After reading and rereading the Darlene Fernardez Carus bar discipline I'm bewildered as to how Ms. Carus was able to avoid criminal prosecution by using the "I had no idea" defense. Besides claiming that she had no idea how a million or so dollars worth of real estate fraud occurring using her trust account, title policies issued by her office, etc she then turns around and blames everything on an "abusive and overbearing husband" and an "old law school friend" who abused her trust. The document goes on to claim that Ms. Carus is "a sweet, caring individual" that "had a soft spot and would want to help a friend in a time of need." If that wasn't bad enough, the bar discipline goes on to blame her indiscretions on an infant child with autism as well as a "residential move". What a story! I almost felt bad for the poor woman till I came across this bit...
"in her naivete, she never considered the possibility that her trusted friend would engage in fraud or misappropriate funds"For fucks sake! "...in her naivete..." That's a bit much now isn't it!? The attorney defending her has used almost every excuse in the book, overbearing husband, sickly child with autism, close friend that screwed her and last but not least moving her home as defenses for being involved in a million or so dollars of outright fraud and grand theft! PUHLEEZE! This attorney turns over sensitive documents, passwords and wires money in and out of her trust account on transactions whose mortgages she wasn't satisfying into a third parties bank account and she did all of this because of "naivete"? So let me get this straight, when the bank is writing these mortgage frauds off that were committed by the Maria T. Lopez crew, do they attribute the losses to "naivete" as well or do they claim the loss was because of an "abusive or overbearing husband"? The attorney who crafted this excuse ridden document even goes so far as to get an insult in against Ms. Carus' ex-husband, Omar Carus, calling him "a jealous, overbearing, abusive ex-cop who graduated law school but could not pass the bar exam." Wow.
Can anyone accept these excuses considering the complicity of Ms Carus in these complex mortgage frauds and real estate transactions? If nothing else, if you buy all the other excuses, considering that her name is on all the paperwork, her trust account is receiving and dispersing hundreds of thousands of dollars, isn't it her responsibility to make sure that the sellers mortgages were paid off?! Regardless of whether Ms. Carus wasn't aware of the nefarious activities of Ms. Lopez and her gang, it was her name on all the documents, her trust account receiving and disbursing funds related to the fraudulent transactions and her office that was issuing title policies, the simply "not knowing" excuse doesn't hold water. I guess we can attribute Ms. Carus getting off to having a good criminal defense attorney.
Just remember, next time you find yourself in hot water with the law, you can always use the "naivete" excuse!
The only thing that she didn't know was that she was going to get caught.
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