SAN JOSE
The family that stands accused of scores of felony counts stemming from a tow and sue scam will appear in court tomorrow, but their preliminary hearing will most likely be postponed while the family’s patriarch prepares to act as his own defense attorney.
Attorneys hope the case will be assigned to a judge at a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Department 24 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.
Vincent Cardinalli, Sr., 65, 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 defunct towing businesses.
More than a year after Cardinalli was arrested, he recently decided to fire his defense attorney and represent himself, a decision that will surely set the case months back, attorneys said.
Cardinalli and Greer were arrested in June 2007 following an eight-month investigation conducted by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Sixteen months later, the case has not yet gone to preliminary hearing. Defense attorneys have dropped out along the way. The case has been transferred from South County to San Jose. The attorneys who did manage to plow through countless stacks of evidence have been called away to other cases. And after months of working to coordinate their schedules and delve into what is expected to be a six-week long preliminary hearing, attorneys learned that Cardinalli dropped his lawyer and will take up the role himself.
The family’s preliminary hearing was scheduled for Monday and Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman announced that she was ready to go. However, in light of recent developments, she said she expects more delays.
“I wasn’t surprised,” she said of Cardinalli’s request to represent himself. Lohman has been ready to begin the preliminary hearing for months, but she’s been waiting while one of the defense attorneys is tied up in another trial.
