Morgan Hill –Martina Lopez might have owed money to Vincent Cardinalli, but it was Mirta Lopez Spitzer’s wages that he tried to garnish.
Cynthia Ferguson may have owned the car that Cardinalli once hauled away, but he instead sued Gilroy veterinarian Cynthia Fitzgerald for unpaid towing and storage fees.
Both cases of mixed identity have led to charges of attempted extortion against the former Hollister tow truck operator, 64, who along with his son and several other family members is facing a growing mountain of criminal charges for abusing the region’s court system.
On Friday, the criminal case against Cardinalli and his son Paul Stephen Greer, 30, spilled over into San Benito County, where they have collectively filed more than 1,400 small claims lawsuits in the last decade, according to a Dispatch investigation. The latest 25 criminal charges against the pair will be added to more than 100 charges they already face in connection with 600 small claims suits filed in Santa Clara County.
“We’re interviewing people as quickly as we can,” said Dale Lohman, a deputy district attorney in charge of the case. “We want to make sure we’re thorough and even-handed. We’re basically getting around to victims we were aware of for some time, but our time was focused on Santa Clara County cases and the conduct that was going on in our county.”
Attorneys for Cardinalli and Greer could not be reached by press time, but in an interview earlier this week, Greer’s attorney Arthur Cantu chalked up the criminal case against his client to disgruntled debtors.
“It looks like they have people who don’t like them,” Cantu said. “It’s not fun to be sued. It’s not fun to be collected on.”
The latest criminal complaint, which brings the total number of charges against the family and a process server who delivers legal papers to 140 counts, includes many charges similar to those already filed: attempted grand theft; lying on court forms; and convincing a process server to lie about fees to extract larger court awards from defendants.
The complaint also includes charges of burglary and embezzlement against Greer. The embezzlement charge stems from an accusation that he improperly disposed of a towed vehicle, while the burglary charge is based on an accusation that he sought to defraud the court system by using the same case number for multiple lawsuits — a legal maneuver that allowed him to avoid paying higher court fees, according to Lohman.
Cardinalli, meanwhile, is facing two counts of attempted extortion for seeking to collect funds from two people whom he allegedly knew were not the true debtors.
Mirta Spitzer never learned of a lawsuit over a 1989 Dodge Eagle until she received a collection notice from Cardinalli in 2006, her husband Todd explained Friday. He said they thought they had heard the last of the matter after contacting Cardinalli’s defunct A&R Towing to explain they were not the correct debtors.
A few months later a court-ordered wage garnishment arrived at Mirta Spitzer’s office, demanding her salary be attached for more than $2,000. Todd Spitzer said he was bewildered at how Cardinalli tied his wife’s name — and birth date and social security number — to a court judgment against a woman named Martina Lopez.
“We had nothing to do with it,” said Todd Spitzer, explaining that Cardinalli only dropped the case after they sought help from the Watsonville Law Center.
“I could have seen if we had owned the car,” Spitzer said. “But we had to take time out of our lives and our jobs to clear this up before money was taken from us. That’s what was really frustrating.”
Cardinalli and Greer were arrested in June along with Rosemary and Michael Ball (Cardinalli’s daughter and son-in-law) and process server Jeffrey Horan. Cardinalli and Greer have also been declared vexatious litigants, a legal status that forces them to gain court approval before filing new small claims cases.
A Dispatch investigation into the family uncovered a trail of suspect documents and business practices, including evidence that a court summons was delivered to an empty apartment and court documents were altered or forged. The latest complaint includes a forgery charge based on an allegedly altered document — highlighted in the Dispatch investigation — that Greer submitted to the San Benito County superior court.
Lohman said she expects to file more charges against the family in coming weeks.
