Explosive lawsuit puts controversial father's rights firm in spotlight again
This time, one of their lawyers may have acted very unethically to sabotage one of her client's cases.
In previous stories, I have shown that the international father’s rights law firm, Cordell & Cordell, knows no limits to unethical behavior in support of their clients.
In December 2022, I interviewed Dr. Elizabeth Hersey, who was chased by an ex-boyfriend not even on the birth certificate first in England and then in NY.
Her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Andre DuPlessis, was represented throughout by Cordell & Cordell.
Dr. Hersey was required to show up to court the next day, and she was not allowed to remove her children from the country.
Dr. Du Plessis had convinced this British High Court, without Dr. Hersey there to rebut, that he was the children’s father.
…
Dr. Hersey is no longer in the UK, but in the US.
That’s because she ignored the order granted to her in February 2016 and quickly got on a plane to the US.
She settled near Syracuse, but Dr. Du Plessis was not done chasing her.
He seamlessly hired American lawyers to enforce his British order, which now granted him custody.
He could do this because all his lawyers on this case came from the same firm: Cordell & Cordell.
Lawyers for Cordell & Cordell in England and the US chased Dr. Hersey, got ex-parte orders, and had her children removed by police presence. They now live with a stranger, who was only in a brief relationship with their biological mother.
Then, there is William Halaz, who may have a crush on me. He loves child molesters so much that he’s turned representing them into a business model. He represents at least three accused child molesters.
Daily Docket News legal team is following William J. Halaz III, Esq., with the infamous lawless secret society Missouri Court Mafia (MCM) law firm of Cordell & Cordell that specialize exclusively in representing extremely rich fathers with Pedophilia, Psychopathy and/or Criminal History, Like with all his cases, Halaz, with the law firm of Cordell & Cordell, following his company policy, will lie, cheat and steal everything from a mother, including the shirt off her back, using the corrupt court system as a cover, that follows no law, thus living up to the law firm of Cordell & Cordell company motto, ‘destroy every good woman by any illegal means’, by advocating for the father’s rights of rich pedophiles, psychopaths, and/or criminals. Halaz, with the law firm of Cordell & Cordell, will work tirelessly, day and night, representing the wealthy mentally disturbed sex offender. Halaz, with the law firm of Cordell & Cordell, is on a relentless, you could say psychopathic mission, devoting every minute of every day in creating a false narrative, and in creating a living nightmare, for a loving mother, by destroying her emotionally and financially, by stealing everything from her including, but not limited to, her children, her home and her bank account, thereby achieving Halaz’s, with the law firm of Cordell & Cordell, number one goal of leaving her homeless and living on the street. Cordell & Cordell are known statewide as a well-organized mother killing machine. Some of Halaz’s cases include:
Haynes v. Haynes, Case No. 13RI-CV00554, filed 12/10/2013, in the Ripley County Circuit Court;
Van Den Bergh v. Van Den Bergh, Case 15SL-DR05021 filed 08/29/2015 in the Saint Louis County Court;
Now, it seems that Cordell & Cordell ignore all legal ethics to sabotage their clients as well.
Take the case of Joel Fritts, who hired Erin Zielinski, a lead litigator at Cordell & Cordell in 2019.
Joel’s story has already been detailed in a 2023 article in The St. Louis Record.
A military veteran is suing a prominent St. Louis father’s rights attorney because she allegedly told him he could access his ex-wife's email account over which he almost lost his job.
Air Force Academy graduate Joel Fritts filed the lawsuit last week against his former attorney Erin Zielinski, a lead litigator at Cordell & Cordell law firm where she works alleging legal malpractice in his divorce from Barbara Kate Ransick-Fritts. Cordell & Cordell is also named as a defendant.
“He was investigated, and it jeopardized his employment, but he survived that because he had the password from when they were married,” said Larry Mass, a legal malpractice attorney representing Fritts.
Fritts’ ex-wife was represented by Maia Brodie who formerly employed Zielinski.
“The accusation against my client was that if he couldn't be trusted to honor his wife's email, then he couldn't be trusted to be with his sons,” Mass said in an interview. “It's very hard to see how that would affect the best interest of their two boys.”
This charge, that Zielinski falsely advised Joel to continue accessing his ex-wife’s email, is the most explosive charge in a lawsuit making its way through Missouri courts.
The accusation that Zielinski steered Joel wrong and advised him to continue looking in his ex-wife’s email is the most explosive, but it’s not the only charge made in this lawsuit.
Erin did not respond to an email for comment. Her attorneys for the lawsuit, Dawn Sallerson and Michael Murphy of the law firm Hinshaw and Culbertson, also did not respond to an email for comment.
In numerous responses in the lawsuit, Erin denied all charges.
This is a curious denial, since Joel has recorded some of their conversations, and in several, Erin can be heard advising him to continue looking inside his ex-wife’s email. At approximately thirty-six minutes of the audio below, Erin can be heard saying, “If she never changed the password, that’s it.”
