Right

Covington, GA. – – Imagine for everyone who has ever hired a lawyer, you think this nightmare: you think your lawyer is in that case and fights to win your money, but it turns out that he turns into almost nothing did.

And not only nothing, but fuel your case completely.

A couple of Jasper County says that the lawyer of Covington David Ozburn did exactly that.

On a surprising visit to his office, they confronted him. They say he admitted and they got everything on tape.

Legal practice on the ice skates

What we know:

Darren and Daphey Hilley from Monticello have a complaint against Ozburn with the state bar of Georgia, in which he was accused of ruining Darren's case of personal injury and misleading him.

But that's just one of Ozburn's problems.

The FOX 5 I team found records of at least two other lawyers' complaints, and last month the Supreme Court of Georgia Ozburn set a preliminary suspension after he had not answered the bar during their investigation, as court files.

This means that Ozburn cannot represent customers for the time being.

But maybe his biggest legal problem: a criminal charge in Newton County, which accused him of mortgage fraud and the fleeting borrower and seller in dozens of real estate closures. Ozburn is charged with intake due to blackmail, falsification in the first degree and two counts of theft.

According to the indictment, Ozburn is accused of being wrongly asserted, selling property insurance that buyers protects when disputes arise of who has ownership, or in cases of unpaid taxes or property rights.

By collecting fees for fake ownership insurance and the collection of final fees based on false representation, it has stolen almost 72,000 US dollars, the indictment says.

Ozburn has not guilty.

Former customers take measures

Other complaints:

With regard to the other complaints submitted in the public prosecutor's office, the alleged title insurance system is included. Another comes from a woman who did Ozburn to help her do her three grandchildren.

The bar claims that after paying Ozburn $ 1,000, he did not do a job and ignored it when she tried to reach him. The woman told the I team that Ozburn finally brought her money back, and she found another lawyer.

State records that led to the provisional suspension does not show.

The background story:

The Hilleys also say that Ozburn did little to nothing to help them. They had no way to know that the legal confusion around him built up.

Until his injury in an industrial accident, Darren Hilte was a serious equipment operator and worked in a railway station in Jasper County. In October 2015, he says, the taxi of an ankle boom loader was separated when he removed a tree trunk from a train car.

“When I upright, it fell back down, metal on metal, and it threw me back into the seat,” said Darren. “And then I destroyed one of the discs in my back.”

The employee compensation covered only some of the medicinal bills and Darren was unemployed. The Hilleys decided to sue the equipment company. They turned to David Ozburn, who previously worked as a lawyer of Jasper County.

“He told me the case was a slam dark,” Darren recalls.

The Hilleys claim that Ozburn has caused them together for years, occasionally Darren come to the office to sign forms, or said he had to hire an expert.

But Daphey said she had become suspicious.

“My husband called him weekly,” she said. “He would leave news. (Ozburn) would not give back calls. He would want to set up a meeting, and it would take forever to get in.”

Her nightmare started. Daphey called the clerk from Hall County to find out what was really going on with the case. She learned that the case had been released four years earlier. From ozburn.

The Hilleys said they tried unsuccessfully to reach him or make an appointment.

“I had a conversation with my husband,” said Daphey. “And I said, 'This is not correct. This is wrong. We have to go to the office and we have to have a conversation with him without knowing that we are coming.'”

The secret recording

Grab deeper:

In April 2023 they appeared unannounced in his office and asked Ozburn. Daphey had her cell phone recording recorded even though she hid her.

“Basically, your case was released for a while,” Ozburn is told you on the recording.

Daphey told him that she already knew everything because she called the clerk.

Court files show that Ozburn's inattentiveness torpedoed things. He dismissed the case himself after he had not answered any records of records from the opposing side and had to pay 750 US dollars in attorney fees.

At the request of the equipment company, a judge of the Supreme Court dismissed the case with prejudices. This means that the Hilleys cannot resume it.

“We told you in which terrible financial situation we lived? What will you do to fix this?” Daphey asks Ozburn on the recording.

“I don't know if there is something that can be done,” he said.

With regard to an explanation, Ozburn tells them that during the time he dealt with the case, he broke up with his wife and “everything from back then is a blurring”.

“If you couldn't handle it, why didn't you just tell us so that we could go somewhere else?” Daphey said.

His answer: “Well, I thought I could and I had already dealt with things like that.”

In other parts of the recording, Ozburn admits that what happened with the case is “100% my fault” and said: “I was disappointed with myself what happened, it is released.”

“I know I failed,” said Ozburn to you. “I know that you have trusted and I completely failed you.”

Reference is made to record 2023 in the complaint of the Hilleys bar.

“I wish I could repair it,” said Ozburn to you. “I mean, if I had the $ 50,000 in the bank to my name, I would write you a check about it. But it's not there.”

Mortgage fraud allegations too

What you say:

There are others in Ozburn's Wake who also feel demolished.

While Lynne and Phillip Herrigton are not as financially affected as the Hilleys, Ozburn tell them money.

“He owes me the money that I paid him for this title insurance that he didn't get,” Lynne told the I team.

The Herringtons are among the victims listed in Ozburn's criminal charges. He was her final lawyer when they bought their house in Newton County in Newton in 2020. They said their real estate agent associated them with Ozburn.

“I think I thought everything should be up to date,” said Lynne.

According to the indictment, Ozburn incorrectly represented in dozens of real estate closures as an agent and approved lawyer for the Chicago title insurance company, also as documents to maintain the appearance.

The Herringtons paid Ozburn $ 1,875 to property insurance and closing fees, as their declaration of processing shows.

The total number of borrowers and sellers in dozens of closures from 2019 Stohlen: 71,972 US dollars.

“He is a lawyer. Why are you doing that?” Said Lynne. “He only took money from people.”

The other side:

Ozburn did not answer interview requests from the I team. His lawyer, who dealt with his legal complaints and the criminal proceedings, the Senator Bill Cowsert, R-Athen, rejected a statement.

What's next:

There are currently no hearings in its extortion.

If he submits an answer to the examination of the bar according to state bar procedures, his preliminary suspension can be lifted. But he ultimately looks like a hearing and possible references, suspension or even payout.

If he never answered, there would still be a hearing, and Ozburn would probably be excluded, a bar expert told the I team.

I-Teamcovington