Ex-Baltimore Raven McCrary's d

By: signup07 Mood: Date: 07/29/2010 20:36:12 Music: None

Retired Raven Michael McCrary's second damages trial to determine how much his former real estate development partners owe him for fraud is finally under way. But it's been slow going, and no one expects a new award calculation any time soon.

Postponements pushed the proceedings off for a year after an appellate court affirmed the defendants' liability but overturned the $33.6 million award. Another attempt to put off the retrial, on the basis of a pending Supreme Court petition, was denied Friday.

Baltimore City Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson is the seventh city judge to hear some part of the case. Further complicating matters, the voluminous case file didn't arrive in his chambers from the Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis until Monday morning.

And the main defendant, developer Stuart C. "Neil" Fisher, has neither appeared in court nor sent an attorney to represent him. He fears he'll be arrested on a three-year-old bench warrant for his previous non-participation, another defendant's lawyer said.

In the original trial, Fisher, Harford County developer Edward V. Giannasca II, Fisher's wife, and various LLCs associated with them were found to have defrauded McCrary of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds.

Judge Pierson must decide how much of those proceeds should have gone to McCrary, and whether he deserves any other compensation for the ordeal.

In opening statements Friday, McCrary's attorney related the now- familiar tale of the former All-Pro defensive end deceived by more experienced real estate developers who secretly collected $12 million in insurance proceeds after the hurricane and kept McCrary in the dark.

McCrary took the witness stand Monday afternoon and immediately apologized for being unable to answer certain questions on Friday. Various court proceedings have taken up a lot of McCrary's time lately, and it appeared to be wearing on him.

"I'm in the process of a very painful divorce right now," McCrary told Pierson from the witness stand, noting a child custody hearing he attended Monday morning.

In response to questions from his attorney, Kenneth B. Frank, McCrary told the story of the condominium conversion planning that went on in early 2005. He occasionally expressed regret about relying on Giannasca, whom he once considered a friend.

Giannasca, who was jailed for contempt earlier in the case, has been in the courtroom Friday and Monday. His wife, who fainted in a previous portion of the litigation, was not.

"Ed was on the board of my Nike Air Max foundation," McCrary said. "This was a guy I trusted. This was my first real estate deal. ... I was so foolish to get into a deal with someone who wasn't honest."

As McCrary reviewed the nuts and bolts of how the project was supposed to work, Richard Winelander, who is representing Fisher's wife, T.J., and two of her LLCs, objected repeatedly to the basis of McCrary's knowledge and to the authenticity and relevance of the documents in front of McCrary.

The trial, which is being held during Judge Pierson's intermittent free time this week, is expected to continue into next week.