The following is posted from Ms. Layne without edits. Those accused/mentioned in the submission are invited to send counters to the blogmaster’s email address – Blogmaster
Sometime during the course of the morning of October 17 2024, I contacted the head of the Fraud Department, Inspector Dudley Walrond, about our longstanding matter with Attorney-at-law, Vonda Pile. She collected insurance and credit union funds from our mother’s estate since March 2010 and never distributed them.
We had reported her to the Police (Fraud department) almost 13 years ago, and also the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association.
It took a while, starting out with Sgt. Headley, and later handed over to Sgt. Howard, when Headley left the Force. Unknown to us, there was a friendly association between Howard and Miss Piles’ life partner, so it was handled very lightly and casually. He simply suggested that we go and talk to her at her office. (Never mind this is the SAME office that had been dodging our calls and impromptu visits and ignoring our pleas for a long time.)
True to form, Miss Pile refused to see me, opting to meet my brother, Dave, alone because she knew I would be sharp and not miss any of her misrepresentation of the facts nor evasive tactics. During the meeting, she declared to Dave that she would charge more for her work on the estate because we had (albeit rightfully) reported her.
The Bar case took a couple years before the hearing was called. On the final day, she failed to show up or give any excuse, wasting everyone’s time. I then read in the paper that she had been sentenced to prison for not returning a client’s money to the tune of $200,000 … very close to ours. I later learned that Miss Pile was not a member of the association, but they can still impose sanctions since she is a registered attorney.
Since her release from prison, I have been checking with the Disciplinary Committee’s secretary as to the status of the case. The secretary, Karen Job, explained there was a backlog from Covid, so she couldn’t say when it would be reviewed now that the Committee had changed.
I spoke with Miss Job again October 17 before contacting the Fraud department that same day, and she said they have not got around to reviewing cases already in progress. I asked about the possible outcome, and she said the case would have to go to the appeal Court and Miss Pile could be fined or suspended without having to pay us.
I know from her track record that Miss Pile is unlikely to pay us the money. She would ostensibly prefer to go back to jail. And, unfortunately, with our laws, there’s no recourse for compensation in terms of sale of assets for the victim, so I can’t realistically hold out any hope for recuperation of the funds.
Our new lawyer despite writing registered letters, never received our file from Miss Pile all these years. Fortunately, I kept copies of most of the documents, so she was able to continue the work on the estate.
She represented us at the Disciplinary Committee hearing, and is tired of the whole saga and unwilling to pursue it further. We have an understanding with her in terms of payment. She suggested getting a young attorney with more vigour.
Meanwhile, we have the property aspect to resolve. Our younger brother, Nikolas McCarthy, has been solely occupying the house since June 2004. He’s since been married and had a son who would be about five now. His wife probably has no idea of the injustice meted to us, and may not even know he has siblings.
Miss Moore is still handing this aspect, and we are now at the point of having the title deeds put in our three names, never mind he doesn’t deserve to be counted as part owner after denying us access for 20 years. I don’t know how this three-part division will work because there is a great deal of rancour and, understandably, distrust of him being the unreasonable party.
I lost my life insurance some years back because it lapsed, and Dave needed to overhaul his truck around the same time. Despite our efforts to persuade him, Nikolas refused to co-sign on an account from another section of our mother’s estate that Pile hadn’t got control of.
We’ve had to be renting all these years, while he’s had the benefit of the house to our exclusion. He’s been extremely unfair and taunting towards us, living his life showing no interest in our disadvantaged situation.
With the economic crunch on It’s harder to survive as a self-employed person. My finances have declined over the years and I’ve been having a rough time making ends meet over the past months.
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