By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Pamela Carvel testifying in New York in 2009

One of Florida’s strangest bankruptcy cases is drawing to a close in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Pamela Carvel, the litigious niece of Carvel Ice Cream’s late rags-to-riches founder, filed the case voluntarily last year amid a bitter, 17-year legal struggle for control over the assets from an estate once valued at $67 million.

She got more than she bargained for.

Carvel’s $1.6 million home on secluded Mayan Lake off A1A in Fort Lauderdale’s exclusive Harbor Beach neighborhood was seized and auctioned at the end of May to the highest bidder. Her six New York City rental apartments were also sold off against her wishes by court order.

U.S Trustee Leslie Osborne said he’s recovered about $2.9 million to pay off Carvel’s creditors, including several law firms and the Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, with whom Pamela Carvel has grappled so long in court.

Carvel also is now a fugitive.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John K. Olson of Fort Lauderdale ordered U.S. Marshal’s to arrest her on sight nearly a year ago for civil contempt after she repeatedly ignored his orders.

Carvel does not have an attorney. In a recent email to Broward Bulldog, she accused the judge and Osborne of being in cahoots with the foundation created by her late aunt and uncle.

“There has been theft of over $700 million belonging to the Carvel family, with tax evasion through estate tax fraud, income tax fraud, charity fraud and capital gains tax fraud,” she wrote. “’Justice goes to the highest briber. Crime is rampant in the courts…but this is nothing new.”

Carvel’s initial court filings indicate, and those familiar with the case contend, that Carvel’s bankruptcy filing was a ploy in her broader legal war against the foundation.

If so, she was the one trapped by the legal tactic.

Thomas Carvel

Court records trace the “genesis” of the litigation to the 1988 “mirror-image wills” signed by the Carvels.

When one of them died, their assets were to be placed in a marital trust to provide income for the life of the surviving spouse. In the end, the money would go to their charitable foundation.

Pamela Carvel got a specific bequest of $20,000.

DEATH OF A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE

Thomas Carvel, creator of the Cookie Puss and Fudgie the Whale ice cream cakes, died in New York in 1990. His wife, Pamela and five others were appointed co-executors of his estate and co-trustees of the trust.

In late 1994 and early 1995, without telling the other co-executors, Pamela Carvel transferred more than $2 million from her uncle’s estate into an account in London, where she was then living, in her own name and that of her aunt, records say.

Her aunt moved to London to live with Pamela. About the same time, Pamela got a judge in Palm Beach, where she also had a residence, to name her as limited guardian of her aunt’s property.

Agnes died in 1998 at age 90.

Without notice to the Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, based in Yonkers, New York, Pamela Carvel quickly probated another will her aunt had signed in 1995 in London. The will purported to change her beneficiary from the foundation to a corporation “apparently controlled by Pamela Carvel,” court records say

When the foundation found out, court records say, lawsuits started flying in New York, Florida, Delaware and the United Kingdom.

SOFT-SERVE LITIGATION

Years of litigation with more twists than a Carvel ice cream cone followed. Among the more bizarre: Pamela’s 2007 attempt to get a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale to have her uncle’s body exhumed to see if he’d been poisoned by an embezzler.

Finally, in 2010, a federal judge dismissed Pamela’s claims and barred her from filing any new lawsuits.

But matters did not end there.

In February 2011, Pamela filed her petition in Fort Lauderdale seeking the bankruptcy court’s protection as a Chapter 11 debtor.  Individuals who file for Chapter 11 generally remain in control of their assets as a plan to reorganize their debt is worked out.

Carvel’s petition listed debts of $615,000. She claimed assets of $32.9 million in “potential litigation claims.” She also re-stated her earlier assertions that members of the foundation had stolen the money.

“There has never been a trial by jury in any proceeding since 1990 involving the theft,” she wrote.

Agnes Carvel

That’s true. Says U.S. Trustee’s attorney Brett Marks, of Fort Lauderdale, “There never was a time when a judge said to her, ‘You don’t have a case.’ It was you haven’t done it right. I don’t know if anybody will ever know if she’s right.”

Soon after seeking the court’s protection as she reorganized her debts, Carvel began pushing to obtain the court’s permission to issue subpoenas that would allow her to go after the foundation’s records.

LEGAL TACTIC MELTDOWN

Trustee Osborne and others familiar with the case said Pamela Carvel’s was hoping to use the bankruptcy to get around the prohibition against further litigation in the estate fight.

