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Christ, he’s back again, and scarier than ever –
it’s the ‘Public Guardian!’
If you’ve been following the ongoing, jaw-dropping saga of the Worst. Public Guardian / Public Administrator. Ever. you may very well remember the overall picture that, after severely bloating his agency’s budget with unnecessary six-figure administrative positions for political cronies and spiking their pensions, he has attempted to compensate by 1) trimming down and then overworking the staff of deputies who actually do all the hard work, and 2) re-doubling his efforts to seize and administer the estates of dead, dependent-less Orange Countians, the better to FEAST on the huge FEES.
- The dearly departed.
Getting more specific, you may even recall his attempted heist of mixed martial artist and TapouT owner Charles “The Mask” Lewis’ $15 million estate last year – for which Williams fought Diane Larson, the single Illinois mother of The Mask’s two children, like a rabid badger, claiming among other things that the estate was far too complex for a single mother to administer.
And on an unforgettable, anecdotal level, you may remember the multiple reports coming out of that unhappy office at the time, that Public “Guardian” Williams was striding around the building crowing, “The fees from this one will balance our whole 2009-10 budget!”
Most human beings who took notice of the shameful episode cheered heartily when the appellate court ruled in favor of Ms. Larson and her bereaved kids, and assumed that was the end of the matter. Pero, no. My resourceful pajaritos inform me [scoop alert!] that the Insatiable Williams is returning to court January 13 to demand over $100,000 in fees from Ms. Larson, to pay for all his trouble fighting her.
Feast your eyes on this unbelievable PDF of Williams’ complaint and its appendices, and allow me and my pajarito to walk you through its high points:
- JW is demanding “Statutory Compensation and Extraordinary Fees” in the amount of $84,176, which is already exorbitant. But a close reading of item 37 [page 8] appears to show that he actually wants three or four TIMES that amount – note how “each” is underlined, when he refers to “the special administrator, the general administrator, and their legal counsel each” – so he could very well be demanding over $336,000.
- He is also demanding attorney fees of $15,900, and bond fees and storage fees of $5,595.73. This is a good time to point out how outrageous it is that he’s demanding any fees at all, as he never had the authority to petition over The Mask’s children in the first place!
- Exhibit A shows the receipts and disbursements. Page 8 for Exhibit A last item on page shows a $420.00 fee for someone to dismantle a 200-gallon fish aquarium and all equipment ($300.00) and then $120.00 for pet care for eel for one month! (there are subsequent charges for on-going care for the eel on pages that follow).
- Page 9 of Exhibit A shows a fee of $1500.00 to a tax service. See above for possible duplicate charging of tax preparation.
- They also do a lot of car repair at tens of thousands of dollars (page 10). Then they later sell the cars at a loss in subsequent pages. Page 12 of Exhibit A shows a fee of $6,902.03 for an online auction house for sale of 2009 Mercedes (could this be another No-Bid Contract?). Page 14 of Exhibit A shows the loss to the estate on the sale of the vehicles. Why was there a rush to sell these vehicles while there was a fight going on over the estate? Why did such losses occur? How was this sale advertised – seems like they would have received more money due to the high profile case! ($59,045.89 total losses on sale from appraised value of vehicles). Keep in mind all the previous money spent on fixing these cars prior to the sale! [The answer is the commissions JW receives on all sales; and that’s the reason he made the sales quickly when he already knew he had lost the case to Ms. Larson.]
Eel care, bane of bureaucrats
Tell me again, why did all you people vote this guy back in for another four years? Supervisors Nelson, Moorlach, Campbell, are you finally ready to bring this greedy clown to heel?? [That report is due to CEO Mauk in three days.]
Greedy lawyers…..Vern you nailed him.
The reason this doesn’t get more play is because he’s making money for the BOS. You read a few snippets about it occasionally but the abuses continue.
Unfortunately, taking what isn’t thiers is a Republican belief. Whether it’s eminant domain, or who you can marry, or what public resource you can privatize, pollute, or profit from.
Then they believe in big government.
The OCGOP swamp needs to be drained…..quite a few OC Dems will be found flopping at the bottom….
Great story Vern. Thanks for keeping up on this guy. It amazes me how the appeals court says he shouldn’t have even had this case but now he is sliming his way back to court for $$$ to balance his budget. The appellate court issues attorney fees and costs to Diane Larson, the mother of the Mask’s children. How much did that cost the County? Lets see if the usual suspects (judges) at the Superior Court award their buddy Williams these outrageous fees. I am sure the Appellate court will overturn them and then issue her costs again. The greed with John Williams never ceases!
