mark handler
SAWHORSE
Lawyer gave woman ADA suit targets, ex-boyfriend says
BY RAMONA GIWARGISMERCED SUN-STAR
02/07/2015
http://www.modbee.com/news/article9545444.html
Randy Barnes peered into the living room of an Atwater home he shared with his girlfriend last summer and watched as a man handed her a piece of paper.
The paper, according to Barnes, contained the names of businesses that his girlfriend, Aurora Cervantes, would sue in a rash of disability lawsuits. The businesses on the list were “next,” Barnes said in several telephone interviews, even though Cervantes hadn’t stepped foot in most of them.
“I was actually right in the living room when he presented her with a list of all the different businesses that were noncompliant,” Barnes said. “The attorney is feeding her a list of the businesses to sue. He drove from Stockton to Atwater to meet with her.”
Cervantes’ track record of suing businesses for minor violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act is long and still growing.
The 55-year-old, who claims to suffer from lupus and depression, has sued more than 22 businesses in Atwater, Merced and Turlock.
In her lawsuits, which are identical in their wording, she claims improper disability parking and other “barriers” kept her from accessing the businesses and demands cash settlements.
The man with the list of businesses, Barnes said, worked for Daniel Malakauskas, the Stockton-based attorney who represents Cervantes in most of her ADA lawsuits. He’s also the attorney behind a lawsuit that closed the doors of the popular Barnwood Restaurant in Ripon last June.
Malakauskas did not return multiple calls and emails seeking comment.
In an email response to the Sun-Star last year, Malakauskas said he’s filed 55 ADA lawsuits.
He said business owners have had 25 years to comply with the ADA, which was enacted in 1990, but they’ve remained “apathetic” to the rights of the disabled.
“Enough is enough,” Malakauskas wrote. “They say that honey attracts more flies than vinegar, however, unfortunately, in my experience, when it comes to business owners and complying with the ADA, the only thing that motivates them is the fly swatter.”
A Sun-Star investigation linked Barnes to Cervantes through numerous documents and public records, verifying they shared her home on Elm Avenue in Atwater last year. Barnes confirmed being Cervantes’ live-in boyfriend for three months.
Met her on Facebook
Barnes, 57, said he met Cervantes last February through a popular game network on Facebook. Not long after they began chatting on social media, he moved from Florida to be with a woman he thought he was in love with.
But Barnes, who’s also disabled due to a neck injury, said he soon realized Cervantes wasn’t looking for a lover; she was looking for a partner in her endeavors.
“She saw me as a way of doubling her money,” Barnes said. “She recruited me because she saw on Facebook I was disabled. What she wanted to do was double lawsuits.”
Barnes said Cervantes was encouraged to get receipts from businesses whenever possible to legitimize her visits.
The attorneys wanted to expand the lawsuits to Sacramento and Bakersfield, Barnes said, which they called “hot markets” for ADA violations.
Cervantes worried about how the lawsuit settlements would affect her governmental benefits, Barnes said, so a trust fund was established for Cervantes to deposit cash settlements.
When reached for comment Friday, Cervantes answered her phone, but hung up once she learned it was the news media. She did not answer or return subsequent calls.
Despite her lawsuits saying she’s confined to a bed, we found Cervantes sitting in her Atwater front yard last year. During that brief conversation, she told the Sun-Star her legs “give out” and she falls. She declined to answer questions about her lawsuits or cash settlements, saying they’re “confidential” and “there’s more than meets the eye.”
‘It’s just a scheme’
After a couple of months, Barnes said he couldn’t stomach it anymore. He confronted Cervantes about what he believed was a “conspiracy” and “shakedown of businesses.”
It landed him in hot water with one of Cervantes’ roommates, Barnes said, resulting in an altercation that led to Atwater police being called to the home twice in one night.
According to the police report, Barnes told officers on July 22 that he was punched three times by the roommate, knocking him off the home’s front porch. The alleged assault happened after an argument between Barnes and Cervantes, the police report said.
