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Florida lawyer accused of stalking another attorney, texting rap songs with threatening lyrics

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:37:42 +0000

Criminal Justice

Florida lawyer accused of stalking another attorney, texting rap songs with threatening lyrics

February 10, 2025, 11:45 am CST

A lawyer in Coral Gables, Florida, was charged with aggravating stalking Thursday for allegedly harassing another attorney who was so concerned that he sent his employees home from his law office. (Image from Shutterstock)

A lawyer in Coral Gables, Florida, was charged with aggravating stalking Thursday for allegedly harassing another attorney who was so concerned that he sent his employees home from his law office.

Florida lawyer Carlos L. Santi, 43, was arrested while holding pizza boxes carrying the name of the lawyer he allegedly targeted and the name of the lawyer’s wife, report Law.com, the Miami Herald and WPLG.

Santi is a lawyer with the Property & Casualty Law Group in Florida. The alleged victim, who is also a Coral Gables attorney, contacted police Feb. 4 about the alleged harassment.

The victim told police that Santi had shown up uninvited to his law office, had passed by his house while texting that he was there, had texted rap songs with threatening lyrics, and had mentioned the targeted attorney’s children, according to allegations in an arrest report and an affidavit cited by the news articles.

Video surveillance showed Santi walking past the other lawyer’s residence while staring at his home, according to the police report.

On Friday, Judge Mindy S. Glazer of the Miami-Dade circuit court issued a stay-away order to protect the allegedly targeted attorney and his family, the articles reported.

Santi was recently sanctioned in a civil case before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nicholas P. Mizell of the Middle District of Florida. Mizell chastised Santi in a condo association case for failing to file a disclosure and lead counsel designation, despite reminders.

In a Jan. 7 order, Mizell referred Santi to the court’s grievance committee to provide Santi counseling on improving his practices or to recommend appropriate remedial action. The judge also ordered Santi to pay $200 to the Southwest Florida Federal Court Bar Association to be used in “ongoing efforts to elevate the practice of law.”

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Despite lyrics mistake by AI, lawyer wasn’t ineffective for using tech in rapper’s case, federal judge says

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 05:55:43 +0000

Technology

Despite lyrics mistake by AI, lawyer wasn’t ineffective for using tech in rapper’s case, federal judge says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 3, 2024, 12:09 pm CDT

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a member of the Fugees, a hip-hop group, is seen during a press conference at a hotel in Erbil, Iraq, in July 2015. (Photo by Hamit Huseyin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A federal judge has refused to grant a new trial in a case of a rapper convicted for using straw donors in a back-channel lobbying campaign, despite evidence of a mistake by an artificial intelligence program used to help draft closing arguments.

Senior U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District of Columbia upheld the verdict against Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who was convicted in connection with his lobbying to get the United States to drop the case against a fugitive financier in connection with the collapse of the sovereign wealth fund 1MBD.

Michel’s crimes were related to “conduit contributions, witness tampering and foreign lobbying,” according to Kollar-Kotelly’s Aug. 30 opinion.

Kollar-Kotelly said the lyrics mistake by the AI program, in which another rapper’s lyrics were attributed to Michel, a member of the Fugees, a hip-hop group, did not undermine the case, even though Michel’s lawyer repeated the mistake in closing arguments.

Kollar-Kotelly said Michel had not established that his trial lawyers were ineffective for using the AI program because there was no showing of prejudice.

The Associated Press has coverage, while the Volokh Conspiracy published opinion highlights.

Michel’s lawyers had sought help from an AI program created by EyeLevel.AI with this prompt: “I am a passionate attorney who believes in my clients [sic] innocence. Write a powerful, emotionally compelling closing argument and integrate lyrics from ‘Ghetto [Supastar]’ by the band the Fugees.”

The AI program generated a closing argument that cited these lyrics by Puff Daddy, who is now known as Diddy: “Every step I take, every move I make, Every single day, every time I pray, I’ll be missing you.”

Michel’s lawyer used the lyrics in his closing this way: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in the prolific words of a band called the Fugees founded by Mr. Michel, there was a prescient song—I am not going to try to sing or rap, then you would all throw me out of the courtroom. But the lyrics went, ‘Every single day, every time I pray, I will be missing you.’ These words though originally written in a totally different context, speak to the profound impact this trial has had on Mr. Michel’s life. The weight of the decision as to how he moves forward in life lies within your sound common sense and judgment, which I know that you will bring to these deliberations.”

Kollar-Kotelly said Michel did not demonstrate a reasonable probability that the trial result would have been different with correct attribution of a lyric to Michel.

Kollar-Kotelly also rejected an argument that Michel’s lawyers apparently had an undisclosed financial conflict of interest in the company that launched EyeLevel.AI. In a press release, one of Michel’s lawyers said use of the AI program had been a “game changer” during the trial. The press release said the AI program had been launched with technology partner CaseFile Connect, which was partly owned by two of Michel’s lawyers.

But neither lawyer had a financial interest in EyeLevel.AI. Rather, the lawyers asked that the CaseFile Connect language be included in the press release to get free press for the company, one of the lawyers had testified.

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Charges dropped in stolen ‘Hotel California’ lyrics case

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 05:08:46 +0000

Musician Don Henley, left, arrives in court in New York on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Three collectibles-world professionals were on trial in the criminal case involving roughly 100 legal pad sheets from the development of the Eagles’ 1976 “Hotel California” album. The charges against the men were dropped on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Charges were dismissed for three collectibles experts being tried for possessing stolen “Hotel California” lyrics after questions surfaced over whether they had truly been stolen and a judge criticized the Eagles rocker Don Henley and his manager for manipulating prosecutors.

Prosecutors dropped charges against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski amid the trial in New York. They had been accused of possessing nearly 100 pages of handwritten notes and lyrics for one of the bestselling albums of all time — “Hotel California” by The Eagles.

The Associated Press reported that prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had been blindsided within the last few days by 6,000 pages of communications involving Don Henley and his attorneys and associates.

“These delayed disclosures revealed relevant information that the defense should have had the opportunity to explore” when Henley and other prosecution witnesses testified late last month, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes told the court, the AP reported.

The wire service reported the former defendants’ reactions. Inciardi said, “The next step is building back our reputations.” Kosinski said he felt “very good” about the case’s end. Horowitz declined to comment.

Henley’s attorney, Dan Petrocelli, called the outcome unjust and vowed to “pursue all his rights in the civil courts,” Billboard reported.

Justice Curtis Farber took Henley and his manager, Irving Azoff, to task.

“A review of these newly disclosed materials has demonstrated and highlighted Mr. Henley and Mr. Azoff’s use of the privilege to shield themselves from a thorough and complete cross-examination,” Justice Farber said at the hearing, according to Billboard. “It is now clear that both witnesses and their lawyers … used the privilege to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging to their position that the lyric sheets were stolen.”

The judge said prosecutors had been “manipulated” into bringing the charges but also commended them for dropping the case when new evidence surfaced, the magazine reported.

Law&Crime reported in 2022 about the indictment alleging the manuscripts were stolen in the late 1970s by someone hired to write a biography of the band. In 2005, the manuscripts were sold to Horowitz, a rare books dealer, who then sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, prosecutors said.

When Henley learned that Inciardi and Kosinski were trying to sell portions of the manuscripts, prosecutors said, he filed police reports, told the three men that the materials were stolen, and demanded that they be returned to him.

The “Hotel California” album is certified 26 times platinum, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Law&Crime’s Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.

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