Still missing: One black duffel bag stuffed with $360,540 in cash.
Zulmai Nazarzai was ordered to turn that money over to a court receiver more than seven years ago to satisfy part of a $4 million judgment against him and his loan-modification company, which stood accused of ripping off desperate and elderly people on the verge of losing their homes.
Nazarzai said he took the cash from his closet and gave it to his then-girlfriend, who packed it in a black duffel bag and headed to Los Angeles to deliver it. But she blacked out on the way, she testified, and the money was gone when she awoke.
The judge called it the least believable story he had ever heard — “and I’ve heard some whoppers” — and sent Nazarzai to jail on charges of civil contempt for defying his turn-over order. Nazarzai remained behind bars for nearly six years, from Dec. 7, 2010 to Nov. 4, 2016, when Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks decided continued incarceration wouldn’t make the money re-appear and released him.
Now, Nazarzai is suing the County of Orange and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in federal court for at least $25 million, accusing them of violating his civil rights.
The county denies the allegations, saying the federal court has no jurisdiction to hear such a case and urging the judge to sanction Nazarzai’s lawyers for, essentially, lying.
In Dickensian detail, Nazarzai’s suit describes life in “administrative segregation,” where he was isolated from the jail’s other inmates. He was confined in “the hole” — “a minuscule cell
that restricts a prisoner’s ability to move about, exercise or communicate” — for extended periods; was denied the right to attend weekly religious services and meet with a religious advisor; had his prayer rug confiscated; was harassed because he’s Muslim; and was denied access to exercise yards or other facilities over the entire course of his incarceration, the suit says.
When Nazarzai threatened to air his grievances, the Sheriff’s Department threatened to change his prisoner status from “white band” — minimum security — to “blue band,” a classification reserved for alleged pedophiles, sex offenders, ex-gang members and jail snitches, the suit says.
“Persons so classified are reviled by the general inmate population and at times are subjected to violent inmate abuse,” the suit says. “As a result of said threats, (Nazarzai) was deterred from and did cease to lawfully complain as to his living conditions all in violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.”
All this amounted to punishment, the suit says, even though Nazarzai was a civil detainee who had not been charged with, or convicted of, a crime. He is seeking $25 million from the county, plus medical expenses and attorney’s fees, for being denied his freedom.
Lawyers for the county deny the allegations in Nazarzai’s suit, saying he was housed away from the general inmate population for his own protection. They also argue that the federal courts have no jurisdiction to hear the suit.
A legal principle, the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine, holds that no federal court except the U.S. Supreme Court can sit in direct review of state court decisions unless Congress has specifically authorized such a review.
“In short, federal courts below the Supreme Court must not become a court of appeals for state court decisions,” county lawyers wrote. Nazarzai “has to find a state court remedy, or obtain relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The county notes that Nazarzai’s lawyers tried numerous times to have higher state and federal courts review his incarceration, with no success.
“The complaint, as framed, includes inaccurate, incomplete and/or deceptive allegations,” the county said, asking the court to sanction Nazarzai’s lawyers.
Nazarzai’s confinement resulted solely from his voluntary decision not to comply with the court’s orders, the county argues.
Nazarzai and his cohorts ran a “boiler-room telemarketing operation” that lied to distressed and elderly people on the verge of losing their homes as the economy imploded back in 2008 and 2009, according to the civil lawsuit filed against them by the state Attorney General.
The Attorney General said they bilked homeowners in a fraudulent loan modification scheme. The state won that civil suit; no one, however, was charged with a crime.
During his incarceration, legal scholars likened Nazarzai’s continued confinement to debtors’ prison.
Contempt is a tool judges use in an effort to compel testimony from reluctant witnesses or child support from deadbeat parents or even the names of news sources from recalcitrant journalists. The law gives judges sweeping authority to use this tool, legal scholars said: One can be held in civil contempt as long as a judge thinks it’s possible for the person to comply, and there’s a chance of compliance.
Former lawyer H. Beatty Chadwick set the American record for jail time for civil contempt — 14 years behind bars after a Pennsylvania judge ordered him to place $2.5 million into a court-controlled account during divorce proceedings. Chadwick said he had lost the money in bad investments. Chadwick noted that if he had been convicted of third-degree murder, he would have been out in half the time.
The Nazarzai suit is before U.S. Judge Andrew J. Guilford. A scheduling conference is set for Jan. 22.