Barnes told the Sun-Star that’s when he decided to move out of Cervantes’ home in Atwater. “I didn’t like what she was doing and I got out of there,” he said.
The string of ADA lawsuits filed by Cervantes was first exposed in a series of stories in the Sun-Star and The Modesto Bee. The bulk of Cervantes’ lawsuits centered in her hometown of Atwater. Some businesses there fought back by distributing a warning flier with her picture on it.
Most business owners told the Sun-Star they couldn’t remember if Cervantes visited their shops. Others said they would have fixed ADA violations if they had been notified prior to being sued.
In Cervantes’ latest round of litigation, Donut King in Merced was sued. Owner Vannak Sao joins the Merced IHOP, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Almond Tree Restaurant in Atwater, Little Caesars, Jack in the Box and others targeted by Cervantes.
“I think the attorneys consult with them to make money out of it – it’s a business,” Sao told the Sun-Star in a recent interview. “It’s just a scheme to get money.”
ADA targeted for change
In the weeks following the newspaper stories about the lawsuits, a number of Central Valley state and federal lawmakers have joined forces to change the ADA law.
Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, last month co- sponsored a federal bill to give small businesses an opportunity to comply with ADA regulations and protect them from drive-by lawsuits.
“We’ve seen abuses not only in our own community, but across the nation,” Denham said in a previous interview. “We are seeing out-of-state lawyers that are profiting and we’re seeing our local businesses shut down.”
State Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Manteca, recently unveiled Senate Bill 67 to “reduce the profit incentive to file frivolous lawsuits based on minor and technical deficiencies,” she said in a press release.
State Assembly Republican leader Kristin Olsen, of Riverbank and Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, teamed up in December to introduce legislation that would allow businesses time to fix deficiencies and would reduce damages for violations.
As for Barnes, he left California in August and hasn’t seen his ex-girlfriend since then. Barnes said he hopes that sharing his story will expose how some are taking advantage of the law to line their pockets.
“I’m speaking out to defend the Atwater businesses,” Barnes said. “I don’t think it’s right.”
BY RAMONA GIWARGISMERCED SUN-STAR
02/07/2015
http://www.modbee.com/news/article9545444.html
Randy Barnes peered into the living room of an Atwater home he shared with his girlfriend last summer and watched as a man handed her a piece of paper.
The paper, according to Barnes, contained the names of businesses that his girlfriend, Aurora Cervantes, would sue in a rash of disability lawsuits. The businesses on the list were “next,” Barnes said in several telephone interviews, even though Cervantes hadn’t stepped foot in most of them.
“I was actually right in the living room when he presented her with a list of all the different businesses that were noncompliant,” Barnes said. “The attorney is feeding her a list of the businesses to sue. He drove from Stockton to Atwater to meet with her.”
Cervantes’ track record of suing businesses for minor violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act is long and still growing.
The 55-year-old, who claims to suffer from lupus and depression, has sued more than 22 businesses in Atwater, Merced and Turlock.
In her lawsuits, which are identical in their wording, she claims improper disability parking and other “barriers” kept her from accessing the businesses and demands cash settlements.
The man with the list of businesses, Barnes said, worked for Daniel Malakauskas, the Stockton-based attorney who represents Cervantes in most of her ADA lawsuits. He’s also the attorney behind a lawsuit that closed the doors of the popular Barnwood Restaurant in Ripon last June.
Malakauskas did not return multiple calls and emails seeking comment.
In an email response to the Sun-Star last year, Malakauskas said he’s filed 55 ADA lawsuits.
He said business owners have had 25 years to comply with the ADA, which was enacted in 1990, but they’ve remained “apathetic” to the rights of the disabled.
“Enough is enough,” Malakauskas wrote. “They say that honey attracts more flies than vinegar, however, unfortunately, in my experience, when it comes to business owners and complying with the ADA, the only thing that motivates them is the fly swatter.”
