San Antonio lawyer, Netflix sued for defamation over elder guardianship of 83-year-old

By David Yates

SAN ANTONIO - A San Antonio attorney has been sued for defamation over a Netflix series called Dirty Money, which featured the guardianship of an elderly man who had some $3 million in assets, according to a press release.

Tonya Barino alleges in her 29-page complaint that attorney Phil Ross and his paralegal Jo Anne Rivera participated in a conspiracy that destroyed Barino’s name and reputation while involved in the guardianship proceedings of 83-year-old Charles Thrash.

“Phillip Ross is an attorney of incompetent and reckless charlatan-esque repute,” Barino’s pleading states. 

As previously reported in Southeast Texas Record, Thrash owned an automotive shop on West Avenue in San Antonio for 50 years and had been in the news for marrying his divorcee girlfriend, Laura A Martinez, without his court-appointed guardian’s permission.

Plaintiff Barino also names Laura A. Martinez and her adult children Brittany A. Martinez, Jose H. Martinez, and Michelle C. Martinez as defendants.

“Through various platforms, Laura, Brittany, Michelle, and Joe published statements of and concerning plaintiff that each knew to be false, intentionally disregarded known falsity and intentionally defamed the plaintiff with a specific intent to defame and harm the plaintiff,” the complaint states. 

A Free Charlie Thrash website states that Thrash has not been seen in 741 days and a Youtube channel called Charlie Thrash's Friends features various videos.

Barino's lawsuit references the Netflix series Dirty Money, in which an episode portrayed the alleged misuse of legal guardianship proceedings concerning Charlie Thrash. 

“The gist of the episode is that Thrash and the sources, Laura and Brittany are victims of the plaintiff's overreaching and abusive conduct toward Thrash and that Ross is some type of hero and that the plaintiff is a villain,” Barino’s Austin attorney Carl Kolb wrote. “The episode also gave an audience to Ross and his paralegal Jo Anne Rivera. Both falsely and intentionally defamed the plaintiff.”

The Dirty Money episode aired on March 11, 2020, but has since been removed from the Netflix menu of offerings.

“Martinez’s children, Brittany, Michelle, and Joe, before and after the airing of the episode have all made similar online comments concerning the plaintiff,” Barino’s attorney alleges. “Hundreds of people around the world have chimed in the chorus of lies published by the defendants, republishing the defamatory material and further libelous and obscene comments, which continue today.”

The complaint further states that nearly a year before the episode aired in May 2019, Attorney Ross was sanctioned in the sum of $222,974 for conspiring with Laura to fleece the Thrash estate and is currently being subjected to disciplinary proceedings.

Netflix, Alex Gibney, and Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions are also named as defendants in Barino’s lawsuit.

“The degree to which the episode skewed the facts demonstrates that the Jigsaw defendant did so with actual malice or with a specific intent to sensationalize the defamatory information for the purpose of harming the plaintiff for profit,” Barino’s pleading states.

Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer who graduated from UCLA Film School and Yale University.

“In the midst of an ongoing global pandemic during which much of the world's population has been quarantined at home watching television, the above-named defendants published or caused to be published worldwide and or appeared in an episode of the Netflix series, Dirty Money, entitled Guardians, Inc., in which plaintiff was falsely and maliciously defamed," Plaintiff's attorney states.

The lawsuit was filed in Bexar County's 285th Judicial District.

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San Antonio lawyer, Netflix sued for defamation over elder guardianship of 83-year-old

Former judge accused of defrauding estates resigns from bar

by Dave Stafford

A one-time northern Indiana trial court judge who is accused in lawsuits of taking money from two estates in cases he represented has resigned from the Indiana bar rather than face disciplinary proceedings related to his misconduct.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the resignation of Monon lawyer Robert V. Monfort. In resigning, Monfort acknowledged that there was a Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission proceeding alleging misconduct and that he could not successfully defend himself if prosecuted.

Montfort, who once presided as a Jasper Superior Court judge, has not been criminally charged, but lawsuits filed on behalf of charities in Rensselaer allegt he and/or his law office misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars that a deceased widow bequeathed to community charities.The commission filed a disciplinary complaint April 27 accusing Monfort of criminal acts and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” among a litany of other ethical charges.

The discipline case against Monfort arises from two estate matters he handled that resulted in litigation in Jasper Superior Court against him and his law firm.

In one case, charities that stood to benefit from an elderly widow’s estate accuse Monfort of undue influence over Rose Jennette Nagel that “resulted in more than $600,000 in damages” to a Catholic school and the Jasper Newton Foundation, which the suit says stood to benefit from her bequests. The suit also makes claims of negligence and improper estate administration, and contests Nagel’s probated will that would have instead left her estate to an employee in Monfort’s office who also had served as personal representative for Nagel’s estate.

Monfort also is accused of attorney misconduct in handling the estate of Anthony Kaczorowski, who died intestate in 2014. Among other things, the commission says as recently as 2019, Monfort swore an affidavit that Kaczorowski had no known heirs, which he knew to be false. The commission likewise levels allegations of criminal conduct and fraud in Monfort’s handling of that case.

The commission alleged Monfort consumed nearly all of the $114,000 in Kaczorowski’s liquid estate assets through estate administration expenses, inappropriate fees and“unjustified payments to respondent and his office staff,” and more.

Meanwhile, Monfort faces one other civil lawsuit alleging professional negligence in his office’s handling of a third estate case, that of John Garling. Garling’s estate alleges, among other things, that the case dragged on for more than five years while a personal representative appointed at Monfort’s request caused assets to be dissipated and “may have taken certain assets for his own personal use.”

The suit also alleges a house belonging to Garling’s estate was sold for an amount significantly below fair market value.

Monfort was judge of Jasper Superior Court 2 from 1994-2000. The Indiana General Assembly dissolved the court, a decision affirmed by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2000.

Monfort, who was admitted to the bar in 1988, was previously suspended for 30 days with automatic reinstatement for helping a client in 2009 who previously had been a defendant in a drunken-driving case in which Monfort had presided as judge.

The disciplinary case is In the Matter of: Robert V. Monfort, 20S-DI-284.

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Former judge accused of defrauding estates resigns from bar