A family of tow truck operators, who for years had the upper hand in small claims court, found themselves on the other side of the aisle this week as defendants in a case that came to a "grinding halt" each time the patriarch of the Cardinalli family piped up.
All eyes were on Vincent Cardinalli Sr., 66, as the man representing himself against scores of tow scam-related felonies fumbled through hours of disjointed cross-examination. Long, tense pauses punctuated only by the loud rustling of papers into Cardinalli's microphone stalled the flow of what attorneys expect to be a four- to six-week preliminary hearing.
"What's the question?" Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown prompted Cardinalli during one long pause Tuesday. "If you have something pertinent, let's get moving on it."
Cardinalli and his family - daughter Rosemary Ball, son-in-law Michael Ball and son Paul Greer, formerly Vincent Cardinalli Jr. - stand accused of 169 felony counts of perjury, conspiracy, forgery and attempted grand theft, among other charges, stemming from more than 2,000 small claims lawsuits Cardinalli and Greer filed in San Benito and Santa Clara counties, parlaying their towing businesses into a gold mine, according to court documents. The family allegedly brought an avalanche of lawsuits against unwitting motorists for towing, storage and lien sale fees on vehicles they never owned or had sold years before the cars were towed. When defendants tried to fight back, father and son often zeroed in on technicalities and advanced frivolous arguments, testified Greg Adler, an attorney for Copart - an auto auction company that was the target of such lawsuits.
On Monday, Cardinalli and his family crowded with their attorneys around the defense table in the wood-paneled courtroom, the audience benches empty, for the first day of their preliminary hearing. Wearing jeans, sneakers and untucked shirts, Greer's and Michael Ball's unkempt appearances stood in sharp contrast to the dark suits worn by their attorneys and Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman.
Despite his lack of a lawyer, Cardinalli - who scrapped his private defense attorney last year - had the most outspoken defense and was warned to back off a key witness.
"It sounds like you're arguing with the witness rather then trying to ask a question," Brown once told Cardinalli.
Cardinalli walked into the courtroom with the help of a cane one day. Another day, a young deputy pushed him in a wheelchair. During the proceedings, black hearing-aid headphones covered his ears, the strip of the headpiece blending in with the jet black strands of his comb-over. A long gray beard hid the lower half of his face. He wore an orange jumpsuit with Santa Clara County Main Jail - where he is being held - stamped on the back in black lettering. An investigator paid for by the courts helped Cardinalli search for specific documents among several boxes of files lining the courtroom, as Cardinalli's movement around the courtroom was limited, physically and legally.
Lohman spent hours Monday interviewing Adler in a well-choreographed question and answer session about the alleged tow and sue scam Cardinalli and Greer ran. Adler, who wore a dark suit and gold tie, provided examples and background about the case.
After fending off Greer's lawsuits against Copart, Adler testified that he launched an investigation of his own and noticed the repeated presence of South County Commissioner Gregory Saldivar and a process server, Jeffrey Horan, in the cases. Greer's and Cardinalli's preference to have their cases heard by Saldivar - who typically ruled in their favor - and no one else, set off "red flags," Adler said.
Horan - who according to court documents said he delivered legal notices to people who were sued, but didn't actually deliver them - admitted to his participation in the case and pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to cheat and defraud and six counts of perjury last June. His sentencing is being postponed until the rest of the case is resolved.
Adler said that in all but one of the court files he reviewed, cases that were initially presided over by Saldivar and later appealed to the Superior Court by the small claims defendants were overturned in favor of the defendants. In addition, other judges and commissioners often ruled against Greer and Cardinalli.
Adler said he stopped in to watch the small claims court in action and was "disturbed" by what he observed. Some people were sued for cars they had sold up to seven years before the cars were towed. Other defendants didn't even have a driver's license, let alone own the cars they were being sued over, Adler said. Yet Saldivar would instruct those people to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and obtain documents proving they never owned the vehicle in question. It is extremely difficult to prove a negative, Adler explained, and the DMV generally will not give you documents pertaining to a car you never owned.
Unlike the civil back-and-forth he traded with Lohman, Adler offered terse, often monosyllabic answers to Cardinalli's disjointed and at times vague questions Tuesday. Several times Adler corrected Cardinalli's phrasing of a question or answered before Cardinalli was done speaking.
Lohman, Brown and defense attorneys also interrupted Cardinalli to point out procedural mistakes or errors in his questions, which Adler described as "nonsense."
The only time Lohman addressed Cardinalli directly was after he attempted to enter a document into evidence that he claimed was the complete case file of one of the victims.
"Those are not what you represented them to be, I'll tell you that right now," Lohman said to Cardinalli.
To Brown, Lohman explained that the evidence Cardinalli entered contained documents with Cardinalli's handwriting on them and other documents that were not part of the certified court file.
When Cardinalli later asked Brown if he could reserve the right to recall Adler as a witness for further questioning, Ric Squaglia, Rosemary Ball's attorney, leaned over to whisper in Cardinalli's ear, advising Cardinalli to explain to the judge why his reasons for wanting to recall Adler were relevant.
"How is that relevant?" Squaglia prompted Cardinalli.
Instead of answering that question and expanding on why he wanted to recall Adler, Cardinalli repeated Squaglia's advice to the judge.
"How is that relevant?" Cardinalli asked Brown.
"See Mr. Cardinalli, that's why most people have attorneys," Brown said.
Cardinalli then explained that he wanted to recall Adler because he wanted to know if Adler tampered with the court files.
"Why don't you ask him?" Brown asked.
Turning to Adler, Cardinalli barely managed to complete the question before Adler pulled his microphone close, leaned down and replied "No."
With a wry smile, Brown asked Adler to allow Cardinalli to finish the question before responding.
Cardinalli told the court that he believed he would be able to impeach Adler as a witness after the cross-examination of other witnesses.
"His questions are all nonsense," Adler said outside the courtroom. "He's out of his league."
"(Cardinalli is) a huge wild card," said Eben Kurtzman, Greer's defense attorney, after court adjourned. "Any time you have someone who's not an attorney asking questions, it makes it more interesting. Questions get asked that wouldn't normally get asked otherwise. Some questions are great."
However, "I get nervous when questions get asked that I don't already know the answer to," Kurtzman added.
Wednesday, two process servers who prepared false documents for Cardinalli during his trials in small claims court took the stand, the first testifying that she charged Cardinalli and Greer substantially less than she originally told the courts so that they could inflate their costs.
After the process servers, Lohman said other victims of Cardinalli and Greer will take the witness stand. So far, the case is "going as expected," she said.
The preliminary hearing is being held Monday through Thursday in Department 32 of the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
Sara Suddes Sara Suddes covers Gilroy for South Valley Newspapers. You can email her or call (408) 847-7158.
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