Kelly Soo Park Fires Her Lawyers: Undergoes Change Of Counsel Once Again. By Lonce LaMon - April 17, 2012
Another amazing thing happened in the Kelly Soo Park pre-trial proceedings yesterday morning in downtown Los Angeles at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Kelly Soo, who is accused of and indicted for the 2008 murder of aspiring actress and model, Juliana Redding, and is accused of but not indicted for aiding and abetting and working assiduously for Dr. Munir Uwaydah, the notorious fraudster, in his massive workers’ compensation insurance frauds in California, fired her attorneys and changed counsel once again. She now has hired the Pasadena law firm of Buehler & Kassabian.
This writer was all astonishment. I couldn’t believe it, at first. But now I understand why it happened. And I will explain.
Last Spring of 2011, the venerated lawyers Kay Rackauckas and Jennifer Keller resigned as Kelly Soo’s counsels after a $100,000 payment from Uwaydah and his Frontline Medical Group put them in a conflict-of-interest. Rackauckas and Keller stayed on until Kelly Soo found new counsel, and then in July of 2011, Stephen Bernard first appeared in court as Kelly Soo’s defense lawyer.
So, the first question that slapped me hard was why Kelly Soo would fire Stephen Bernard, who has been doing an extraordinary job? He has been a powerful presence at the defense table. He has been competent, energetic, and completely on-the-ball. He pushed for discovery so efficiently he nearly drove the DA to despair. The DA got reamed repeatedly by the judge, Kathleen Kennedy, for not complying efficaciously enough to Bernard’s requests for discovery. So as far as doing lawyer-stuff goes, Stephen Bernard did a great job of defending his client.
Bernard’s partner, Alena Klimianok, developed a close rapport with Kelly Soo Park. Kelly Soo and Alena were seen walking arm-in-arm out of the court house last month, and yesterday as Kelly Soo sat in her tan jacket and cream colored turtle necked sweater at the aisle-end of the third row of the audience seats as she waited for court to come to session, she stood up with animation and embraced Alena Klimianok as Alena entered the court room.
Now after Patricia Redding, Juliana Redding’s mother, gave a dignified and emotionally impassioned speech to the court last month expressing her pain of loss and her rights as a victim to a speedy trial, the new defense counsel of Buehler and Kassabian have requested two months to prepare their case.
The judge granted it. Court will reconvene on June 11th in Department 109 at 8:30 am. This time the judge said nothing more than that Kelly Soo was once again making a change in counsel. Kathleen Kennedy did not get mad, she did not show any irritation or exasperation like she had quite poignantly in last month’s March 19th proceedings. She merely closed the proceedings with the final comment that bail will stand. Kelly Soo’s bail is 3.5 million dollars. Her bail bondsman, Josh Herman, always a formidable presence, was there as usual watching the proceedings from the back row.
Kelly Soo Park, in off-white overcoat, leaves Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on March 19th 2012 in Downtown LA with Alena Klimianok, her then-lawyer, holding her arm. Kelly Soo clearly developed a strong bond with Alena, for she embraced her as Alena entered the court room yesterday. Now Kelly Soo has hired another law firm: Buehler & Kassabian-- a firm with extensive experience in representing clients under government investigation and defending health care providers accused of fraud.
I waited outside the court house as a paparazza until I spotted one of Kelly Soo Park’s new lawyers. I chased him down the sidewalk and got in his face while I fired questions at him. He answered none of them, however he gave me his business card. He was gracious and well mannered. Refined.
He is George W. Buehler, and he was educated at Occidental College in Eagle Rock and did law school at USC. He even got a Master’s degree in Theology.
One thing leapt out at me right from the home page of his website: his firm has a particular concentration in representing clients who are subjects of or witnesses in government investigations. Bingo.
The extensive government investigations into Kelly Soo Park’s activities with Dr. Uwaydah, including from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, The Secret Service, The Santa Monica Police Department, The Los Angeles Police Department, the California Department of Insurance, and likely others clearly has Kelly Soo desperate for lawyers of Buehler & Kassabian’s experience.
Included in Mark Kassabian’s bio on the website it states that Mark is experienced in the defense of health care providers accused of fraud. Bingo again.
Buehler & Kassabian together have extensive experience both in criminal and civil law and have litigated numerous jury trials. They both have worked for high-powered white collar criminal defense firms and most likely met at Geragos & Geragos in Los Angeles just after the turn of the 21st Century. They both have state as well as federal court experience. They are accepted into the California federal district courts as well as into the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
George W. Buehler and Mark Kassabian are mega-attorneys. Their breadth of experience from civil to criminal, from state to federal, from appeals courts to defense from government investigations and health care provider fraud is panoramic. They have all that Kelly Soo Park desperately needs or she is toast.
After all, she’s not just being investigated by the government for health care provider fraud. In her case specifically she’s under extensive investigation for workers’ compensation fraud in the hundreds of millions of dollars as the partner-in-crime to Dr. Uwaydah concomitant with being accused of and about to go to trial for murder.
That’s big stuff. So, once again: Court will reconvene for Kelly Soo Park on June 11th, 2012, which is a Monday, at 8:30 am in Department 109 at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles.
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