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When the good times start rolling, they just keep coming

So back in the mid-’90s, a 19-year old Midge* meets 43-year-old Anthony Scaffidi and falls for him, even though he was a quarter-century her elder, and despite his criminal record. Their relationship appears to be going swimmingly, and at some point Scaffidi agrees to pay for her to get a law degree from Temple University. Scaffidi says that while she was in law school they became more than lovers, as she would offer him legal advice, and that by 1997, when she was admitted to the bar, she was basically acting as his personal attorney.

As I’m sure you can guess, however, things took a turn for the worse.

In 1997, Scaffidi was indicted for something (unfortunately, the Law.com article neglects to mention for what, and I couldn’t find the info elsewhere) and he was worried that the prosecution and his creditors were going to get their grubby hands all over his worldly possessions. So he claims that Midge*, as his attorney, convinced him to hide his assets by giving them to her, with the plan being that she would hold them in a constructive trust for him. So he says he gave her everything. Not thinking things through, he then beat on her, locked her in bathrooms, etc., to the point that she got a restraining order against him in 2001 (and he pled guilty to charges of domestic violence). Following that, she scooped up all of his property, emptied out his bank accounts and safe depost boxes, and went off for the hills.

So in 2002 Scaffidi sued Midge* for legal malpractice, fraud and unjust enrichment, among other things, claiming that she used her legal intellect to swindle him out of over $1 million. The allegedly stolen property includes a condo in New Jersey, a North Carolina beach house, some undeveloped land, an interest in a restaurant, three cars, jewelry, stocks and cash. Oh yeah, and he also sued her for breaching an implied palimony contract, arguing that there was an understanding that she would use her law practice to support him evermore - the court threw that one out. Midge*, for her part, then countersued him for the years of threats and abuse she says to have suffered, said behavior allegedly going on even after she had dumped him and took off (he admits to, at least, making threatening phone calls to her when she vamoosed).

While this legal battle was going on, in March 2005, Scaffidi decided that his life was getting too boring so he went and got himself arrested as a part of a gambling sting, and last August he pled guilty to charges of gambling and drug possession. And Midge* was also concerned that there wasn’t enough going on, so she filed for bankruptcy, claiming that defending her case against Scaffidi has wiped her out (while that forced an automatic stay of Scaffidi’s state-based case against her, that stay was recently lifted, in part).

Let’s tally this up here. The personal lives of lawyers? Check. Heated legal battles in state and federal court? Check. Guilty pleas? Check. Domestic violence? Check. New Jersey? Check. Stolen money, cars and property? Check. Drugs and gambling? Check. If Hollywood turned this into a movie and cast Keira Knightly or Jessica Alba as Midge*, this would have everything that we here at QuizLaw hold near and dear to our hearts.

* Five years after this article was published, the woman we now refer to as “Midge” asked us to remove her name from this article. Actually, “asked” is a polite word - she sent a questionably thought out cease and desist threat. Though her request had/has no legal basis, and despite countless articles on the internet discussing this story and including her full legal name, we’ve taken her true name out of the article and comments. Not because we agree with her threats, but because it’s just not worth our time or money to defend against baseless accusations and lawsuits when there are already enough baseless suits clogging up the judicial system. Plus, we’re busy being real lawyers doing actual law-talking stuff.

Posted by Seth on May 18, 2006 | Comments (8)