Disbarred PI Attorney Is Jailed After Reportedly Trashing Law Office From Which He Was Being Evicted
Criminally charged in September with stealing from clients, disbarred last month and ordered in a separate civil eviction case to vacate by Oct. 31 the Dallas law office for which he had failed to pay rent, a former Texas personal injury lawyer is now facing new trouble.
Thomas Corea, who hosted a live attorney call-in television show in better days, was jailed Wednesday morning after allegedly trashing his Design District law office premises prior to his eviction and causing as much as $100,000 in damage, the Crime Blog of the Dallas Morning News reports.
State District Judge Mike Snipes increased Corea’s bail this morning to $500,000 on each of four felony charges in the Dallas County theft and client identity fraud case he faces, after a prosecutor asked the jurist to find that Corea’s bond was insufficient because of the damage to the law office, the newspaper reports.
The Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park blog includes a number of photos of the claimed damage, including graffiti. The scribbling on the law office walls reportedly included a derogatory reference to an Arizona judge who had found Corea in contempt in an unrelated case, along with her apparent phone number, which is in the 505 area code, and a suggestion that readers of the graffiti call her.
“I doubt seriously there are any random vagrants in the Dallas area that are familiar with area code 505,” Snipes said Wednesday as he made the bond ruling that sent Corea to jail, at least for now. The judge told Corea’s lawyer, John Gussio, that he may reconsider if more information is provided later, once the defense lawyer has a chance to prepare further for a hearing, Crime Blog reported.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Attorney Sues TV Station for $1.4M, Says It Didn’t Forward All Calls to His ‘Ask the Lawyer’ Show”
ABAJournal.com: “Dallas Lawyer Charged with Identity Theft, Stealing $200K From Client Trust Accounts”
Courthouse News Service: “Embattled Lawyer Tossed From Texas Bar”
Courthouse News Service: “Penis Graffiti Allegations Return Lawyer to Jail”
