(06/08) HOTL Hour 2

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law.Now. I've done tons of stories about
drug dealers and drugs being sold,and unfortunately, we are in a huge
problem in this country with the epidemic, the opioid epidemic, which has calmed
down because of the settlements and thecompanies like Pardue and other companies that were

(00:22):
just selling this stuff and just sortof distributing it like candy. Well,
the big issue now is fentanyl,and it is fentanyl that is produced usually
in Mexico or China, and thenbrought in the United States, I mean
by the boat load, although it'skind of hard to do on a truck,
and it is killing people, killingpeople big time. And it's really
scary because what people do is theybuy this stuff on the internet and will

(00:46):
sell you an opioid, will sellyou whatever drug, and it's laced with
fentanyl, which kills people. Imean, that's its astounding of the numbers.
So there are drug dealers, andas I said, there are drug
dealers right usually corner or they're inthe distribution network. Man, let me
tell you about one that when yousay drug dealers, you're not kidding.

(01:08):
The FEDS have arrested this twenty threeyear old Taiwanese national and charged him with
running an online market that sold onehundred million dollars worth of narcotics, including
fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, LSD, ketamine. Like that's across

(01:32):
the board. He did this foralmost four years. Rui Singh Linn owned
operated Incognito Market, an online marketplaceon the dark web, and he well,
it looks certainly like a legitimate business. He ran it like a big
time business buyer and user registration,branding, advertising, customer service. And

(01:56):
what it did is allow buyers tosearch through thousands of things for the narcotics
of their choice. Open in Octoberof twenty twenty, closed last March.
When they start to when the sitestarted to extort buyers and sellers and asking
anything from one hundred and two thousanddollars for not revealing text messages transaction records.

(02:21):
So not only were was the siteselling these illegal drugs, of course,
but then blackmailing people and saying ifyou don't pay us x dollars,
we're going to tell the world.We're going to release all this information and
the online handles that he used.The online what would you call it,

(02:46):
the on hang on. I'll getthis word. By the way, I
do this for a living. Okay, what we would that be? Uh?
Never mind online handles, you canlook it up. I just had
a little mind issue. It handled. The handles included Pharaoh, the name

(03:07):
Pharaoh with all kinds of spellings thatshould have put people on notice, but
it didn't. By the way,there were two hundred thousand customers online identities,
Thank you very much. I justcame up with that. Two hundred
thousand customers. And it was cryptocurrencythat was used. It had its own

(03:29):
bank, It had its own cryptobank that allowed users to deposit the cryptocurrency,
and once a transaction took place,funds were then transferred from the buyer's
crypto account into the seller's five percentfee collected by incognito. Also, the
site made money by charging sellers asign up fee, and then it started

(03:53):
extorting people. Isn't that lovely?That's what shut them down. Wow,
that is a big, big deal. All right, So I'm assuming he's
going to do a couple of daysin jail. What do you think?
All right, let's do it.It's time for some phone calls, all
right. Back we go to Jennywho hopefully did not die before we went
to break You're still there, eightyeight years old, Jenny, All right,

(04:14):
what's your question? Yes, Yes, I have a revocable trust,
and I disinherited my grandson, yes, because he was into drugs, okay,
and he's been pretty clean for ayear and he's in college and I
want to reinherit him. So canI just ride it out? In Longhand

(04:40):
Jenny, let me ask you howmuch money are you talking about here?
How much money am I leaving him? Yeah? How much money? In
general? How much money is inthe estate? You're maybe a quarter of
a million? You know, justputting in a name I wouldn't. Did
a lawyer write up the trust?Jenny? Yeah, go back to the

(05:00):
Saint lawyer. He just had it. It won't be a big deal.
But you know, just crossing outa name or saying I now reinstate him,
it's just that's pretty flaky. Idon't think you want to do that.
You know, take spend a coupleof dollars. It's worth it.
And by the way, you're spendinga couple of dollars that is not going
to go to him. I mean, so, so what so that part
you just leave out and you spendthe money. I mean, you're gonna

