fraud – West Boca News

Follow-up on Attorney Fraud Arrest

Update: We received an additional document on the Meltzer case. See bottom.
We’ve been trying to follow up on the case where two West Boca attorneys were arrested on fraud charges. The Florida CFO issued a press release on the case shortly before Election Day. When we read through the details we were skeptical and we still are.

We managed to obtain the “probable cause affidavit” for Mr. Greenspoon, and you can see that document below. There is a case pending against him in Palm Beach County. The next appearance date is February 10th. Greenspoon is represented by Boca Raton attorney H. Dohn Williams, Jr.

The crux of the accusation against Greenspoon appears to be in this snippet from the above document:

Essentially the claim is that Greenspoon accepted a referral knowing that it came through someone who “illegally obtained” the accident information. However, it’s not at all clear that Greenspoon knew this was illegal. We did not know that, and we’re guessing most of our readers didn’t know it either.
We’re more disturbed by Greenspoon allegedly telling the client how often to visit the chiropractor and talking about how much money that will generate. But of course that’s not the illegal part. Welcome to Florida.
We also obtained the warrant and “complaint affidavit” for Mr. Meltzer from the State CFO’s office (below), but the affidavit is not really an affidavit. There’s no meaningful detail and it’s not signed.
Meltzer’s case is pending in Martin County, which is just north of Palm Beach County with its county seat in Stuart. The case was scheduled for an appearance last week but that was postponed until the end of March. Meltzer is represented by Miami defense attorney Jayne Weintraub.

We were able to reach the prosecutors (Lev Evans and Ryan Butler) in the Meltzer case. They indicated that the file is very large with over 1200 pages and nearly 70 CDs and DVDs. It does not make sense for us to pay the copying fees for all of that.
In Meltzer’s case the prosecutors declined to make any public comment. So far the Palm Beach County prosecutor has not responded to our request for a comment either and they probably will decline as well. Neither defense lawyer has responded to our inquiries.
Both Greenspoon and Meltzer are still listed on the Florida Bar website as eligible to practice law with no disciplinary history shown. Greenspoon’s law firm website is back up and running, and his profile closes with this description:

… Mr. Greenspoon focuses on business development, the day to day operations as well as managing the firm’s pre-suit personal injury department.

Of course all defendants are presumed innocent at this stage of the proceedings. People who feel like they have had an injustice against them or have been hurt in some way should contact an attorney to discuss their case, if you are unsure where to start and have never contacted a lawyer before, it is always best to look up lawyers in your area, an example of this would be searching ‘lawyers in springfield il‘ if your residency is in Illinois. Make sure you’re taking the right path for you and your case.

After we first published this article we received an additional document on the Meltzer case. It’s long and detailed and not pretty. Due to the document size we’ve split it into two, and left off the initial pages that are unnecessary.

The funny part (to us) is how they got caught. A detective and his wife were in an accident and his wife started receiving phone calls within a couple days. No matter how smart a scheme is, there’s always a way to screw it up.

West Boca Lawyers Arrested For "Fraud"

As always, those arrested are innocent until proven guilty.

Two West Boca lawyers were arrested on fraud charges in a sting by state “Division of Insurance Fraud.” Brian Greenspoon (left, 42) and his wife purchased a house in Boca Isles South back in 2010. His office appears to be in Deerfield Beach. Greenspoon was arrested on Thursday morning and released on bond that afternoon. This is why it’s important to find the best and the most reputable personal injury attorneys that are available to you.
Cory Meltzer (right, 33) is a graduate of the St. Andrews School on Jog, south of Yamato, and his office is in East Boca. The Sun-Sentinel’s mugshot page indicates Meltzer was arrested by the Broward Sheriff on Thursday and held on felony charges from another county, which we assume is Palm Beach. We do not see any case filed in the system for him yet, nor can we tell if he has been released yet.
Meltzer has no criminal history but we do see 22 traffic cases since 2008, which appear to arise out of 13 separate incidents.
For Greenspoon we also see several traffic cases but no previous criminal history. His current criminal case does show up in the system. The blotter shows the charge as Fraud – Unlawful Solicitation. The court record points to this specific provision:

A person may not solicit or cause to be solicited any business from a person involved in a motor vehicle accident by any means of communication other than advertising directed to the public for the purpose of making motor vehicle tort claims or claims for personal injury protection benefits required by s. 627.736, within 60 days after the occurrence of the motor vehicle accident.

