ParalegalGateway's Weblog

Paralegal by Day - Drag Queen by Night

Taken from my favorite tabloid - Above The Law.

Res ipsa loquitur; we'll keep our commentary to a minimum. Click here to access a short video about Antonio Haynes / Jenna Saisquoi, "Paralegal by day, drag queen by night." Fabulosity!

Some commenters will surely have irreverent observations. We say: Caveat commentor. Are you sure you wanna mess with Ms. Jenna Saisquoi? Paralegals are talented at hunting people down -- and Ms. Saisquoi has an impressive set of guns (and bazookas).

P.S. At the start of the video, Haynes mentions that he won't mention where he works as a paralegal. Consistent with that, please don't identify or speculate about his legal employer in the comments. Thanks. (Source>>>)

Paralegal's Estranged Father Murdered Before They Could Meet

A bloody fingerprint and a DNA match have tied a drifter to the January murder of Alexio Bello, a gay man found slain just before he was to finally meet his estranged daughter, police said Tuesday.

An arrest warrant for first-degree murder has been issued for Jorge Espinoza Navarette, 21, a Mexican national who detectives believe robbed and murdered Bello, 68.

''We believe he likes to target gay men,'' said Miami homicide Sgt. Confesor Gonzalez. ``He may still be in South Florida.''

Bello, who had once been married but later left the family after revealing he was gay, had never known his two children. A chance encounter with one of Bello's friends led daughter Joanna Bello, 28, to reconnect with her father by telephone.

They had planned to meet in person sometime in January.

''I'm glad Miami police are doing everything possible in order to resolve this case,'' Joanna Bello said Tuesday. ``It would bring closure knowing that they find this guy.''

Alexio Bello lived alone at El Lago Condominiums, 5505 NW Seventh St. He had met Navarette in late December at a coin laundry. They were seen together at a family New Year's Eve party.

On Jan. 3, a caretaker found Bello's body inside the apartment in what was recorded as Miami's first homicide of 2008. His two dogs, one covered in his owner's blood, remained alive inside.

Detectives declined to say how Bello was killed.

Police quickly zeroed in on Navarette, labeling him as a ''person of interest.'' But the curly-locked young man disappeared.

Navarette hails from the town of Las Vigas in the Mexican state of Guerrero. He came to Miami from Georgia and the Carolinas.

In May 2007, he was arrested in Georgia for beating up his mother, who lives in Atlanta. That charge is still pending.

''This is a very dangerous individual,'' said Miami Detective Orlando Silva.

Wanted fliers have been forwarded the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the State Department -- in case Navarette has left the country.

The story of Joanna Bello's search for her father drew media attention in Miami-Dade.

He had left the family shortly after Joanna Bello and her brother were born. She had longed to meet him, even thumbing through phone books looking for his name.

Last August, Bello -- a paralegal at Miami law firm Mustell & Borrow -- by chance met a client who had been her father's lover. The man recognized her familiar face.

He excitedly told her about Alexio Bello, who later called the firm. His first words to his daughter: ``I love you.''

Days after his death, Joanna Bello visited his condo with his family to help clean the ransacked apartment. On his coffee table sat a framed photo of her as a teenager that he had secretly obtained through a family friend.

''It's an emotion that's hard to describe. It made me feel good -- everybody was wrong. He did love me,'' Joanna Bello said.

``I've been getting to know my new family and they're great. I would have loved to have been with them along with my father, but I have to accept it. I have a big family now and it means a lot to me.''

Anyone with information on Jorge Espinoza Navarette can call Miami's homicide unit at 305-579-6530 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. (Source)

Lawyer Blames Paralegal for Non-Transfer of Funds

Really?  A Lawyer pinned the blamed on their Paralegal?  I'm shocked!!!  (Insert sarcasm here)

NEW PORT RICHEY - NEW PORT RICHEY - Former Port Richey lawyer Jessica Miller was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail Tuesday for failing to appear at a court hearing in December.

Circuit Judge Shawn Crane found Miller guilty of contempt of court after a daylong hearing June 23. Miller, 30, was first charged with contempt after she failed to appear at a hearing Dec. 20, opting instead to leave the state for vacation the day before.

Crane chastised Miller at last month's hearing and continued on a similar path Tuesday before announcing her sentence.