“I’ve seen other pro se debtors do that before with the intent to bring adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court,” Osborne said. “The first thing she did was ask for discovery in furtherance of the lawsuit she just lost to the foundation, which is the main creditor.”

But Carvel quickly ran afoul of the court, and lost control of the case after refusing to insure her Harbor Beach home as bankruptcy rules required. She tried to withdraw her petition and have the case dismissed. Instead, Judge Olson converted the case to Chapter 7 liquidation and named a trustee.

“In ruling against dismissal, I recall him saying that bankruptcy is like the roach motel, you can go in, but can’t get out,” said Brett Marks, Trustee Osborne’s Fort Lauderdale attorney.

“She’s been ignoring the proceedings ever since,” said Osborne.

Creditors filed about $2.9 million in claims. That included the foundation’s claim of $432,000 to cover a judgment it had obtained for legal fees, plus another $2.2 million in non-adjudicated claims for malicious prosecution.

Legal fees by others, including Marks, account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional claims.

Osborne believes Carvel has more assets squirreled away, but said that her former Fort Lauderdale home – sold for $1 million on May 29 – will likely be the last asset to be liquidated. Creditors will be paid 100 cents on the dollar, except for the foundation’s $2.2 million malicious prosecution claim.

“At the end of the day, they just want it over with,” Osborne said.

With a warrant out for her arrest, Pamela Carvel’s whereabouts are today unknown. Osborne said he suspects she’s probably living in New Jersey because her mother, who died last year, has real estate there.

“She got the wrong judge to play with,” said Osborne

 By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Frank Adderley

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley finally got his divorce last week from a troubled wife who fired shots at him for cheating on her, but testimony and all other court details about the case are secret.

At Adderley’s request, Broward Circuit Judge Susan Aramony ordered the entire case file sealed, even the progress docket. The existence of the case continues to be acknowledged on the clerk’s docket, but nothing more.

The judge’s Feb. 7 order stating that the divorce was granted is the only document in the case that’s now public. Under court rules, it will go secret in 30 days.

Adderley sued Eleanor Adderley for divorce in September 2009 saying the couple’s 18-year-old marriage as “irretrievably broken.”

Fourteen months earlier, distraught about her husband’s affair with another woman, Eleanor Adderley confronted her husband with his own gun in the bedroom of their Plantation home.

“Put it down. Don’t kill me,” the chief said before his wife took aim at the floor and fired, the Sun-Sentinel has reported. As Chief Adderley ran away, his wife squeezed off another shot at the ground outside “to scare him,” the paper said.

Eleanor Adderley later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and served about six months of a nine-month sentence in the Broward County jail. Her lawyer, Rae Chorowski, did not respond to a request for comment.

Chief Adderley, represented by Fort Lauderdale attorney William Gardiner, declined to discuss his divorce or why he wanted the case file sealed.

“It was a bad situation and I really don’t have any comment,” Adderley said. “And under the advice of my attorney, I’m entitled to have it sealed. I’m not getting any kind of preferential treatment.”

Records the judge sealed included the couple’s marital settlement agreement, the final judgment of dissolution of marriage and their financial affidavits.

The order says the Adderley’s divorce file was sealed “to prevent a serious and imminent threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice and to avoid injury to innocent third parties,” apparently a reference to the couple’s teenage son. It also cites state law that exempts from public disclosure the home addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers and photographs of current and former law enforcement personnel.

The judge ordered the file sealed “for an indefinite duration.”

Eleanor Adderley agreed to the sealing, the order says.

Chief Adderley’s reasons for wanting the case closed to the public are not known because the court papers he filed requesting it are also secret.

Court rules provide for prior public notice of attempts to seal up a case.

The order says Aramony heard testimony from Chief Adderley about his request for confidentiality. But with the file now closed it is not known if public notice was given.

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Howard Finkelstein

Accusing Broward’s courts of failing to protect the civil rights of the poor and homeless, Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein has asked Chief Judge Victor Tobin to “instruct the judiciary” to make sure that indigents arrested for violating municipal ordinances have lawyers.

In a Jan. 6 letter, Finkelstein accused the courts of allowing Broward’s cash-strapped cities to “systematically” ignore their legal obligation to pay for defense lawyers to represent poor people arrested for minor city crimes like panhandling or carrying an open can of beer.

