The State Bar of Arizona has found probable cause that attorney Mark Bxxxxx -- formerly a partner with Qxxxxxx & Bxxxxxx -- violated a host of ethical rules in his dealings with a local novelist and her aborted film production.
Mystery writer Sylvia Nobel had filed a complaint against Bxxxxx almost two years ago, alleging that he helped himself to $810,000 that an elderly fan had donated to finance the film adaptation of her novel Deadly Sanctuary. Bxxxxx used the money to purchase Sugar Daddy's nightclub in South Scottsdale. New Times reported on the matter in this 2008 cover story.
Read more: Deadly Sanctuary (Part 4) - Attorney in Deadly Sanctuary Production, Facing Complaint
It would not be entirely accurate to say that attorney Mark Bxxxxx "stole" $810,000 from a client. "Stole" is such a harsh word, so direct, so ugly. If you believe Bxxxxx and his lawyers, the situation is simply more ...complicated.
Sure, Bxxxxx, then a lawyer at Qxxxxxx & Bxxxxx, took $810,000 from a client's account. But he always intended to repay it. And even though he used the money to help his own brother buy a nightclub, he wasn't trying to enrich himself. It was an investment — an investment on behalf of his client.
Read more: Deadly Sanctuary (Part 3) - Lawyers Behaving Badly
Sylvia Nobel dreamt of a movie version of her Kendall O'Dell mysteries — until the money disappeared.
An elderly widow who donates $1 million, hoping to turn a beloved book into a movie. A glamorous author, determined to make a shoot happen in the scorching Arizona desert, despite squabbling between local talent and Hollywood pros. The startling revelation, just before cameras are scheduled to roll, that the money has disappeared.
The problem is that this plot isn't the outline for Phoenix writer Sylvia Nobel's next novel.
A local mystery novelist has filed a $30 million lawsuit against her former lawyer and an Arizona State University associate professor, allegedly that they embezzled money from a movie production company to buy Sugar Daddy's nightclub in Scottsdale.
Each side in the dispute accuses the other of being responsible for killing production of a movie based on Sylvia Nobel-Williams' book "Deadly Sanctuary." Both sides say they worry the dispute will give a black eye to the fledgling film industry in Arizona.
Read more: Deadly Sanctuary (Part 1) - Novelist's Lawsuit Blames Pair For Killing Movie
To Chris: No one wanted to make a donation to get a free "Love-Worm" so we tied nooses around their necks and attached them to over-inflated balloons that we got from the Heart Association. Yours needed weight so you tied a key to it and we proceeded to send our "Love-Worm Aeronauts" up and down through the mall. That is, ...until your worm fell off and your house key got stuck thirty feet up on the ceiling. Your mom was going to kill you.
Chris Lamont tells me that he may have "lost" my priceless and irreplaceable historic film collection.
Is that right, Chris? You think you lost it? AND, ...you're sorry!?? ...is that correct? Well, I'm sorry too Chris. I'm sorry that you couldn't be trusted to do one little thing, ...even when you back it with all your honor and integrity.
I'm not sorry for me though, if you lost my film. I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that you would be so greedy and stupid to be pulling this shit still after all these years. And I'm sorry that you traded all the rights you have to everything, for my film collection.
Chris sounded like he was going to cry when he asked me what it is that I want from him. As if it were this huge inconvenience for him to return my property or tell me anything about it, ...or where it's at.
Chris, let's start with talking about what you owe me. Or at least, let's talk about what you agreed to, alright?
What was the premise for the "deal"?
So, what did I agree to? ...and why did I agree to it?
After being his friend for five years, here's the proposal that Christopher E. Lamont came to me with. Keep in mind that I had recently given him, as a token of friendship, a substantial quantity of my priceless collection. To this day, there is NO WHERE Chris could ever have gotten any of this, except from me. It was a irreplaceable gift. Here's is the line of bullshit Chris laid on me to get his hands on the rest of my property.
Believing your own bullshit does not make it true. Chris, let me tell you the truth: You're a fucking asshole.
You're the one who disappeared, not me.
I made you swear on your life to return my film after you "helped me" catalog it for two days. Then I "disappeared" forever? Is that right? Where did I disappear to? Did my whole family disappear? Me and my whole family just disappeared to the world of no telephones, never to be heard from again? ...and lucky for you, I mysteriously disappeared so quickly that you couldn't return my property? Is that the way it was? Fuck you.
This is a question that Chris put to me. It's another thing I have given much consideration to and I've finally come up with a response:
How old were you, ...when?
...when you started being a shitbag? My best guess would be, sometime before you started plotting to steal my stuff. That would have made you around ten (or younger) years old. However, chances are you were a little shitbag baby and have been a shitbag your whole life.
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