Michael Flint expected his long probate nightmare to finally end on August 8, 2024, instead, it only got worse.
For over four years he’s been battling vultures from the Orange County probate mafia trying to protect his mom’s trust from.
On August 8, 2024, Flint was finally heard to vacate an abusive settlement agreement which was- in reality- thrust upon them by one prominent member of this gangster group: Sandra DeMeo.
This sad tale starts in 2018 when Mike’s mom, Joyce Flint, decided to set up a trust to leave to her two sons: Mike and Guy Flint.
The trust was primarily made up of valuable real estate which could be used to generate income.
Enter Sandra DeMeo. It was actually DeMeo’s mom, Mike told me, who is - or rather was- a friend of Joyce’s, and she recommended her daughter.
Initially, Sandra DeMeo was supposed to draw up a will for Joyce.
As Mike explained, she quickly “wore many hats.”
She became the attorney, trustee, and the one responsible for drawing up the will.
She didn’t do a very good job. In the will, she identified both Mike and Guy as “special needs,” Mike told me.
This caused the family to become concerned because this looked like a set up for DeMeo to deem both incapacitated and take control of the trust.
So, Joyce insisted on an amended will. DeMeo pulled another fast one, Mike told me. In the subsequent will, Mike and Guy were still called “special needs” only there was a footnote correcting it at the end of the will.
At around this time, Guy had a breakdown, and DeMeo saw an opportunity, Mike Flint told me.
She arranged an agreement where Guy would effectively give up his share of the trust.
This led to the coerced settlement agreement. Even though the terms were favorable to DeMeo, she didn’t even follow that agreement, Mike told me.
The parties tried to rescind the agreement, and DeMeo was even on board.
The Orange County probate system was not. A judge told the parties the agreement could not be rescinded; it had to be vacated. It’s probably a distinction without a difference, but if a judge says so, it must be done.
Enter Pamela Koslyn.
About a decade ago, she rented space from Mike Flint. He said she never paid. He took her to court, and they settled on arbitration.
The arbitrator determined she didn’t pay him rent, but the arbitrator also didn’t like some of the things Mike filed. So, the arbitrator naturally ordered him to pay Koslyn approximately $100,000.
You read that right. She didn’t pay him rent, and he has to pay her $100,000. Welcome to courts in America.
Since Mike didn’t have $100,000, she naturally filed to collect from the trust.
If the settlement agreement was allowed to stay, she could.
Back to the probate matter. As I told Mike, changing from a recission to a vacating should be, “simple enough.”
It wasn’t. For approximately four years, Mike has been trying to get to court to get a probate judge in Orange County, California to hear this matter.
I attended several of these hearings. Nothing ever got done, and the can was always kicked down the road. One of the hearings is below.
By now, that $100,000 Mike owed Koslyn has grown to approximately $500,000, he told me.
Finally, on August 8, 2024, an Orange County Judge, Brad Erdosi, heard the matter.
Mike had a secret weapon. Since late in 2023, he had hired Rod Stern. Stern is a notorious member of the Orange County probate mafia. He was featured prominently in Gustave Verdault’s case. I discussed several unethical things he did with Gustave’s daughter, Rita King.
In this case, he played the hero. He discovered something in DeMeo’s settlement agreement. She never served notice on the secondary beneficiaries.
Neither Guy nor Mike has children, so upon their passing, Joyce wanted entities important in her life to get her properties: Israel, Cedar Sinai, UCLA, etc.
Those entities weren’t served, and Stern said by law they had to be.
This was the argument presented to Judge Erdosi on August 8.
Judge Erdosi was sympathetic to the argument, and he vacated the settlement agreement.
Mike thought victory was finally achieved.
Not so fast. He did not rescind the agreement.
I know; didn’t a judge say the agreement needed to vacated not rescinded? That was four years ago; times have changed.
The next day, the parties were in front of Judge Ebrahim Baytieh. Judge Baytieh featured prominently in Jodee Sussman’s case: dropping the hammer on many of the probate mafia. It was a hearing I attended in person.
Before he was a judge, he was a prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, where he engaged in a lot of prosecutorial misconduct, allegedly.
Baytieh decided to hold a hearing in October 2024 to decide if the vacated agreement is also rescinded.
In early 2023, DeMeo was finally removed as trustee by Judge Carol Henson. She helped herself to $40,000 after being removed.
No one has done anything about this: as I wrote earlier.
Since then, Mike’s girlfriend, Cheri O’Laverty, was the trustee.
Mike said Cheri is the only one “protecting the estate.”
Naturally, she was removed as trustee on the insistence of other parties.
Now, the trust has no one to protect it. It’s still in limbo.
It’s another casualty of the Orange County probate mafia.
Postscript:
Check out the previous articles on the series on Orange County. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25. Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31, Part 33, Part 34, Part 35, Part 36, Part 37, Part 38, Part 39, Part 40, Part 41, Part 42, Part 43, Part 44, Part 45, Part 46, Part 47, Part 48, Part 49, Part 50, and Part 51.
Please consider contributing to the Orange County fundraiser so I can continue this investigation.
UPDATE: In the article originally, I stated that DeMeo wrote checks of $20,000 after being removed as trustee. It was $40,000. That has been corrected. I also corrected a paragraph which suggested that Judge Baytieh removed DeMeo. He did not.
Michael Volpe Investigates update: an Interview with Michael Flint