(05:24):
be dead anyway, probably by theend of his phone call. Who cares?
Okay, you stop that. I'mgoing to live to one hundred and
eight. You. I'm sure,I'm well. You sound it now,
but I'm sure you are. I'msure you are. Sounds pretty good for
eighty eight. I gotta tell youwhen I'm eighty eight. I hope I'm
that sharp for real. I hopeI don't sound that old, but I

(05:44):
hope I'm that sharp. Oh,Marcia, Hi, Marshall, welcome.
Hi. Yes, I don't knowif the girl gave you a brief whatever
I was going about, but Ididn't understand where. I did not understand
one word you just said. Solet's start it again. Really, yeah,
yeah, turned my phone up orsomething? Him? Is that?

(06:09):
Okay? Can you hear me now? Ye have to speak a little slower.
That's all all right? What canI What can I do for you?
Let's well, no, no,come on, just my son was
Yeah, my son had an accidentand he was intoxicated and a person in

(06:32):
the other car did not survive theaccident. And so because he's in his
forties. In his early twenties,he had a dui where he signed up
Watson Agreement, and so they said, he's basically charged with murder. And
this is someone that's been an upstandingcitizen. That does matter. But okay,

(06:57):
so he was so he's uh,he's drunk, he drives, he
kills someone on the road, correct, right, Okay, charged with murder
and what happened? Yes, Sofor two years in jail, going back
and forth to court. Well,first they gave him bail and they took
it away, which was another thingI think is something's wrong there because he
didn't do anything. But two yearsin jail. Finally the family is wanting

(07:25):
him to do at least a certainamount of time. If they're not going
to go to trial, they wanta certain amount of time. They wanted
twenty years, and so he hadto agree to certain things that didn't even
happen in the accident. Because I'msitting in the courtroom listening to this and
I'm saying, what no, no, no, But I this is what
they were saying to do because theydon't want to go to who was they?

(07:48):
Who was they were saying for himto do? Oh? Oh,
the family and the other attorney forright. Let me ask you, Martian,
did your son have an attorney?Yes, How did the attorney allow
him to admit to anything? Idon't because he said if they go because
the other attorney for the family,he said, wants to, it doesn't

(08:13):
matter. The other attorney can askfor the death penalty. I don't understand
how your attorney allowed him to admitto stuff that isn't true. I know
I don't either. Wow, Okay, you got you know there's a you
know I have to tell you whenyou have the family. I mean that.

(08:33):
Certainly the court takes that into effector takes it into consideration. But
the court doesn't say, you guysfigure out how much this defendant should be
in jail. I'm here, Iam I'm the judge. But you know
what, I'm gonna let you guysmake the decision. You want twenty years,
he gets twenty years. What Idon't understand. I don't understand.

(08:54):
I don't I don't, all right, So what's your what's your question?
Okay? So with going back andagreeing to make it to where he would
have twenty years, he had tosay that he gave up his time served,
which was probably been four years.Wait wait, wait, wait years
he's been wait a secon he wantedit to be only he agreed to twenty

(09:15):
years. Is that correct? Yeah, because that's family is just all right?
You know what, Marcia, thisis way above my pay scale in
terms of criminal law. I don'tunderstand any of this. The family says
you have to go to jail fortwenty years unless what And he's never been

(09:37):
in jail before. He's upstanding citizenboy. You got me on that one.
I don't even know where to goon that. I really don't Tracy,
you're up. Welcome to handle onthe law. Hey, Bill,
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Sure, sister, I'm trying to
get a restraining order against and tostay away from my mother. She has

(09:58):
been to several mental and I gota quick five things I want to run
down to you. She has flownout to Washington, d C. To
assassinate President Bush and got caught bythe Secret Service. That's that's your sister,
not your mother, right, mysister, Okay, and then threatened
to kill till my dad of KoreanWar vet got a lamputee by ripping out

