Parents who say they were defrauded by Tom Girardi after losing son file suit against California State Bar

Tom Girardi used to be meant to ship justice.

Ana and Arturo Agaton, a California couple whose son died from a most cancers that they say used to be led to by cement vegetation close to their house, became to the fame legal professional to carry the polluter responsible and lend a hand repair monetary balance to the circle of relatives after they buried Arturo Jr.

“We were so confident that he was representing us,” Ana Agaton mentioned of Girardi. “At the time, he was the king of the lawyers in Los Angeles.”

Watch the interview with Ana and Arturo Agaton on Nightline, the night time of Thursday, Sept. 7, at 12:35 a.m. ET on ABC, and circulation on Hulu.

Girardi had constructed a name and a criminal empire by combating for the little man — folks harmed by giant trade, like utilities, airways and business giants. He gained judgments and settlements and used to be portrayed at the giant display as a savior within the 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich.” And, in recent times, he used to be offered to an entire new technology of Americans, flaunting his wealth whilst enjoying the function of the super-rich and well-connected husband of Erika Jayne at the fact TV hit “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

“We were sure that he was taking care of our … case,” Ana Agaton mentioned. “But we never imagined that at the end, when they sent a letter from his office saying that the case was won and they were just waiting to distribute the checks to families in the proper manner — everything stopped there because from there we never heard from them again.”

The couple mentioned they have no longer observed one penny from the 2015 agreement with Riverside Cement Holdings Co. And the Agatons didn’t realize it on the time, however they were no longer by myself, as government would allege.

Now, Girardi stands disgraced, disbarred and charged in two states with bilking his shoppers. The Agatons are once more combating — this time in quest of responsibility no longer from a company polluter however from the state of California and its company liable for rooting out corruption and crooks some of the Golden State’s 200,000 legal professionals.

“We want justice,” Ana Agaton mentioned.

Today in Los Angeles, the Agatons filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Bar, alleging “gross negligence” and “reckless misconduct,” claiming that the frame liable for regulating the biggest group of attorneys within the nation “failed to do its job” and “actively protected Tom Girardi and [his firm] Girardi & Keese from ethical complaints and discipline for decades.”

“Had the state Bar carried out its mission of protecting the public, this complaint, and many others like it, would not be necessary,” the lawsuit says. “But the state Bar did not put the public first. Instead, while Girardi was hard at work defrauding his clients and co-counsel, state Bar officials were gallivanting around the country in Girardi’s private jet, staying at luxury hotels in Las Vegas, enjoying fine dining at expensive private clubs, attending lavish holiday parties with Hollywood entertainers, or attending concerts and other events, all paid for by Girardi.”

The legal professional representing the Agatons now, Daniel Osborn, advised ABC News’ “Nightline” that Girardi would by no means had been ready to escape together with his scheme were it no longer for something.

“Corruption,” mentioned Osborn. “To me, that signifies corruption.”

“Had the state Bar been doing its policing of attorneys, including Tom Girardi, to the level that they were supposed to, this scheme would’ve never gotten off the ground,” Osborn mentioned.

Officials with the California Bar didn’t right away reply to the lawsuit.

In March, the bar did factor a public observation admitting its personal breakdowns that enabled Girardi to do what he did to his shoppers.

“The magnitude and duration of the transgressions reveal persistent institutional failure and a shocking past culture of unethical and unacceptable behavior,” the bar mentioned on March 10 at the side of the discharge of stories detailing the movements of former personnel and officers. “In recent years we have put in place many safeguards that serve both to prevent unethical or corrupt behavior and — if it does occur — to catch and address it quickly. That work continues.”

The new lawsuit, filed by Osborn, is constructed largely at the findings of the ones bar reviews. It marks the hole of a contemporary entrance in a scandal that has already shaken each the criminal and leisure worlds and has enveloped each Girardi and his estranged spouse, who has insisted many times that she used to be no longer acutely aware of or a part of Girardi’s alleged crimes.

Girardi, 84, is going through federal felony twine fraud fees in Los Angeles and Chicago, alleging that he diverted thousands and thousands in shoppers’ cash to fund his lavish way of life. He has pleaded no longer in charge, and his legal professionals are these days combating to have a federal pass judgement on in California claim that Girardi isn’t competent to face trial because of dementia. A listening to at the competency query is scheduled to renew Monday in Los Angeles.

Now in chapter and being represented by taxpayer-funded attorneys, Girardi has misplaced his house and the trimmings of luck that infuriated the Agatons when they noticed them on TV.

“The mansions,” Ana Agaton mentioned. “The mansions that he has, the life that his wife is living. Their lifestyle. Their lifestyle with money that don’t belong to them.”

The Agatons had moved to Colton, California, between Riverside and San Bernardino, dreaming of a higher existence for daughter Dahlia and her more youthful brother, “Arturito,” as they known as him. It used to be 17 years in the past when their three-year-old son began coming down with the complications and runny noses that may mark the start of the top. The circle of relatives did not know that the 2 cement vegetation that sandwiched their group were quietly polluting the group and preying on the ones who lived there, they mentioned.

“My husband was supposed to take him to the park to start his first game that day,” recalled Ana Agaton about her son. “And instead of that, we had to take him to the hospital. And he was over there at the hospital, he was screaming that he didn’t want to be there, that he needed to go to play baseball.”

Ana and Arturo were advised their son had a malignant mind tumor, they mentioned, and it used to be the results of hexavalent chromium coming from the cement factories. Radiation and chemotherapy adopted, however Arturo Jr.’s little frame may no longer break out the hand of demise.

“We had to get on our knees one night, and ask the Lord to take him — we asked the Lord that if he wasn’t going to heal him, to take him because it was so hard to see him, to see him crying and screaming of the headaches,” Ana Agaton mentioned.

“‘You gave him to us and you take him whenever you want. Take him please,'” she recalled telling God. “It was the most difficult time, but we had to do it.”

Arturo Jr. died 3 years after his first signs seemed. By 2015, the Agatons were a part of a class-action lawsuit introduced by Girardi against Riverside Cement Holdings Co. The corporate settled for $31 million.

Now, the Agatons mentioned, they in finding themselves on a protracted record of former Girardi shoppers became sufferers.

Their new lawsuit against the California Bar seeks, amongst different issues, unspecified monetary damages and criminal charges.