Complaint Review: C. Michael Magruder

4/19/2011

 

To
whom it may concern

On  January 2000 I came from Philadelphia Pa. to a new home located in Kissimmee, fl.

On about October 2000 I was hired by a company named Royal Water to do free home water test and sell water softeners.

On October 13th  2000 at about 10:00 am, I went to a new construction development not too far from my house
and knocked on a particular house which the door was slightly open and there was a guy who to me looked like a house painter and out side there was a construction manager from the home builder, the guy inside asked me: what do
you want? I answered: I am doing some free water test around the neighborhood and he answered: get out of here, we don need anything. At that moment I was carrying a black plastic box with chemicals and a small filter inside, when I turned around the construction manager who was next door approached me and asked me what are you going to do with that tv? I though he was making a joke and I tried to go with the flow by answering: I am replacing it.

A week later on 10-23 2000 a group of police officers came to my house (sergeant Cheaper and officer Merlino) among the group, they searched my house for guns and a generator without any search warrant at that moment, after no finding of any evidence, they arrested me and took my truck, my wife placed a bailo

And I went to see a lawyer  Mr. Michael Magruder  who charged me $5000 in cash for my case and told me that even though I was innocent, my best thing to do was to plead guilty because the jury was white and since I was Spanish, they
where going to find me guilty and that I was going to be in jail for many years. He also told me not to worry about it because he was very good friends with the judge and that everything was going to be just fine.

On the day of the trial the judge asked me to plead guilty or not guilty, at that moment my lawyer acted like he had nothing to do with the case and I was extremely scared, confused and worried about my wife and two kids so I remembered what Mr. Magruder told me so I pleaded guilty. He took my $5000 in cash and when I ask for a receipt he wrote $5000 in one of his business card and gave it to me

I was sentenced to 18 month home arrest, paid $500.00 restitution, $423 court cost and charged with burglary of a dwelling and grand theft 3rd deg.

Since then I have been working on my own building pool enclosures and aluminum porches, doing live sound with my own equipment, and working part time for PSAV, now that times have turned very difficult I applied at Disney for a part
time driver position and was told that they could not hire me due to my back ground.

I am a very honest family person with education and good morals, I currently have a class A commercial drivers license, certified commercial, industrial, and residential electrician, and certified first class painter with PPG industries.

I have been victimized by the system, bad society, and my lawyer who told me not to worry about it because he was friends with the judge and that every thing was going to be just fine. I also not only been victimized and forced to pay
for something I never did but also condemned for the rest of my life, for this reason good citizens like me will never have a chance to survive because every time I look for a job with a good company, my bad record will tell me no.

Iwant to tank you for giving me the opportunity to expose my case and look forward to speaking to some one in person to discus the case and bring some documents to the table, I also want to thank you for any help you can give me
so I can keep on with life. I hope someone will put this real thief out of business.

I look on the internet and I found a complaint that is very similar to mine if not exactly the same