(10:20):
the tubes out of his arm atdialysis. Breat Okay, number two?
You want? Four? And five? My sister okay, uh punch me
in the face at Saint Jude's Hospitalwhile the nurses were taking care of my
dying dad. My mother and brotherwanted her to leave because she was bothering

(10:45):
the nurses there. All right,number I'm going back to number three.
She attacked my brother Bill, tryingto keep her away from my dad,
scratching him in the face. He'san assistant da All right, Okay,
got and I got a copy ofthe restraining order. I'm buying him to
court. Wait wait, wait,wait, wait, you asking for a
restraining order yet you have a copyof the restraining order? Which one is

(11:07):
it? My brother had one that'sin the archives. Your brother has a
copy of the restraining order? Okay? Yeah? And then number five was
a real good one. His girlfriend'sas I pulled up to the house and
Kim came out. She's Asian,and she said, Susan, the house
going boom boom, boom boom withDonna's husband. Boom boom is sex,

(11:31):
And so I go, what areyou doing having sex with with Donna's husband?
And she's denying it. She's allcoming up it. That doesn't matter.
Yeah, let me tell you something. The nah nah Tracy, the
sex part doesn't matter. U.No, I mean it does matter,
for it does matter for entertainment purposes. Keep in mind, that's probably the
best story of all, especially whenshe says they're going boom boom. That

(11:56):
is terrific boom. Okay, Sowhat's your question? What's your question?
Okay? So I went to theI filled out a restrain order. Okay,
get to court, and they gaveme a court date for three days.
The Secret Service gave me a fileit's called Freedom of Information Act to
get paperwork once she flew out toall and and it takes days to do

(12:20):
it on computer. Illiterate. Theygave me a thing to do on the
computer, all right, I know, what's your question to get that?
Okay? They gave me a courtdate. They didn't give me an emergency
tr o all right? Who thecourt didn't give you an emergency tro yes,
for her to stay away from mymother? All right? So okay,

(12:41):
so what's your question? What doyou suggest I do? And what
kind of will the court take myword on all these things? No?
No, absolutely not no, No, you're gonna need proof. You just
can't say it. You're gonna needthe nurses who are witnesses. You're gonna
need affidavits from them saying yes,I saw this. You're going to need

(13:01):
all the statements, Yes I'm avictim, Yes I saw this. You
just got walk into court, Tracyand say this happened, and you have
the court by it. I coulddo the same thing for you. That
doesn't care. It doesn't matter,Tracy, No one cares. I mean,
we care as far as your serviceis concerned, and we thank you
for that. But as far asthe legal issue involved here, it doesn't

(13:24):
matter that you're a veteran or nota veteran. Uh. And So the
answer to your question is, I'massuming what do I do? You get
witnesses, you get statements from peoplewho were there, are and are victims,
and you'll get your temporary restraining order. That's absolutely guaranteed. You can't
just do it on your own,you know, based on what you say,

(13:45):
that doesn't work. I mean,it might may be a temporary order,
but you know, have you beenhave you filed and have you been
in front of have you been infront of a judge asking for a tro
o. I'm going in front ofthe judge. Okay, get it.
Get witnesses, get witnesses, victims. You gotta find that out now.
If you have bad breath, I'mnot just talking about him. I'm talking

(14:09):
about all of us. And weall have bad breath. I mean that's
the reality. People don't tell you, but they have it. You have
it. I mean that's simply partof life. So you take mints,
right, second mints and now whatOkay, yeah, for a few minutes
your breath is great. Well,let me tell you about Zelman's minty Mouth
mints. That is way more thana mint. Zelman's not only works in

(14:31):
your mouth with a mint part,but then you swallows tiny little capsule that
you then swallow. Put two orthree in your mouth and either bite into
them, which I don't do,or you swallow them and all of a
sudden, they start working in yourgut where bad breath really starts. They've
been clinically tested even against garlic andonions. I mean, this is pretty
powerful stuff. So Zelman's Minty MouthMints I even bought into the company.

