So 4 years ago this August, Paul and Stuart and I suffered a betrayal by a man at least I considered a friend. His Christian name is John, but after what he did, stealing cases in the middle of the night, and skipping out owing Stuart thousands in back rent, I renamed him Fredo, after the treacherous, not too bright brother in Godfather. And Fredo he remains.
For awhile, I had a lot of anger towards him, I was a good friend -- I got his daughter into UF through the influence of another friend, Pat. His daughter, who I'll call Elizabeth, since that's her name, was sort of on the bubble as an ok but not stellar student at Palmer Trinity, and Pat, who had some leverage with UF back then, greased the wheels for her.
Later on, Fredo needed back surgery, and found a 6 month wait for the surgeon he wanted. Again, I used my contacts, got him in, and even drove him and spent hours waiting for him at JMH because he had no one else to give him a ride. His daughter Elizabeth isn't a big fan, on account of the fact that he may have raided some of her trust money on account of his being broke ass.
I ought to have known better than to let him into our inner circle. A wise friend, who I discussed this with, asked me how a UF Law grad, in his early 60s, was broke ass after a decades long career as a lawyer. A WASPY UF Law grad at that! Well -- I tend to , or used to, practice the halo effect. When I consider someone a close friend, they become somewhat angelic in my mind -- I put a metaphorical halo on them. I
I answered this wise friend that Fredo's wife was dying of melanoma, and he focused on his daughter, and that's why he suffered professionally. Turned out it was wrong -- at his wife Kim's funeral, none of her relatives or close friends even mentioned Fredo -- it was all about the daughter Elizabeth. Fredo was broke because he was a lazy POS -- and left a trail of failed partnerships because of that laziness. He was a very good con man -- still is. After he left us, he went to a major advertising firm , the principal, Robert, I call Saul Goodman. I predicted he'd last there 2 years until his act wore thin. I was off by 6 months, but damned if he didn't convince another firm, up in West Palm, that he was an asset and they should hire him. He'll be fired there by Spring, I am confident.
Of all the cases he stole from Stu and us, only 2 are left to be worked out. On one of them, Stuart, at my strategy, witheld the back rent Fredo owed instead of paying him the fee agreed to. Fredo was livid, but realized he was stuck -- he DID owe the money.
Now there's one case for us, and one for Stu. Stu tonight sent me a pleading on his case, wherein Fredo claimed that he did all the work, even though it was using Stu's rent free office and Stuart's secretary, and thus Stuart should get none of the fee. Stu sent me Fredo's motion.
I didn't get mad -- I just laughed. Despite being a PI lawyer, Fredo is a died in the wool Republican, and he just showed he was good at alternate facts, like his hero Trump. I suspect ultimately the fee dispute will be settled.
What's really sad is that the firm that got the result is a different one, and my friend Joel's former intern Todd is a partner there. I would hope Todd would take control, realize the right thing is to pay Stuart his money, and move on. But maybe greed will blind the ultra liberal Todd. I have no dog in the fight, but look foward to seeing if Todd values friendship over a few dollars. We'll see.
So no more anger towards Fredo. Rey, a former partner, continues to loathe him. Fredo begged Rey to keep him on long past the time Rey realized he was worthless, and then Fredo sued Rey!
Not me. Fredo is, like the namesake in the movie was to Michael, nothing to me. Not a friend, nothing.
And he's certainly not worth any anger.
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