The complicated case involving a family up against scores of
criminal charges stemming from a tow truck scam was postponed
Wednesday pending a hearing on the family patriarch’s most recent
request for co-counsel.
The complicated case involving a family up against scores of criminal charges stemming from a tow truck scam was postponed Wednesday pending a hearing on the family patriarch’s most recent request for co-counsel.
Vincent Cardinalli, Sr., 65, ditched his defense attorney months ago to take up the effort himself. Cardinalli, his son Paul Greer, 31 – formerly Vincent Cardinalli, Jr. – Greer’s sister, Rosemary Ball, and her husband, Michael Ball, face 169 counts of conspiracy, perjury, forgery, attempted grand theft and other felony charges stemming from hundreds of lawsuits filed by Cardinalli and Greer in hopes of collecting towing and storage fees for their now defunct towing businesses.
Attorneys met Wednesday to set a date for a preliminary hearing but the case was continued because Cardinalli’s motion for co-counsel won’t be heard by Superior Court Judge Vincent Chiarello until next week. The hearing will take place 9 a.m. Feb. 11 in Department 43 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
After that, attorneys will reconvene March 11 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.
The father and son duo were arrested June 2007 on dozens of felony counts. The family is accused of knowingly suing motorists who previously had sold or donated cars years before they were towed, and in some cases they sued people who had never owned the vehicle at all, court documents allege.
Cardinalli and Greer turned their towing businesses into a gold mine, collectively filing more than 2,000 cases in small claims courts since 1999 in San Benito and Santa Clara counties, according to an investigation conducted by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. They were released on bail and continued to enter small claims suits in San Benito County, even after being dubbed “vexatious litigants” by the courts. Cardinalli was later taken back into custody when further investigation revealed the Hollister resident was convicted of two felony arson charges in the 1970s.