"The pronouncement I made after the finding of guilt still stands," Crane said. "I've heard nothing here today which changes anything I said. That all stands as true today as the day we had the hearing."

December's court hearing was set to allow Miller to explain why she had failed to transfer $28,000 of clients' money into the account of another lawyer. The money, which belonged to a divorcing couple, is the profit from the sale of their house.

Miller represented the husband, William Morales. Neither Morales nor his wife has received the money, which amounts to their life savings.

Morales appeared in court Tuesday and described his frustration at trying to get his money. He asked Crane to sentence Miller to the maximum penalty, five months and 29 days in jail.

"I was depressed at times," Morales said. "Just the aggravation of dealing with that office - with the numerous phone calls, the visits, the messages that went unanswered, the visits when I had appointments and no one was there. I just went through hell with this office."

The missing money touched off a Florida Bar investigation and led to Miller surrendering her law license this year. The Bar concluded its investigation after Miller agreed to relinquish her license, but a criminal investigation continues.

Miller pleaded ignorance when she took the stand at the contempt hearing last month. She blamed her paralegal and office manager, Kristen Collins, for not transferring the money. Miller said Collins had sole control of the office finances. She said she had asked Collins to transfer the $28,000 and that Collins told her she had done it.

Miller's attorney, Steve Bartlett, said the money was already gone by the time his client was to transfer it. Bartlett said Miller didn't even know the money was missing until she went to court for an arraignment after her arrest Dec. 28. (Source)

Paralegal by Day - Motor Head by Night

By day, he's a paralegal with the Spokane County Public Defender's office.

By night, his idea of fun is going fast and turning left. Yep, motor head.

"It's what I do," said Post Falls driver Allen Tuckness, who started racing at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds in 1972.

"My hero has always been Richard Petty and I've just had this passion for racing. My wife (Michelle) knew going in, this is my hobby, it's what I love to do."

Tuckness got out of racing entirely three years ago when his son Jonathan moved back to Virginia in 2005.

"I had two cars at that time, one that I drove and one that he and his brothers worked on," Tuckness said. "When he moved to Virginia, I just sold everything and I quit.

"I also had a total knee replacement done, but one day I was sitting at home and I said, 'I just can't sit here. I race, that's my hobby.' "

Jonathan moved back from Virginia to Spokane and it was time for the Tucknesses to get back into racing.

So Allen bought a 1933 Chevrolet Coup last year, which he runs, and a 1987 Volkswagon Jetta, which Jonathan races in the Road Runner class at Stateline Speedway.

"I raced the same type of car back in the '70s," Tuckness said. "I had a 1932 Ford Vicky and we'd race Wednesday nights at the Spokane Fairgrounds and Friday nights here."

The Roadrunner class is a training ground and they found a hundred-dollar car out of the junkyard and let Jonathan put it in motion in his first season since returning from back east.

"It's a (bleeping) wienerschnitzel," Allen said. "I can say whatever I want, I built the damn thing."

Jonathan, a Post Falls High School graduate, just smiled as if he'd heard that line before.

"The biggest difference is that I'm used to rear-wheel drive and this is a front-wheel drive," said Jonathan, 21, who started racing in 2003 at the Spokane Raceway Park. "It doesn't slide at all. It pushes more than it's loose.

"With the front-wheel drive, I have an advantage because I can get through the corners better and then it's a matter of working up the speed to stay with them on the straightaway."

Racing in the corners is everything on the quarter-mile track at Stateline Speedway.

"Knowing where other cars are on the track is vital because you come up on something so fast because it's so small compared to a half-mile track," Jonathan said. "This year has been a struggle because neither one of us has ever had a front-wheel drive.

"It's a huge learning experience every week, for me five years and for (dad) 40-some years."

In a game where sponsorship is everything, Allen Tuckness does it all out of pocket.

"The most expensive thing I own is my Early Stock and this trailer," Allen said as he and Jonathan sat in a couple lounge chairs eating carryout from Zip's. "I've always had just a conventional trailer, but when I got back into it three years ago I got this to make it easier.

"I work on a limited budget. I don't have sponsors. The money going into either one of the cars comes out of my wallet from of my paycheck. I live within my budget. I guess I would rather have a guy beat me because he outdrives me, than he outspends me, but that's my choice." (Source)

Paralegal Participates in Guardian Program

Some of the most vulnerable people in Pierce County now have another place to turn for help.