(14:58):
I'm a partner because I so believeit this product. Go to Zelman's z
E L M I N S Zelman'sdot com fifteen percent off when you use
the code handle that's h A ND E L and go to Zelman's use
that code fifteen percent off Zelman's dotcom. Hey Paul, welcome to the

(15:18):
show. What can I do foryou? Morton Bill? So I had
a question. So my dad hehad gotten really sick back in February.
He was in and out of thehospital a couple of times, and then
from February to April, he endedup losing about sixty pounds because he couldn't

(15:39):
keep anything down, and well,he ended up buying a car. He
wasn't really in his right state ofmind, wasn't able to hold down a
conversation like he just wasn't mentally there, did he? Well, hold on,
he walked into a dealership and boughtthe car. Correct, he went
into the dealership, He bought thecar on April fifteenth. He ended up

(16:06):
falling on the eighteenth because he wasso weak, and then he passed away
on April twenty first. Okay,so all right, all right, so
a week after revised it he diesright? Correct? Okay, so what
is your question, Paul. Somy question is we went in there on

(16:26):
April twenty third, and we explainedto him that our dad just passed away.
None of us wanted the vehicle,none of the kids wanted the vehicle,
and just seeing if they would takethe vehicle back, just take it,
just take it back and refund.Well, hold on, mate,
take it back and refund the money. He hadn't even paid anything. There

(16:48):
was a trade vehicle, and sowe were just seeing this fro right.
So you so you want to justyou want to okay, so just want
to walk away. Now there isa lending institution that loaned the money and
paid the car. You know that, correct? Okay. So with that,
you asked, can you just takethe car back and we walk away

(17:11):
or your dad's estate walks away?Correct? Yeah? Just okayhead, all
right, well let me hold on, let me let me go through it
for a moment. First of all, the car lost ten thousand dollars in
value just by him buying it.Okay, so they sell it. Let's
say they do take it back andsell it and they get ten thousand dollars

(17:32):
less? Do they eat that?I mean? They ended up so that
the MSRP for that vehicle was thirtytwo dollars over at bal Honda and they
sold it to my dad for fortyeight thousand dollars. Okay, now that
is a different That is a differentissue. Okay, that is a different

(17:53):
issue. We're simply talking about walkingaway and they're going to take a loss
on the vehicle. That issue numberone didn't get to issue number two.
When he was so ill that hebought the car and they sold it for
fifteen thousand dollars over eighteen thousand dollarsover MSRP. That actually is pretty good

(18:18):
news for you or his estate,because that's who owes the money. You
don't he bought it. It's hisestate the money he has. Incidentally,
does he have any money? Isthere anything of his estate? We're still
in the process of trying to settlethings because he's okay, does he have
let me ask you, does hehave, Paul? Does he have any

(18:40):
money? Is he leaving any money? I think a few ten thousand dollars
here or there, so okay,I don't know if they're going to go
after ten thousand dollars. They might, but the argument's going to be is
and you have to have proof ofthis, you're going to have to have
medical proof that he was not cognizant. He had very big issues in terms

(19:04):
of knowing what he is doing.He bought it and died a week later.
I mean, all of that isa pretty good argument for to walk
away. And I would think thebig one is selling it for eighteen thousand
dollars over MSRP. That is alot of proof that number one, he

(19:26):
didn't know what he was doing.Number two, that is taking advantage of
an elderly, vulnerable sick man,and that is a form of elder abuse
that is illegal. And so okay, so you've done that, and now
the Arizona Attorney General yet right,So okay, so that's moving in that

(19:49):
direction. So now it's real simple. You simply tell him to go pound
sand. It's in their ballcart,it's in their ballpark. Okay, let
them make a let them make acomplaint, you know, let them file
a lawsuit. Now, who isthe executor or the trustee of his estate?

