Claim: Divorce att’y ‘raped’ client
turned him on,” the suit charged, and Cedeno confided “he would be happy if she got pregnant as a result of their encounter because ‘that way you can’t ignore me.’ ”
Cedeno also complimented Pacelli on her breasts, asking if they were implants.
When she answered yes — adding the augmentation was an engagement gift for her husband — the lawyer told her they would have to go if the two became a couple, the suit says.
“Cedeno asserted that once ‘We get engaged, you’re taking them out since you put them in for another guy,’ ” the lawsuit quoted him as saying.
Pacelli, meanwhile, had “maxed out her credit card” to cover Cedeno’s retainer, she charged.
Cedeno’s attorney, Michael Green, insisted the lawyer was off the case by the end of July — before the two allegedly consummated their relationship.
“We categorically deny the allegations in the complaint,” said Green. “We believe at the end of the day, Mr. Cedeno will be proven innocent.”
Pacelli said she was sharing her story because “I just don’t want it to happen to someone else.”
She said she was weighing filing criminal charges against Cedeno, but had not as of Friday. An ethics complaint has been filed against the lawyer.
“We think his conduct was despicable, unprofessional, and unethical, and are intent on pursuing all available remedies against him,” said Joshua Bauchner, representing Pacelli and her husband.
Yes, her husband. The Pacellis are still living together in their Midtown apartment despite the sordid affair and their still-pending divorce. When the cuckolded Anthony Pacelli discovered the lurid messages between his wife and her attorney, he “had a panic attack during which he could not breathe or speak,” the lawsuit charged.
Only then did Cedeno pull out as Atesa’s attorney, the suit alleged.
“Our relationship has been devastated by this,” Pacelli said of her marriage. “There will always be this huge scar in our lives.”