It seems a stretch to call that fraud. We’re not sure why this would even be considered a felony or even a crime. It seems more a matter of attorney discipline. I’ve heard lemon law attorneys in California would never commit such a transgression. So if you’re in California make sure you work with the right attorney. Working with other attorneys in their area can correct this, hopefully.
The docket shows the case was originally filed in mid-September and a warrant was issued then. Oddly the offense date in the court records database is listed as October 28th, after the case was filed.
The Greenspoon Dougherty website appears to be down at the moment but we were able to find some background information in Google’s cache.

Mr. Greenspoon graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in History and Political Science. Upon graduating from Penn, Mr. Greenspoon went to New York City where he worked with an investment banking firm for over 3 years. He then decided to pursue dual graduate degrees at the University of Florida. Mr. Greenspoon graduated with honors and earned both his Master’s in Business Administration and his Juris Doctorate.
After graduation, Mr. Greenspoon went on to work for one of the largest commercial litigation firms in Florida. There he practiced corporate law, real estate law and commercial litigation. Feeling the desire to help average people and realizing that the big corporate law firm was not where he wanted to spend his career, Mr. Greenspoon took a job with a small boutique trial firm and began shifting his career focus to personal injury law. In 2011, Mr. Greenspoon founded the Law Offices of Brian N. Greenspoon, P.L.

The Meltzer Taylor website is working and we found this background for Mr. Meltzer.

Cory Meltzer is a Florida native who was born in Miami and grew up in Boca Raton. Cory is also a proud alumni of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. After attending Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, and serving as a member of the school’s trial team, Cory returned to Palm Beach County to serve in the Public Defender’s Office. His tenure working in the public defender’s office provided him with valuable jury trial experience.
To date in his legal career, Cory has tried approximately 90 trials to verdict. Since leaving the public defender’s office to practice personal injury law; Cory has handled thousands of cases representing persons injured by the negligence of others. Cory is admitted to practice law in the (Federal) Southern District of Florida, along with all Florida State Courts. Cases like this highlight the importance of finding a personal injury defense attorney that you can fully trust, so be sure to do your research before hiring anyone.
Cory holds a B.A., Government, Georgetown University, 2003, and a J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2006. He is a member of the Georgetown Club of Palm Beach, the Florida Justice Association, and the Florida Bar.

Per the Sun-Sentinel, five others were either arrested or are wanted including two chiropractors.
Disclosure: This author did meet Mr. Meltzer back in 2012 while sitting in court waiting for our unrelated cases to be heard. We had a pleasant conversation and he seemed nice. We talked about meeting for lunch but that never happened.

Repeat Felon Steals Girlfriend's Checks?

Charles Brice Nelson (above, 23) was arrested on Wednesday and charged with five separate counts including two traffic tickets, two felony counts of fraud, and one count of felony grand theft. He remains in custody at this writing on $18,000 bond.
Per the Palm Beach Post, Nelson allegedly stole checks from a girlfriend and used them to pay off personal debts. It should be noted that Mr. Nelson apparently denies doing so, and he is innocent at this stage of the legal process.
Mr. Nelson has a significant criminal history in the county. He’s had several traffic tickets in just a few years, and in addition he had felony arrests in 2012 and 2013. The 2012 felony arrest involved an aggravated assault charge and a second count that court records show as either “burglary with assault” or “robbery with weapon.” The latter charge was dropped, Nelson was adjudicated guilty of the assault and he was sentenced to a year in jail and 4 years of probation. That probation was later revoked.
With that sentence in mind, it’s odd that his 2013 felony arrest, for grand theft, involves an offense date before that one-year sentence would have been completed. Court records show he was adjudicated guilty in the 2013 case and was sentenced to “364 days” concurrent with the first sentence, and it shows no additional probation.
It’s now a few months after that second one-year sentence finished and he’s arrested again, this time for grand theft and fraud.
Mr. Nelson’s reported address is just southeast of the intersection of Kimberly and 441, in a small house that is owned by someone in Rhode Island.

Watergate Burglar: A Repeat Offender from West Sandalfoot

The west end of Sandalfoot Boulevard is home to many arrestees and we have another one from Thursday. Alicia Anderson, 24, whose reported address is in the Watergate Estates trailers, was charged with burglary, larceny, fraud and dealing in stolen property.
This is not Ms. Anderson’s first experience with our court system. County records show a few traffic tickets, a misdemeanor, and two previous felony cases. In 2009 she faced felony drug charges which were dropped by prosecutors. In 2010 a minor marijuana offense was also dropped. However an incident in 2012 led to a case that made the Sun-Sentinel, calling her a “vacuum thief.”
If we read the record correctly, she pled guilty to multiple counts including felony grand theft and was sentenced to 2 years probation. That didn’t go well, her probation was revoked in January of this year and she served a few months in county jail.
If that’s not enough, there’s this classy photo of her: