Coscia, a San Diego securities lawyer who once worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission, sued the law firm of McKenna & Cuneo, claiming he pled guilty to a felony because of bad advice.
Stock Manipulation
Coscia, whose best-known client was convicted Ponzi scheme operator J. David Dominelli, was charged in federal court in Las Vegas in 1993 with manipulating the stock of OMNI USA. He hired lawyer Juanita Brooks of McKenna & Cuneo’s San Diego office to defend him.
He pled guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to violate federal securities laws and was sentenced in 1996 to two years probation and fined $5,000. But he later said Brooks refused to convey to prosecutors his offer to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, instead of a felony, in exchange for information on other fraudulent securities activities.
Coscia said Brooks told him the offer wouldn’t do him any good, but he said he found out later, after a conversation with an assistant U.S. attorney, that deals such as the one he wanted to offer were common.
Contending Brooks’ defense was negligent, he sued her and her firm—a year and two days after he was sentenced, and about three years after pleading guilty to conspiracy.
A San Diego Superior Court judge sustained a demurrer, agreeing that the suit was untimely and that the complaint was deficient since it failed to allege actual innocence. Coscia tried to amend the pleading, but the judge said the guilty plea estopped him from asserting innocence at all.
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