A Sun-Star investigation linked Barnes to Cervantes through numerous documents and public records, verifying they shared her home on Elm Avenue in Atwater last year. Barnes confirmed being Cervantes’ live-in boyfriend for three months.
Met her on Facebook
Barnes, 57, said he met Cervantes last February through a popular game network on Facebook. Not long after they began chatting on social media, he moved from Florida to be with a woman he thought he was in love with.
But Barnes, who’s also disabled due to a neck injury, said he soon realized Cervantes wasn’t looking for a lover; she was looking for a partner in her endeavors.
“She saw me as a way of doubling her money,” Barnes said. “She recruited me because she saw on Facebook I was disabled. What she wanted to do was double lawsuits.”
Barnes said Cervantes was encouraged to get receipts from businesses whenever possible to legitimize her visits.
The attorneys wanted to expand the lawsuits to Sacramento and Bakersfield, Barnes said, which they called “hot markets” for ADA violations.
Cervantes worried about how the lawsuit settlements would affect her governmental benefits, Barnes said, so a trust fund was established for Cervantes to deposit cash settlements.
When reached for comment Friday, Cervantes answered her phone, but hung up once she learned it was the news media. She did not answer or return subsequent calls.
Despite her lawsuits saying she’s confined to a bed, we found Cervantes sitting in her Atwater front yard last year. During that brief conversation, she told the Sun-Star her legs “give out” and she falls. She declined to answer questions about her lawsuits or cash settlements, saying they’re “confidential” and “there’s more than meets the eye.”
‘It’s just a scheme’
After a couple of months, Barnes said he couldn’t stomach it anymore. He confronted Cervantes about what he believed was a “conspiracy” and “shakedown of businesses.”
It landed him in hot water with one of Cervantes’ roommates, Barnes said, resulting in an altercation that led to Atwater police being called to the home twice in one night.
According to the police report, Barnes told officers on July 22 that he was punched three times by the roommate, knocking him off the home’s front porch. The alleged assault happened after an argument between Barnes and Cervantes, the police report said.
Barnes told the Sun-Star that’s when he decided to move out of Cervantes’ home in Atwater. “I didn’t like what she was doing and I got out of there,” he said.
The string of ADA lawsuits filed by Cervantes was first exposed in a series of stories in the Sun-Star and The Modesto Bee. The bulk of Cervantes’ lawsuits centered in her hometown of Atwater. Some businesses there fought back by distributing a warning flier with her picture on it.
Most business owners told the Sun-Star they couldn’t remember if Cervantes visited their shops. Others said they would have fixed ADA violations if they had been notified prior to being sued.
In Cervantes’ latest round of litigation, Donut King in Merced was sued. Owner Vannak Sao joins the Merced IHOP, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Almond Tree Restaurant in Atwater, Little Caesars, Jack in the Box and others targeted by Cervantes.
“I think the attorneys consult with them to make money out of it – it’s a business,” Sao told the Sun-Star in a recent interview. “It’s just a scheme to get money.”
ADA targeted for change
In the weeks following the newspaper stories about the lawsuits, a number of Central Valley state and federal lawmakers have joined forces to change the ADA law.
Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, last month co- sponsored a federal bill to give small businesses an opportunity to comply with ADA regulations and protect them from drive-by lawsuits.
“We’ve seen abuses not only in our own community, but across the nation,” Denham said in a previous interview. “We are seeing out-of-state lawyers that are profiting and we’re seeing our local businesses shut down.”
State Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Manteca, recently unveiled Senate Bill 67 to “reduce the profit incentive to file frivolous lawsuits based on minor and technical deficiencies,” she said in a press release.
State Assembly Republican leader Kristin Olsen, of Riverbank and Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, teamed up in December to introduce legislation that would allow businesses time to fix deficiencies and would reduce damages for violations.
As for Barnes, he left California in August and hasn’t seen his ex-girlfriend since then. Barnes said he hopes that sharing his story will expose how some are taking advantage of the law to line their pockets.
“I’m speaking out to defend the Atwater businesses,” Barnes said. “I don’t think it’s right.”