Earlier this month, state court officials launched a new guardianship program in five counties across Washington, including Pierce.

Low-income people deemed “incapacitated” by a judge can get services through the program, including help with their finances and assistance finding adequate housing, according to a news release issued last week by the Administrative Office of the Courts, which will oversee the program.

Only people referred through the courts qualify for the program.

Someone is considered legally incapacitated if he or she is unable to exercise his or her rights or provide for his or her basic needs without the help of a guardian.

A guardian is a surrogate decision maker for such a person and has court-ordered authority to act on that person’s behalf.

A state task force that studied the issue last year found that about 4,500 people in Washington need such help because they have no family members able or willing to help them or can’t afford to hire a professional guardian to assist them in their daily lives.

The Legislature appropriated more than $1.4 million to launch the public guardianship program this year.

Loralee McDonell-Williams has been appointed as guardian for those who qualify for help in Pierce County.

A county native, McDonell-Williams is a paralegal by profession and has worked as a private guardian for a number of years.

“Basically, I’m able to help people manage their funds, pay their bills, get them into a healthy living environment,” McDonnel-Williams said last week.

Clallam, Grays Harbor, Okanogan and Spokane counties also are opening pilot programs this year. (Source)

Paralegal Opens Educational Supply Store

Since Anderson Education Center and The Learning Zone closed in 2006, Anderson teachers have been forced to drive to Greenville, Easley or Seneca for classroom supplies. But a pair of friends plan to fill that void when The Chalk Monkey opens today.

Anderson residents Crystal Parsons and Kristy McKain started talking about opening a small business five years ago. Standing in a Clemson gift shop they were thinking of buying, the two realized their passion was in educational supplies.

Parsons, who’s spend the past 17 years working in preschools, was ready for a change and selling classroom supplies allows her to use her teaching experience. McKain is a mom and part-time paralegal.

“There was nothing here,” Parsons said. “There was no place for a teacher if you needed something on the fly or last minute.”

The Chalk Monkey’s 1,400-square-foot store carries bulletin board paper, letters and borders, posters, Christian and secular teacher resources, as well as educational toys from Melissa & Doug, HABA, and First Note.

A play area for children is set up by the register. The women also offer teacher registries, a wish list shoppers can search by name like a wedding or baby registry. Parsons said her goal is to accommodate customers’ requests — she’s even willing to stop by classrooms after hours to determine the best way to meet a specific need.

“It was a big loss when (Anderson Education Center) went out of business,” said Casey Ellison, a third grade teacher at Whitehall Elementary. “This will definitely help.”

She and other teachers received e-mail announcements from The Chalk Monkey, and they are certain there’s enough teaching business in Anderson to support the store. Every year, teachers need new borders, sentence strips and other items you can’t find at Office Depot, said Catherine Hurray, a sixth-grade science teacher at McCants Middle School.

“You get so tired of driving out of town or ordering online,” she said. “It’s so nice to go in somewhere and browse.” (Source)

Interview with Paralegal Thomas Phillips, author of The Molech Prophecy

Thomas Phillips is the author of The Molech Prophecy, a novel that blends elements of mystery, suspense and religion. In this interview, Phillips talks about this his latest novel, his unexpected success, and the craft of writing, among other things. His story is intriguing — though he had published five mystery novels in the past, it was not until he became a full Christian that success really knocked on his door. Read how he began writing his novel in August, finished it in December, signed with an agent in February, and sold it to a large publisher in September. 

Thanks for being my guest today, Thomas. Why don’t you begin by telling us a little about yourself?

A little about me, huh? Well, I work full time as an employment law paralegal. Always wanted to be a police officer. Went to college for a criminal justice degree. Turns out, my eye sight was so bad, there was no way I would ever pass the police physical. (So writing mysteries is a way for me to fulfill that dream).

I was married for fifteen years and have three awesome kids (two boys, and a girl). My kids are my life. No way around it. I live for them. My goal is to write full time. It may take years and years, and to be honest, it may never happen, but it is what I strive for. Aside from my kids, writing, and work, I enjoy playing guitar. I have a few acoustics. I sing when I play. You’d never want to hear me sing though, really. It’s that bad. But I have fun, regardless!

When did you decide you wanted to become an author?