“Both entities are responsible for the denial of due process and the prolonged incarceration” of those accused, said Finkelstein. He urged immediate action by the courts to prevent a potentially costly class-action lawsuit.

“If the cities do not fulfill their legal and moral obligation, the courts should dismiss every case presented,” he said. “If our cities wish to use the system, they need to pay. Otherwise, they need to stop arresting poor homeless people.”

Cities adopt and enforce such ordinances to promote the “quality of life” for residents in public places.

Finkelstein’s office has not represented indigent defendants arrested for municipal violations since the Legislature changed the way such services are paid for by the state several years ago. Instead, cities are responsible for appointing a municipal defender.

The Public Defender’s Office estimates that as many as 50 indigent defendants accused of municipal crimes come before Broward judges every week.

Court rules in Florida require the appointment to occur on or before a defendant’s first appearance in front of a judge. But Finkelstein says that’s not happening and that defendants often plead guilty to a deal that gets them out of jail based on time they’ve already served.

“There has never been an appearance by any city public defender on behalf of these defendants at magistrate court,” said Finkelstein, who is best known locally as “Help Me Howard” on Channel 7. “These defendants are accepting pleas without consulting an attorney even though the nature of the charges suggests many of them may suffer from mental illness.”

In an interview Monday, Judge Tobin said Finkelstein’s letter is the first he’s heard about a lack of representation for indigent representation in municipal cases.

“I was under the general impression that a great many cities had either stopped arresting for municipal ordinance violations or were using a similar state statute, or had pooled together or made some arrangement with John Fry,” Tobin said.

Fry said several cities, including Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, had paid him on a non-contract basis to handle such cases. He said there was no process by which cases were assigned and that judges would appoint him if an indigent defendant requested an attorney, or a concerned public defender tipped him to a defendant who needed help.

“It was case by case,” said Fry, who was sworn in Monday as a Broward County Court judge. His defense duties have been handed to Fort Lauderdale lawyer Steven Schaet.

But some defendants fell through the cracks.

Finkelstein’s letter cites the example of Benigno Fernandez who was arrested by Hollywood police on Nov. 30 on a charge of “soliciting a charitable donation without a permit.”

Benigno Fernandez

Fernandez didn’t show for his arraignment, and a judge issued a warrant with a $150 bond. He was picked up Dec. 29 and spent eight nights in jail until a judge released him – shortly after Finkelstein’s letter.

Before that Chief Assistant Public Defender Lynn DeSanti contacted an attorney for the city of Hollywood about Fernandez’s plight.

Finkelstein said the attorney “did not know who the city’s public defender was and seemed unconcerned about Mr. Fernandez’s incarceration. She advised Ms. DeSanti that, if she was so concerned, she could arrange to have him placed on the docket herself.”

He termed the city’s response “both outrageous and illegal.” City Attorney Jeffrey Sheffel did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2009, Fernandez spent 39 days in jail without the benefit of a lawyer on a Hollywood charge of carrying an open container of alcohol. He was later adjudicated guilty and sentenced to time served.

“The court did nothing to protect Mr. Fernandez or sanction the City of Hollywood. It simply looked the other way,” Finkelstein wrote.

The letter also informed Judge Tobin that Broward’s cities are not, as required by state law, paying the cost of housing nonviolent municipal offenders they feed into the jail system.

Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti said Finkelstein is correct, “They’re not paying.”

The sheriff said it now costs the county $113 a day to keep municipal offenders in jail. The tab for Fernandez’s recent eight days in jail was $904; in 2009, it was over $4,000.

Lamberti said the burden on the county is significantly less than a few years ago. He credited a push several years ago to lower the jail population that led to the release of hundreds of municipal defendants.

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Jack Seiler

Yet another Fort Lauderdale neighborhood is fighting City Hall over plans for unwanted new development – and has taken the additional step of hauling the city into court to try and stop it.

In court papers, the not-for-profit Trust for Historic Sailboat Bend claims the fix was in when the city commission voted 5-0 in March to bulldoze and replace the Dr. Kennedy Homes public housing development. The vote, after a lengthy public hearing, reversed the city Historic Preservation Board’s 2009 decision to deny demolition.

Now, trust officials say they have proof the city intended all along to approve the demolition: a letter Mayor Jack Seiler wrote last September expressing the city’s “support” for the demolition and offering his “best wishes for the success” of the controversial replacement housing project.

