Criminal
Jul. 31, 2002
Lawyer Loses Bid to Lift Injunction Against Him
LOS ANGELES - A Rancho Cucamonga family lawyer who threatened last year to "descend like a herd of buffaloes" on a former client lost Monday an appellate battle challenging his former client's injunction against him.
Although attorney Craig G. Cote's threats were primarily legal, they could have put his former client in fear for his safety, the court decided. Napierala v. Cote, E030843 (Cal. App. 4th Dist. July 29, 2002).
Cote left two voicemail messages for his former client, James B. Napierala, after he sent Cote a letter last August saying he wanted to take Cote to small claims court for $2,000 plus costs, according to the opinion.
"Napierala, you're a complete stone idiot," Cote said in the first message. "You send me this letter of demand for which there is no legal basis. Let me warn you right now, my dear little friend, you come at me legally and I will descend upon you like a herd of buffalo, you little piece of shit. I am going to crush you, and when I get done with you there won't be room left for dogs to piss on you."
Cote said the injunction, which prohibits harassment of Napierala, should be invalid partly because no reasonable person would have inferred a threat of physical violence from his messages - only legal threats. But the 4th District Court of Appeal disagreed.
"The statement '... I'm going to crush you and when I get done with you there won't be room left for dogs to piss on you' certainly constitutes substantial evidence to support the trial court's order. While it is true that other portions of the message threaten legal action, in light of our standard of review, we cannot conclude, as Cote requests, that the overall tenor of the communication does not convey a credible threat of violence," Justice Manuel A. Ramirez wrote in the 10-page unpublished opinion.
Cote, who claimed Napierala's wife had been calling him and harassing him, also obtained an injunction against Napierala.
Napierala hired Cote in 2000 to represent him in child custody and visitation proceedings with his current wife, from whom Napierala was separated at the time. While interviewing Napierala's ex-wife, who was a witness in the custody proceedings, Cote became interested in her "to the point where Napierala felt that he was not focusing on the case," Ramirez wrote.
Napierala fired Cote in June 2000. Cote, who is currently engaged to Napierala's ex-wife, had returned $1,850 of his $3,850 retainer immediately after he was fired.
Katherine Gaidos
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