I read the PDF. It looks like Williams is going after extraordinary fees of $84,176.35 for serving as special administrator 3 times and general administrator 1 time. That’s 4 X $84,176.35 = $336,705.40 for him and the same amount for his County Counsel attorneys. These look like the standard fees allowed by the court based on the size of the estate. However, since he never should have been granted authority over this case, and his envolvement besides selling off the assets for a quick commission, he should not be entitled to a dime! Great job Board of Supes for apparently letting this clown devestate the people/estates he is sworn to protect!
it might behoove each and every critic to read the court file before taking your assumptions and arriving at conclusions not based upon fact. lewis died with no will and an ex wife in illinois. the ex wife was contacted but did not respond for months. when she did respond she could not qualify as the executor of the estate because she was not bondable. it was not until the bond was guaranteed by her attorneys that the ex wife became qualified under the law to administer the estate. the PA/PG could have done nothing and allowed the “business partners” of mr. lewis to continue to “liquidate” the estate unsupervised and uncontrolled. mr. williams, pursuant to the advice of county counsel and with the approval of the court, took control of the estate and recovered many of those previously “liquidated” assets. the fees and costs he and county counsel are seeking are statutory and are a lot less than what the private attorneys representing the ex wife have gotten and will get.
Here comes the back pedal shuffle, denial and the blame of others. I am sure Williams didn’t want to get involved in this case, but his attorney’s made him do it. And the Court of Appeals just got it all wrong, blah blah blah, and the best part that the other side’s attorneys will make a lot more money on the case so Williams is justified in taking only a few hundred thousand dollars! This is a new low for you Johnny Boy!
No, read the appellate court’s decision. John S Williams had no right to file over Ms. Larson, the children’s mother – which he did three or four days after she did.
You refer to Williams as the Public Guardian. That appointed job involves administering the affairs of the living. HIs elected Public Administrator job involves administering and disposing of the estates of the deceased. I think you mean to talk about him as the Public Administrator in this case, do you not?
Yeah, he’s both of course. In the caption to the photoshop it was all “Uh-oh, it’s the Public Guardian!” because that’s more ironic and funny. But it’s true that this particular article is more about his Administrator gig.
the appellate court’s decision said she had priority based upon a case from the early 1900’s and that she still had to qualify pursuant to the current code. the woman could not qualify on her own and was not issued the appropriate papers by the court until her attorneys agreed to guarantee the bond. under the facts as they existed at the time and the law presented to john williams by county counsel and concurred with by the superior court, the ex wife was not qualified. hindsight is always twenty twenty but the facts as they existed at the time the actions were taken are the basis upon which everybody should be judged
Case law is case law no matter how old the case is. If it was so at the time of the ruling of the appealant court, they would not have ruled so – right? I guess the court also made Williams sell a good portion of the assets while the case was being appealed so some quick commissions could be made or are you going to blame this one on County Counsel as well? Vern brought up some good questions on this. Why was the auction not widely advertised to take advantage of the notoriety of the case? Which one of Williams’s buddies owns the car auction? Why did Williams spend tens of thousands of dollars fixing the cars up so he could sell them at a loss? Did Williams not sell Tapout? Who advised him on that and where was the appraisal for the stock? Is the County going to get pulled into the law suit in L.A. County Superior Court because the stock was undervalued? Lots of unanswered questions. Come on DD!
the superior court ruled on the facts, which included the fact that at the time williams filed the petition, the ex wife was not the guardian ad litem of the kids and, therefore had no standing. it was almost a month after williams petitioned the court that the ex got an order from the illinois court. should williams have just allowed the estate to languish with no supervision for that period of time. what would the liability of that be. as to the value of the business, it was almost broke at the time of lewis’ death due to the bad licensing deals that the company entered into during lewis’s lifetime. and williams did not sell tapout, lewis only owned about 25% of tap out, the balance of the stock was owned by other partners and investors who were selling the company with or without lewis’ approval. had williams not participated in the sale, the lewis estate would have been a minority shareholder with no rights or control and the ultimate payout would have been significantly less. if one wants to understand the situation, all one has to do is look at the facts, not speculate
DD, I find your insider posts very enlightening. I was not aware that Williams or anyone on his staff are stock speculators. Could you please let us all know who made the determination that Tapout was almost broke? I have read nothing but the contrary. Please enlighten us so that we may stop speculating.
I think that it was Williams who was nearly broke, therefore, the need to sell what he could in the timeframe that he had. Purely speculation though! DD you failed to mention why everything was sold. The estate (mostly cars and stocks) weren’t going anywhere and since Williams usurpidness was being appealed, why the rush? Where was the sale advertised? Who runs this on-line auto auction? Enough of the Williams is misunderstood act. Details please!!!!!
Didn’t Don Haidl the Sheriffs turncoat have the auto liquidation franchise?
Remember him the Father of the rapist?