(20:11):
My oldest brother and my sister.Okay, here's what happens if they
distribute the money prior to whatever.If for example, a lawsuit is filed
and they distribute the money anyway,and don't put that aside. They if
the lender prevails, they're going tobe responsible for distributing the money, especially

(20:34):
if a lawsuit's been filed and theyknow about it. I don't think that
the lender is going to go afteryour dad's estate. I really don't,
because there is too much garbage ontheir side. I mean, there is
the doctrine of clean hands. Theydon't have clean hands here, and the

(20:56):
doctrine of clean hands goes way wayback, and the court is going to
look at all, right, youthis legitimate contract. Why did you charge
eighteen thousand dollars more than MSRP.I've never seen that unless you have a
car it's a Lamborghini or a Ferrarithat's pretty rare and you're gonna charge two
hundred thousand dollars more. But ifit's a regular car that's sold at MSRP,

(21:22):
or even a five thousand dollars markup, which happened during times when cars
are very rare, no, that'sit. I think you're fine. I
think you're just wait for them,do nothing until they go for it.
And you did everything right by theway in going after with the attorney general.
Yeah, I think I think they'regonna have problems, not you,
Lydia, Hello, Lydia, Welcome, Hi Bill. So I'm calling on

(21:47):
behalf of my sister. She waswell, she was with this idiot boyfriend
for over twenty years. Live together, Yeah, for over twenty years.
Can you never marry hers or anythinglike that. They lived in the house
that was only under his name.I think they lived there for about ten
years. Something happened between them.She got a restraining order against them.

(22:11):
She left the house by force.Cops came and they had them removed from
the house. Okay, she's inthe house right now. She's in the
house right now. She has arestraining order against them that's valid. For
four weeks. She's been texting her, telling her, leave my house.
Leave my house. You're not inthe leave. She's wondering what can she

(22:33):
do about that. She's to moveto She can move it's his house.
It's his house. Okay, soshe's looking for another place. So h
what does he do? He evicsher, you have to do it legally.
Where is uh? What city isshe in? She's in Corona or

(22:53):
Upland, one of those cities.Okay, no rent control there, And
so he's got to follow all therules. Has she paid rent? Has
she helped with the mortgage for example? Oh? Yes, yes, yes,
most of them. All right,So the argument is that she basically
is a tenant, uh, andhe has to follow all the rules.

(23:17):
She's been in in for longer thana year, relocation money, sixty days
notice, I mean, all ofit. But the bottom line is,
all things being equal, it's hishouse. Now, you can evict anybody
you want living in your house,even her former girlfriend. If it's a
wife situation, it may even bea wife. By the way, I

(23:37):
don't know. I don't know divorcelaw enough. But no, court's going
to say she gets to stay.And by the way, let's say a
court does get she stay, getsto say she gets to stay. How
long? What would you say,right, No, no, no,
that she's looking for places? Ohyeah, that's great, I mean she'll
yeah, that's she'll be given Yeah, I mean if he has to evict,

(24:00):
then sixty day notice. And thenhe tells she tells him, I'm
looking for a place, and hesets a court date. And let's say
you walk into court, judge isprobably gonna give her more time to look.
I mean, she'll have plenty oftime to look, assuming that she
assuming that she is prepared to moveand understands what's going on. Isn't that

(24:22):
fun? Twenty years? Okay?Hello, Matt? Hi, yeahs an
ho A and there makes a baddecisions. They all about eight to eleven
million dollars in legal fees eight toeleven eight to eleven million dollars in legal

(24:42):
fees? Yes, wow? Howbig is How big is the HOA?
How big is the HOA? Mattbig? I'm sorry, bel Canyon Association?
Yeah, no, no, I'mjust asking how big? How many
units are we talking about? Hundreds? How does an h o A?

