A Suffolk Superior Court docket decide denied a movement from Marie Theodat, embattled human assets director of the Boston Water and Sewer Fee, who sought to delay her mortgage dispute trial from subsequent week to after the brand new 12 months.
Theodat, who on this 2020 case is charged with stiffing a girl out of a $75,000 mortgage mortgage, filed an emergency movement on Nov. 7 to proceed the related trial that was set to start on Monday to a “convenient date” after Jan. 1, 2025, as a result of a change in lawyer that she mentioned would have put her at a “disadvantage” in courtroom.
“Upon review and after hearing, the motion is allowed in part,” Superior Court docket Choose Rosemary Connolly dominated on Wednesday, per a posting on the trial courtroom docket. “The court will delay the start of the trial by one day, until Nov. 19 … Otherwise, the motion is (denied).”
A remaining pre-trial convention was held on Wednesday, and was continued to Monday. A jury trial is slated to start out the subsequent day, per the docket.
Theodat, who can be embroiled in a civil lawsuit, filed in Superior Court docket in August, that accuses her of working with family to swindle her aged and dementia-ridden uncle out of his $1.1 million Dorchester residence, had argued in her movement that her new lawyer’s lack of familiarity with the 2020 lawsuit would have harm her probabilities in courtroom.
Her new illustration, Jeanette Lucey, is from the identical legislation agency, Davids & Cohen, as her prior lawyer. Theodat, per her movement, sought a change in counsel as a result of departure of her prior lawyer, Eric Loeffler, from the agency.
Lucey filed her first look on behalf of Theodat within the 2020 case on Oct. 10, based on courtroom paperwork. The emergency movement houses in on excellent discovery paperwork that weren’t produced, as requested by Lucey, final month.
“Without the responses to the properly served discovery she and her counsel will be at a disadvantage in defending against the claims in this action where she disputes plaintiff’s claim that she executed a promissory note and mortgage agreement in connection with a loan of $75,000 that plaintiff allegedly made to her,” Theodat’s movement states.
The movement goes on to argue that the “interests of justice, fairness and equity require that the plaintiff and codefendant,” Gertha Pierre and Ernst Guerrier, “respond to the properly and timely served discovery and abhor trial by ambush.”
Guerrier, the lawyer who represented Pierre within the mortgage transaction and was going through malpractice allegations within the lawsuit, is not a defendant within the case. He’ll possible be a witness within the upcoming trial, and has filed a counter-claim in opposition to Theodat saying that she ought to pay “whatever he was on the hook for,” Michael Keohane, Pierre’s lawyer within the lawsuit, beforehand instructed the Herald.
The Herald’s requests for remark from the attorneys for each side of the case, Keohane and Lucey, weren’t returned on Wednesday.
A take a look at the courtroom docket exhibits Theodat sought a delay within the trial proceedings final 12 months as nicely, which was additionally denied.
Theodat filed a movement on March 21, 2023 that sought to “dismiss, or in the alternative” proceed the trial “for lack of prosecution,” and what she alleged was the plaintiff’s failure to “effectuate timely service” upon her. Pierre did “nothing to advance her claims against” Theodat for “nearly three years after the case was filed,” the movement states.
The 2 excellent civil lawsuits in opposition to Theodat, each of which have been reported for the primary time by the Herald, led a trio of unions representing Boston Water and Sewer Fee staff to press the company final month to research and droop Theodat, the human assets director, whereas the instances are lively.
The unions, SEIU Native 888, IAM Native 100 and OPEIU Native 6, despatched a letter to the fee’s govt director, Henry Vitale, after receiving “multiple comments and complaints from members related to charges” filed within the two fits.
Within the letter, the unions had expressed issues with Theodat’s continued entry to staff’ delicate data, akin to banking numbers, routing data and social safety numbers, and had “strongly” recommended that such data be transferred to the company’s authorized division for safekeeping.
“They took our recommendations, but they’re not acting accordingly,” Thomas McKeever, president of SEIU Native 888, instructed the Herald Wednesday. “All my members knew that we were having a sit-down with Boston Water and Sewer leadership and I think that they all independently know that it appears that Boston Water and Sewer is not taking any measures as it relates to our recommendations.”
A spokesperson for the Boston Water and Sewer Fee beforehand instructed the Herald that the company had been in “extensive contact with union representatives” whereas declining to remark additional.
The spokesperson declined to remark once more on Wednesday, and refused to offer the assertion the fee had launched to the Boston Globe when it reported on the unions’ letter two weeks after the Herald.
In an announcement, per the Globe report, the Fee mentioned that Theodat “has been a valued employee for several years and is responsible for modernizing our human resources system.”
“While we always take our employee feedback seriously, these are unsupported allegations in a private legal matter that will be addressed through the proper forum,” the Fee’s assertion reportedly learn.
Together with the case set to go to trial subsequent week, Theodat is embroiled in a newer lawsuit the place she is alleged to have “fraudulently induced” her 88-year-old uncle and the plaintiff Rodolphe St. Cloud, to signal over the deed to his $1.1 million Dorchester residence for “less than $100” beneath the “guise” that he was signing paperwork associated to his medical care.
St. Cloud doesn’t learn or communicate English and has superior dementia, per the lawsuit. Theodat, in a previous name with the Herald, referred to as the grievance “fraudulent.”
Theodat’s annual wage at BWSC, per a spokesperson, is roughly $189,958.
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