Maryland Lawmaker To Cough Up $109K For Violating State Law Regulating Sale Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Scams

In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, The Capital Gazette reports:

• A state lawmaker from Severna Park who lost a lawsuit earlier this year must pay $109,000 in damages and attorney fees, a county judge has ruled. That is 10 times more than what a jury ordered Del. Tony McConkey to pay in April after determining that the Republican knowingly violated a state law designed to protect homeowners in foreclosure. After hearing numerous motions July 27, Circuit Court Judge D. William Simpson decided that McConkey owes his victim $34,000 - rather than the $10,800 ordered by the jury - and owes her attorneys $75,000 in legal fees.(1)

• Despite the drastic increase in the judgment, McConkey yesterday continued to praise the jury's verdict, noting that it did not believe he was perpetrating a foreclosure rescue scam or otherwise trying to defraud Teresa Milligan of her money. "I still feel vindicated," said McConkey, pointing to how the jury found that he did not breach his fiduciary duty to Milligan.(2)

For more, see Lawmaker must pay $109K judgment (Judge increases damages, tacks on attorney fees for McConkey).

(1) Attorney Michael Morin and Milligan's other attorney, Peter A. Holland, argued in court on July 27 that McConkey owed them $126,061 in legal fees for more than 450 hours of work. Judge Simpson said their rates - $275 an hour for Morin and $300 for Holland - were reasonable, but that some of the work they performed was on counts on which the jury found in favor of McConkey. He cut the legal fees to $75,000.

(2) "You have to be remarkably self-centered - virtually delusional - to see a $109,000 judgment as a vindication," attorney Michael Morin said. "Ms. Milligan will be paid," he added.