SHOCKER: Wendy Williams’ Guardian Sabrina Morrissey Sued for STEALING $30M From Another Person Under Her Guardianship

SHOCKER: Wendy Williams’ Guardian Sabrina Morrissey Sued for STEALING $30M From Another Person Under Her Guardianship

Wendy Williams’ court-ordered guardian was named in a $30 million lawsuit that alleged that she was scamming a client as she controlled the Wendy Williams Show host’s finances. 

Sabrina Morrissey and her firm, Morrissey and Morrissey LLP, as well as about ten other lawyers were named as defendants in the lawsuit, The U.S. Sun reports. 

The lawsuit accused Morrissey and the other lawyers of conspiring to “perpetuate a baseless guardianship” against a New York man named Jose Verdugo, who had just been awarded $5.5 million in a personal injury claim. 

Attorney, Michael Flomenhaft of The Flomenhaft Lawfirm, PLLC, repped Verdugo after he was hurt in a construction accident, sustaining injuries to his head and back. 

The lawsuit was filed in November 2022, and in August 2023, Verdugo’s lawyer told the court that they had “discontinued the above-entitled action without prejudice, and without costs to either party as against the other.” Flomenhaft is allowed to refile the charges, make changes to the claim or move the case to a different court at a later date, as long as the timeframe falls within the statute of limitations.

Flomenhaft alleged that Verdugo was contacted by a former associate, Herbert Rodriguez, back in 2009. Court documents alleged that Rodriguez told Verdugo that Flomenhaft had mishandled the case and that his “case could not be finalized unless Verdugo consented to an MHL Article 81 Guardianship that Verdugo did not want or need.” 

Verdugo and his wife badly needed the personal injury award money at the time.

Two guardians were appointed, Rocio Pieternelle, repped by Morrissey, and Verdugo’s wife, Maria, from 2010 to 2015. Prior to the filing of the $30 million lawsuit, Pieternelle accused Morrissey of pilfering funds from Verdugo in a separate lawsuit. 

The lawsuit claimed that Rodriguez and his firm “initially partnered and conspired with Sabrina Morrissey, Esq. of M&M to impose on Verdugo an MHL (Mental Hygiene Law) Article 81 Guardianship.”

“Under the guise of protecting and vindicating Verdugo, they jointly pursued a dual litigation strategy aimed at, getting rid of Flomenhaft” amid accusations that they were “reaping Morrissey & Morrissey substantial court-awarded fees as Guardian counsel through litigation: maligning Flomenhaft legally and ethically.”

Morrissey and the other defendants were accused of trapping Verdugo in a “humiliating and oppressive guardianship by manipulating and serially deceiving him” as they wiped out his multi-million dollar personal injury award.  

“Empowered by both the confidence that their fee applications would be judicially rubber-stamped, and the consistent judicial resistance to affording Verdugo an opportunity to demonstrate his capacity under the New York Mental Hygiene law and thus the invalidity of the Guardianship, Defendants have been untrammeled in their scheme,” court documents stated. 

The claims were reportedly voluntarily dismissed before Morrissey or the other lawyers filed a response to the allegations. 

The bombshell report dropped after Lifetime aired a four-part documentary chronicling the former talk show host’s cognitive decline and alcohol addiction. Wendy’s family members recently disclosed that they had been cut off from the star amid her ongoing treatment.  

“The people who love her cannot see her,” Wendy’s sister, Wanda Williams, told People last week. “How the hell did we get here?”

Last week, Wendy’s team announced that the once-popular host had been diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. 

 

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