The process server involved in a local tow truck scandal pleaded
no contest to several counts of conspiracy and perjury and the
company’s owner could be released on bail after the district
attorney’s office dismissed a strike against him during his most
recent court appearance.
The process server involved in a local tow truck scandal pleaded no contest to several counts of conspiracy and perjury and the company’s owner could be released on bail after the district attorney’s office dismissed a strike against him during his most recent court appearance.
The case against Vincent Cardinalli, Sr. 65, his son Paul Greer, 31 – formerly Vincent Cardinalli, Jr., two other family members and process server Jeffrey Horan, arrested on scores of counts of forgery, grand theft and other felony charges has been transferred to a San Jose judge because of the length of time estimated for the preliminary hearing, a process attorneys estimate could take up to six weeks.
Defense attorneys and Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman are slated to appear in court June 27 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose to set the date for the preliminary hearing, a six-week process that has been postponed several times due to the sheer amount of paperwork to sift through and could be postponed again, Lohman said.
Horan admitted to his participation in the matter, and was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to cheat and defraud and six counts of perjury, Lohman said. He could face up to nine years and eight months in a state prison, Lohman said.
Before a June 6 court appearance, Cardinalli faced a potential third strike felony, which could have landed him in prison for life. He was being held in a Santa Clara County jail without bail. However, one of the strikes was dismissed and he will appear in court June 27 for a bail hearing. The previous two strikes involved felony arson convictions from the 1970s.
“It’s not that we couldn’t prove one,” Lohman said. “(The office of the district attorney) just decided to exercise discretion.”
However, she plans to push for a high bail on the premise that Cardinalli poses a danger to the community, she said. After he posted bail following his first arrest, he continued to commit crimes similar to the ones he had been arrested for in the first place, she said.
Collectively, the group has incurred 169 felony charges and one misdemeanor charge since their arrests last June. The charges stem from hundreds of lawsuits filed by Cardinalli and Greer in hopes of collecting towing and storage fees for their defunct towing businesses. Cardinalli’s A&R Towing operated out of Hollister under a number of different names until about 2004, the same year Greer’s B&C Towing, of Clovis, was fired by the California Highway Patrol for what it deemed business practices bordering on “criminal.”
The family is accused of knowingly suing motorists who previously had sold or donated cars years before they were towed, and in some cases had never owned the vehicle. Cardinalli and Greer turned their towing businesses into a gold mine, collectively filing nearly 2,000 cases in small claims courts over the past seven years in San Benito and Santa Clara counties, according to a Dispatch investigation. Those cases have left a trail of defendants who say they had little or no relation to vehicles towed by Cardinalli and Greer.
Many motorists who lost cases to Cardinalli and Greer complained they never received notice of the tow or the fact that they were sued.