I grew up with a reading disability. It wasn’t until seventh grade that I finally read a book, cover to cover. It was S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. When I found out she was 16 when she wrote that, I was like — man, I’m a storyteller, maybe I can write books? Maybe I can inspire reluctant readers — and from that day forward, yeah, I knew I’d be a writer.

I had the first short-story I ever wrote published in the high school annual magazine. It was called, "I Made It," and it was about a bus-boy who always had to scrub pots and pans until one day – he got to bus tables. How funny is that? You write about what you know. At 14, that’s about all I knew.

Tell us a bit about your latest book, and what inspired you to write such a story.

I am very excited about The Molech Prophecy. The back cover summary reads:

Former gang member Tommy Cucinelle thought he had left his old life behind when he became a Christian. That's why he's surprised when his pastor asks him to use his old "skills" — finding people who don't want to be found — to locate the church secretary after she mysteriously disappears and the church is vandalized. The police don't have any leads.  (More>>>)

Paralegal Builds Success in a New Home

At age 18, Shamoon Poonawala was excited about moving to Canada from Pakistan. "I've travelled in many countries and have been one of those individuals who could go anywhere with confidence and make friends," he says. But his enthusiasm was quickly stifled. "I found it very difficult initially to fit in," Mr. Poonawala recalls about arriving in Toronto with his family in 1997. "Coolness is very crucial to youth here. I had to change the way I dressed. It took me a while to make friends."

For the first year, he lived with his family in his uncle's one bedroom apartment; there were nine people living in the unit, all whom were over the age of 16. "It wasn't very comfortable," he admits. His first job was at a fast food chain where he earned about the same wage as his parents who were forced to abandon their professions for minimum wage jobs. His father, an engineer, took a job as a janitor.

Mr. Poonawala wanted to make something of himself. Through his travels he can converse in six languages, so he also wanted to practise in a profession where he could help other newcomers to Canada cope with social and professional barriers. Initially he attended university with hopes of a career in law but was forced to drop out because his family had no money and he was denied a student loan. He then settled for a paralegal diploma from Herzing College.

Following graduation, he started a business plan for a paralegal service but had to revise it when Ontario introduced new paralegal legislation. "I had to go back and do all the research to be sure I was eligible for licensing," he says.

With financing and mentoring from CYBF he finally launched Magnate Paralegal Services in the troubled Malvern community. "I could have gone downtown [in Toronto]," he says. "But I decided to set up the office in the Malvern region because I thought it would be best to reach the people who I knew needed help."

His mentor, Brian Tapner who works in risk management, served as "the sound of reason."

"As a young entrepreneur, one of the problems I found was recognizing who I should have as a client," says Mr. Poonawala, who had to rein in his altruistic nature to achieve business success. "It wasn't about money but about business sense. Brian pointed out there are good clients and bad clients, and bad clients would be the ones who will eat up a lot of time. For our business, it's very crucial the client is able to trust you and you can trust the client."

Open more than one year, Magnate Paralegal Services employs three people and is growing in its client base. Mr. Poonawala also serves as vice-president of the Paralegal Society of Canada and volunteers actively in his Malvern neighbourhood. "I wanted to raise the ideology that a person in Malvern can make a difference," he says.

Like Mr. Poonawala's parents, Liliana Olmedo Garcia wasn't able to practice her profession when she made the move to Vancouver from Mexico three years ago. She moved on her own at the urging of a friend, leaving behind family, friends and a budding career as a veterinarian.

She didn't realize that resuming work in her field would be a challenge; she faced an 18-month wait just to write the provincial certification exam at a cost of $4,000.

She was also unable to find any type of related work, even as an assistant, so she took a job in a retail clothing store. "I wasn't working in my background, which was a little bit difficult but it was good because I had the opportunity to chat with many people, learn more about the culture and talk to people about animals," she says.

Ms. Olmedo Garcia heard about CYBF through a friend and began thinking about how she could parlay her professional background into a business opportunity.

Within a year, she launched Animals Overcranked Daycare Centre Ltd., which is akin to a consultancy on animal behaviour focused mainly on dogs.

She is modelling her business after fellow Mexican, Cesar Millan, a world-renown behavioural specialist for dogs, and is in the throes of planning a physical location complete with a recreational park and training facility for dogs.

