Avenatti claimed was worth $40 million. Avenatti and his co-counsel, long time West Palm Beach attorney Edward Ricci, kept Rockenbach, their appellate lawyer, busy handling various appeals that delayed the case from going to trial until 2014 — long after widows Kathleen and Elishka Michael were dead. The widows’ adult chil- dren continued pursuing the lawsuit and won a $4.2 million jury verdict against the Falcones, but it was recently thrown out by an appeals court. Avenatti said he plans to appeal to the Flor- ida Supreme Court. In what might be viewed as a warning shot to Trump and his attorney, Avenatti told The Palm Beach Post that litigation is “an endurance sport.” our of “That the staying cemetery case power,” is an suit, example he which said of has dragged on for 13 years. “We’re not in a sprint.” While the case involving widows getting ripped off varies starkly from one claiming that a porn star was paid hush money by a sitting president, Avenatti insists they share common threads. “They both involve people who don’t have enormous resources going up against people who do have enormous resources,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time I represented a Goliath.” The case is also an example as Avenatti’s of what some take-no-prison- describe ers approach to cases both large and small. Long before the cemetery case went to trial, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele recused himself after Avenatti and Ricci claimed the judge used a buzzword during a hear- ing to secretly tell a court reporter that he had serious doubts about their alle- gations against the Falcones and a prominent Boca law firm. In court papers, Ricci claims the code word Hafele uttered was “park,” the backward pronunciation of “crap.” Ricci and Avenatti claimed in court documents that Hafele told the same court reporter he was afraid of ruling against the partners of the now-defunct Boca law firm, Sax, Sachs & Klein, who they accused of being part of the conspiracy in the cemetery sale. Facing re-election, Hafele worried that if he ruled against the politically powerful attorneys, they would find a lawyer to run against him, Avennati and Ricci claimed.
Saying he was prohib- ited from addressing what he labeled “untrue, outra- geous or scandalous” allegations, Hafele nevertheless stepped aside. Later, in a deposition in an unrelated case, the court reporter denied such a conversation ever took place.
The flap proved unnecessary. While claiming they had nothing to do with the cemetery deal, law partners Spencer Sax, Peter Sachs and former U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, reached a confidential settlement with the Michaels family before the case went to trial. And on the eve of trial, attorney Michael Masanoff, a former chairman of Tri-Rail who worked at Sax, Sachs & Klein, did the same. He had also agreed to testify. Even the judge was surprised.
“I don’t know what this guy is going to say. I don’t think anyone in this courtroom knows what he’s going to say. But it’s going to be fun,” Circuit Judge David Crow said, noting that Masanoff had made conflicting statements over the years.
Masanoff’s testimony, admitting he had accepted $100,000 from the Falcones even though he was representing the widows, was stunning.
But it didn’t get Avenatti and Ricci the outcome they sought. While Avenatti asked jurors to award the Michaels’ children $35 million in compensatory damages and another $30 million in punitive damages, they instead awarded the widows’ families $2 million in compensatory damages and $2.2 million in punitive damages.
Masanoff became a casualty of the litigation. Two months after the trial ended, he agreed to surrender his Florida Bar license rather than contest claims that he had violated professional rules by working both sides of the cemetery deal. The action, the Florida Supreme Court said, was “tantamount to disbarment.”
Still, Masanoff was stoic. Having been tapped by county and West Palm Beach officials to develop an estimated $550 million Transit Village near the city’s downtown Tri-Rail station, Masanoff said he was more interested in pursuing land deals than practicing law. While the project has yet to be built, West Palm Beach commissioners last year awarded him $25 million in tax breaks when and if it is.
And even though the verdict was thrown out by the West Palm Beach-based 4th District Court of Appeal in January, the widows’ children didn’t walk away empty-handed. Court records show that they received $1.1 million from the pre-trial settlements.
Like most lawyers, Avenatti has negotiated millions of dollars in settlements. On his website, he claims he has won $1 billion in verdicts and settlements over the course of his career which began after he received an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from George Washington University.
In 2006, for instance, he reached a confidential settlement with Trump and the producer of The Apprentice on behalf of a man who claimed they stole his idea. And he has said it’s possible Daniels might settle the lawsuit she filed against Trump, seeking to throw out a nondisclosure agreement she signed after accepting what Avenatti describes as hush money. But the terms he is seeking are formidable.
“We are not foreclosing settlement generally but we are foreclosing any settlement that does not involve (Trump lawyer Michael Cohen) and (Donald Trump) coming 100% clean with the American people about what happened,” he said in a tweet.
While Avenatti makes the talk show circuit, the Trump lawsuit is stalled. A hearing is set for April 30 on whether the case will unfold before a professional arbitrator behind closed doors, as Trump’s team wants, or in a public courtroom, which Avenatti claims is the appropriate forum.
Ricci, who has handled several other cases with Avenatti, said of the Daniels suit, “The issues are beyond pornography. They are very serious. This is about a constitutional right to speak. You can’t impose restrictive agreements on people just because you want them to shut them up.”
For his part, Avenatti says the Trump lawsuit, like the cemetery litigation, are among many in a long series. “I find myself on a fairly consistent basis involved in some very crazy cases,” he said.