“The mayor had his mind made up before the evidence was heard,” said Trust Vice President Charles Jordan. “The quasi-judicial hearing over which he presided was a charade.” (more…)

Cardinal Gibbons High athletic field

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Fort Lauderdale’s summer of neighborhood discontent continues – this time in Coral Ridge where Cardinal Gibbons High School is pressing ahead with plans to light up its football field over the objections of neighbors.

The neighbors oppose lights on poles that reach as high as 95 feet on an athletic field at the Catholic high school.

City rules had limited churches and church schools to structures of 35 feet; however, city commissioners changed the rules in April to allow taller structures as long as they were compatible to the surrounding neighborhood. (more…)

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Proposed Bahia Mar PUD

Spurred by a pair of high-profile zoning battles, a dozen Fort Lauderdale neighborhood associations have called on the city to halt the use of an innovative ordinance meant to encourage “unique” development.

Upset residents insist the city slap a moratorium on its eight-year-old Planned Urban Development scheme – commonly known as a PUD.

Some see the PUD as a nightmare that will corrupt the character of neighborhoods and allow large new buildings near their homes. Others call the PUD a saving grace that can breathe new life into a community.

Tens of millions of dollars in development dollars are potentially at stake; not to mention millions more in future property taxes and other projected income to the city.

The PUD is the planning vehicle for developers seeking to supersize beachside Bahia Mar, and to expand significantly First Presbyterian Church’s presence in the Colee Hammock neighborhood off fashionable Las Olas Boulevard. (more…)

Gus Boulis

Anthony Moscatiello, top, Anthony Ferrari, left, and James Fiorillo

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

It was Fort Lauderdale’s murder of the decade: the 2001 gangland-style slaying of day-cruise casino cruise ship kingpin Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis.

On Oct. 1, it’s coming to a movie theater near you.

The three men charged in 2005 with conspiring to kill Boulis have yet to go to trial in Broward Circuit Court. The one who’s out on bond – Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello – will have the opportunity of watching both the murder and himself portrayed on the silver screen.

Bagman is about hotshot Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the nation’s biggest political scandal since Watergate. Actor Kevin Spacey plays Abramoff. (more…)

The First Presbyterian Church is in the foreground. Behind are the proposed Family Center and parking garage/office buildings.

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

First Presbyterian Church’s $20-million plan to build a big new family center and a parking garage off Las Olas Boulevard finally returns to Fort Lauderdale City Hall next week for a zoning board showdown with irate neighbors in historic Colee Hammock.

After several delays, the board is expected to approve or reject construction on June 16 following final arguments from supporters and opponents. But with both sides vowing to appeal, the five-member city commission will likely make the final decision amid political fireworks this summer.

The row is a classic power struggle involving some of the biggest names in town. It could shape the size and style of development for years to come on the lesser eastern stretch of Fort Lauderdale’s swankiest boulevard. (more…)

UPDATE: Fort Lauderdale’s planning and zoning board will meet June 16 at 6:30 p.m. to decide whether to approve First Presbyterian’s proposed expansion plans.

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Fort Lauderdale City Hall

Fort Lauderdale’s planning and zoning board can’t get its act together to take a vote on First Presbyterian Church’s controversial building plans in historic Colee Hammock.

The board announced Wednesday that it had canceled Thursday’s special meeting to consider the church’s rezoning request because it couldn’t get enough members to show up.

It was the second time this month the nine-member board has said it couldn’t muster a quorum.

The board will nevertheless convene at 6:30 p.m. in the city commission chambers at City Hall to set a new date to hear the matter. (more…)

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Wheelabrator's North Broward Waste-to-Energy plant

The first shot was fired last week at Oakland Park City Hall in a brewing rebellion among Broward cities over the high cost of garbage disposal.

County officials have offered a proposal they say will save the cities nearly $49 million a year over what they now pay to get rid of their trash – plus get them a share of a $12 million bonus that giant Waste Management is willing to pay if they sign up early for another 10 years.

But some outraged city leaders say those contract renewal savings are not nearly enough.

They contend that Waste Management has used its local trash monopoly to make enormous profits on the backs of Broward customers and they fault the county’s Resource Recovery Board – and RRB chair and Broward Commissioner Ilene Lieberman – for not moving to end that monopoly by putting the $1.5 billion deal out for competitive bids. (more…)