(25:03):
How does the law firm allow tobe behind eleven million dollars? Well,
it's not behind. What happened wasthe architectural board got into an argument with
a resident about building plans, andthey went to court about it, and
the the homeowner one and now theHOA own ohs, you know eight to

(25:26):
eleven million dollars issue. So howdoes a homeowner get eleven million dollars?
It's a various, fluid community andit was a big, giant house and
I don't know, all right,so okay, fair enough. I mean,
Bill cunning is the good is a. There's some very very high end
properties there. Okay, So what'syour question, Matt. So there's there's

(25:47):
two questions. One, can theHUA just declare bankruptcy because they're all bad
in debt? The other question isthe attorneys that handled the case. Some
billing turned out missing at the HOAand and a hard drive was professionally wiped.
And they've requested the billing from theattorneys that handled the case so that

(26:07):
they can there are three cases tofigure out. Yeah, but the bottom
line is, Matt, if theycan, if the HOA declares bankruptcy,
it doesn't matter. You don't knowthe money, and you go in front
of a bankruptcy judge, you know, and he does a whole reorganization thing.
Uh. And so at that pointyou got plenty of time. So

(26:30):
okay, So the information was wiped, all right? Was it put up
on the cloud? Was it backedup? No? They can't find it.
So they requested the information from theattorneys, and the attorneys have not
responded to that. Okay, istheir attorney or the opposite attorney the HOA
attorneys? Okay, so they're requestingit from their own attorney. Correct,

(26:53):
and so they bank. Okay,Fine, So the attorney says, uh,
what's the attorney going to do ifthe HOA goes bankrupt? Well,
that's just a question I'm going topose to the Yeah, all right,
go ahead. But yeah, ifyou if the HOA was eleven million dollars,
yeah, at that point you go, thank you, We're done.
We're going bankrupt, of course,and they're allowed to go. States are

(27:17):
allowed to go bankrupt. Did youknow that entire states are allowed to go
bankrupt? They're Orange County, California, which has what, I don't know
how many millions of people went bankrupt. About forty years ago, utility up
in Washington went bankrupt. So certainlyhoas can can go bankrupt. That's not

(27:38):
a problem at all. Ray,Hi, Ray, welcome, Hi Bill,
Thanks for taking my car. Ijust wanted to ask how what my
responsibility is if my brother passed awaylast year and now discover card he had
a bill, obviously do and hedid pay. Obviously they're after me now

(28:02):
to pay okay with interest. NowI am not his beneficiary, I'm not
in mistrust. So your question is, do you do you have to pay.
Yes, okay, fair enough?Where is is your brother? Is
your Is your brother in a cemeteryby any chance? No, he was

(28:23):
cremated. Okay. Where are hisashes with my sister? North Ridge?
Okay? Fair enough? You tellthe credit card company the address of your
sister and say this is where helives. Maybe a little difficult to serve
him because he's in an urn,but that's your problem. Uh. And
I'm not paying because I'm not responsible. Okay. The fun part is.

(28:48):
The fun part is seeing how aprocess server is going to serve, is
going to serve and earn. Uh. And that's a tough one. The
bottom line is you're not responsible atall. They're just blowing spell. They're
just trying to get money from you. Yeah, and the letter came from
a lawyer. Don't what do Icall that lawyer at this point or just

(29:15):
stay out of it and tell no, you call a lawyer and say,
hey, I'm not responsible. Iwould put What I would do is put
it in a letter in an emailand say I am not responsible for this
bill, leave me alone. Ifhe continues to do that, you pray
that that lawyer continues to harass you. Okay, you pray because that lawyer,

(29:37):
because that's when you're going to collectsome money. If he continues to
Will it affect my credit? Nogood? You pray that it affects your
credit. If they ding your creditfor a bill you don't owe, and
they know that, which is clear, they are screwed, beyond screwed.
You want all of that to happen, by the way, all of it,

(30:00):
because you're going to retire on themoney you're going to get from these
people if that happens. So Isue them. Not yet, not yet.
Now what you do is you letthem know you do not owe the
money. Okay, all right,you're not responding. You are not responsible
at all for that debt. Letme tell you about cyber thieves. Oh,

(30:23):
we all get caught up in that. Cyber thieves commit silent crimes.
It happens in the dark. Someoneuses your name information online. You don't
even know what's happening. You knowwhen you find out your credit card bill
shows up and you see these boguscharges. Cybercrime and identity theft and I
get questions all the time. Affectour daily lives, and we have to

(30:44):
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(31:12):
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or LifeLock dot com promo code handle. This is handle on the law