A 23 year old man is suing the attorney who represented him as a minor during his parents' divorce proceedings because, he says, she knew about the abuse his mother inflicted on him and did nothing about it.
Carlos J. Carrillo says that Stacey Platt of the Loyola Child Law Center "was very aware of the severity and frequency of abuse" that Carrillo's mother inflicted on him and his siblings but there is no record of her attempting to protect the children.
Carrillo points to a police report showing that his mother pulled a knife on him and threatened to stab him as well as three court orders requiring his mother to get anger management counseling, which she never did and which Platt never moved the court to enforce.
The complaint also states that Carrillo's mother stabbed his father in the chest.
Carrillo says that, as a result of the abuse by his mother, he was not able to lead a normal life and is now jobless with poor credit and three drunk driving arrests.
He is seeking at least $500,000 from Platt and Loyola University and for them to pay for mental health treatment and college.
Read the complaint after the jump.
Follow me on Twitter at jenfernicola.
A Cook County resident and Iranian citizen and national is suing her former immigration attorney for legal malpractice and fraud with respect to an asylum application that she says he falsified with statements that she was a supporter of Mujahedeen.
Plaintiff Afrouz Kheirkhahvash came to the United States as a visitor in 1999 when she retained defendant Reza Baniassadi to advise her on obtaining permanent residency.
According to the complaint, the defendant advised the plaintiff that she could obtain permanent residency via an asylum application based on fear of persecution by the Iranian government. He asked her if she had ever been an active opponent of the Iranian government to which she replied that she was never involved in politics nor expressed any opposition to the Shiite Republic of Iran.
He then prepared an application for asylum which plaintiff signed. The application was in English, which plaintiff could not read. She and the defendant only communicated in Farsi. Unbeknownst to the plaintiff at the time, the defendant also prepared a verified personal statement along with the application and filed it in August 2000.
The personal statement said that while in high school the plaintiff listened to tapes distributed by the Mujahedeen, handed out pamphlets in support of the Mujahedeen and solicited classmates to join the organization. It also stated that she was suspended from school for several weeks and was initially banned from entering a university because of her association. It stated that her husband was a journalist with a newspaper that was shut down by the government and that they were both tortured by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
In September 2000, the plaintiff received a notice from the Asylum Office scheduling a personal interview.