When asked if she has any advice for newcomers to Canada, she is succinctly assertive. "Don't ever, ever, ever give up. It might be especially difficult for the first year but don't stop, there are a lot of opportunities." (Source)

Paralegal Creates "Bit o' Lit"

Bored and cranky, Shannon MacDonald was riding the Metro one morning four years ago, headed to her job as a paralegal at Akin Gump.

She was tired of crosswords and Sudokus. She'd never been much of a newspaper person. She was a "book nut" -- but due to recent poor choices at the library, she didn't have anything good to read.

Cue the light bulb: Wouldn't it be great if you could pick up free commuter-length book excerpts at Metro stations? Wouldn't publishers be eager to cooperate, to promote new books and authors? Couldn't somebody, say Shannon MacDonald, turn this into a profit-making enterprise?

Well, she's about to find out. It took a few years for MacDonald to focus her ideas, meet publishers, line up designers and printers and quit her day job. But she's now the sole publisher of the latest and most literary addition to the local freebie reading lineup -- Bit o' Lit.

A bite-size (8 1/2 -by-5 1/2 -inch) magazine containing four or five excerpts in each issue, Bit o' Lit made its debut May 5 and has come out on alternate Mondays since then. In a world where more and more reading is being done on a screen, the 25-year-old MacDonald is headed in the other direction: using one dead-tree medium to promote another.

"It's kind of a retro idea, in this read-excerpts-online world, but it's a neat idea -- giving books to people who have time to kill on the subway," said Carl Lennertz, vice president of Independent Retailing at HarperCollins.  After meeting MacDonald last winter and liking her concept, he put her in touch with other publishing houses; so far, Bit o' Lit's expanding lineup of sources includes Farrar Straus Giroux, Hyperion and others.

From her New York office at Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House's Doubleday group, marketing director Meghan Walker said she liked the contrast to the "free rags and celebrity gossip" handed out to Manhattan subway riders. Like other publishers, she selects which excerpts are printed, and she leans toward those with D.C. relevance or marketing potential -- like putting Matt Taibbi's "The Great Derangement" in Bit o' Lit just before the author's appearance at Politics and Prose. "He had a great turnout," Walker said, and while it's unclear how much of that was due to Bit o' Lit, she said the magazine was "affordable and worth the gamble." Lennertz of HarperCollins put Fergus Bordewich's "Washington: The Making of the American Capital" in Bit o' Lit's second issue.

Publishers pay MacDonald $148 per page, with excerpts running four to eight pages. That money covers the basic design and printing costs, but not much else. MacDonald has had little success in selling advertisements, which means she hasn't seen much in the way of profits.

Since she's on such a tight budget, MacDonald also delivers the 20,000 copies of the magazine herself, sometimes getting friends to help in exchange for pizza. She estimates that 75 percent of every edition has been picked up.

If MacDonald is discouraged, she doesn't show it. She emphasizes that the magazine is new, and she's learning the business as she goes along. For example, her first distribution boxes had flat tops. After a few were crushed when people sat on them, she switched to boxes with slanted tops, of which she now has 50. Both kinds of boxes can be found in Metro stops and other central locations in the District and Arlington.

One of the things MacDonald remains adamant about is that the magazine will not include reviews. She maintains that people have such different tastes that they should be able to judge the books for themselves.

"A good portion of the population . . . does not read book reviews, because there is no common language to talk about writing," she said. "Someone could say 'This is the best book in the world!' and that could mean nothing to me." (Source)

Paralegal Gets 16-Month Sentence for Embezzlement

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A 44-year-old Bloomfield woman has received a 16-month prison sentence for embezzling nearly $700,000.

Karen Davis-Jennings was sentenced Monday in federal court in Hartford for embezzling $687,674 from her former employer and his elderly mother, who suffers from dementia. Davis-Jennings pleaded guilty last year to three counts of mail fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.

Authorities say she used the money to pay for personal expenses, including gambling expenses at the Mohegan Sun Casino.

Davis-Jennings worked as a paralegal and bookkeeper for a law firm in West Hartford and handled some personal finances for the principal and his mother.

Prosecutors say Davis-Jennings filed false income tax returns for 2001 through 2004 that resulted in a tax loss to the government of about $142,000. She was ordered to pay restitution of $621,174.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (Source >>>)