In another recording, Erin states, “No, it’s because you’re accessing her e-mail. No, you are right, you are right, uh, but it’s because you are accessing her e-mail. . . .uh. . . .umm. . . .and I’m assuming she doesn’t know that’s happening.”
I spoke with Joel’s attorneys for his malpractice lawsuit, Larry Mass and Tim Roldan, and while they were limited in what they could say because it is still unfolding, they did confirm that these recordings will be part of the lawsuit.
Mass and Roldan told me the case is in the discovery phase, and unless there is a settlement, a conclusion is not that close.
This is critical because not only did Joel need to hire a criminal attorney for this advice, which proved bad, but his ex-wife, upon finding out, used it to continue keeping their children away from him.
The “trust issues” which are constantly referred to come from Joel being caught accessing his ex-wife’s email.
He told me that for the first year after his ex-wife moved out, he saw his children for a total of twenty-two hours.
His ex-wife, Barbara Kate Ransick-Fritts, did this without custody order, a finding of abuse and neglect against Joal, or any other good reason I could find.
In fact, Joel is hard pressed to understand how he was kept away from his kids, but part of the reason is more failure on Erin’s part.
Erin refused to file what is called a Motion for Pendente Lite. This would have allowed a judge to set a temporary custody arrangement.
Erin denied this charge as well.
Erin was fired in March 2020; with a new attorney, Joel got a temporary custody order by June 18, 2020.
Erin failed her client in other ways, Joel told me.
One glaring way regarded a protective order which Joel’s ex-wife filed. Erin allowed it to sit there without asking for a hearing. In one recording, Erin discusses with Joel navigating communicating with his ex-wife, even as the protective order was in place.
As Joel learned later, the protective order could have been disposed of if Erin had simply pressed the issue and asked for a hearing.
Joel mentioned several times that this protective order should not have kept him from his kids because it only applied to his ex-wife.
Erin’s behavior in this case is so bad it seems like she may have thrown the case.
That seems more likely given that Joel’s ex-wife’s attorney was Maia Brodie, who previously hired Erin.
“Throughout Plaintiff’s divorce case, Ransick-Fritts was represented by Maia Brodie. Zielinski had formerly been employed by Brodie.” Joel’s lawsuit states.
I reached out to Ms. Brodie, but she did not respond back.
Finally, there was a guardian ad litem (GAL) on this case who is known to many: Elaine Pudlowski.
I called Elaine on her cell phone, but she did not respond to my message.
Elaine got on the case in 2019, prior to the notorious Zoom conference.
Here, we may have another problem. On this zoom is a Maia Brodie.
Among the things discussed was a suggestion that the GALs on the call support Elaine financially in her fight against Daily Docket News.
Joel told me he was not made aware of any connection between Brodie and Pudlowski when she was proposed as his GAL.
Joel told me he was surprised when Elaine refused to intervene when his ex-wife continued to keep the kids away from him. He was told her reputation was to interject in any way possible when her recommendations weren’t followed.
She also blocked Joel from getting incriminating information. He explained further in an email.
Attached is the Authorization signed by my wife/ex-wife to employ my son's therapist at a clinic called "Happy Brain" (also my wife's therapist concurrently, a huge conflict of interests) to solicit my visitation supervisors, perhaps even bribe them to provide derogatory reports on me to the GAL/Pudlowski in order to benefit the opposing counsel's litigation strategy against me. This is a literal conspiracy. This was without my knowledge or consent until I intercepted information on their plot.
This is also witness-tampering. Based on what Tim Roldan told me, I believe Evita Tolu just won a federal ruling regarding similarities to this matter that says GAL's do NOT have qualified immunity in their involvement with witness-tampering or other actions that are criminal, and CAN be held accountable for that. I am not necessarily familiar with the ruling, but I understand from Tim that this was a huge victory for Evita.
My new attorney (after I fired Zielinski) was Michelle House. Ms. House tried to subpoena the children's medical records, as it would have likely produced the attached Authorization, and that would have been of great benefit to my case. When Pudlowski found out about this subpoena, she became extremely hostile about it and demanded that she would "file a motion to quash by the end of the day" if Ms. House did not withdraw the subpoena immediately, as evidenced in the attached email from Pudlowski. There were phone calls between Pudlowski and House in which Pudlowski became extremely hostile about this particular subpoena.
Had that subpoena produced the attached Authorization and other records on this matter, that would not only have been incredibly damning to my ex-wife, but potentially incriminating to both Pudlowski and opposing counsel Brodie as well. I believe Pudlowski's motion to quash was as much to protect her own ass than to protect anyone else.
There is no smoking gun of collusion between Zielinski, Elaine and Brodie, however, Pudlowski has already been caught colluding in this manner.
Here is part of an article from 2021.
Those kinds of smoking gun text messages/emails do not exist in this case, however.
Joel told me that he and his ex-wife eventually settled on 50/50 custody; she must have learned to trust him after all.
Cordell are total crooks. They fleeced me out of $5K
Justice follows