Staff report
Kenton County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Lape has issued a temporary injunction against Michael Hild in a lawsuit filed in her court, saying that Benjamin Dusing and his company can proceed with the sale of two pieces of property in Fort Mitchell and that Hild has no claim to the property.
Deters Law attorney Dominick Romeo filed the suit on behalf of Michael and Laura Hild, Lape says, to “directly interfere” with the sale of the property, ostensibly claiming that Dusing owed money related to legal fees paid in a federal case against Hild in the U.S. Southern District Court in New York City.
But Judge Lape’s ruling says that Hild “did not file or submit any admissible evidence” or “request an evidentiary hearing.”
She writes:
“Based on the allegations in Plaintiff’s Complaint, Hild is an alleged general creditor of Dusing and Panda Power. Hild has not asserted in the Complaint any right, claim, or interest of any kind in the Oak Street Properties. The same is true of Plaintiff Laura Hild. There is no evidence that Plaintiffs possess any legal, beneficial, or equitable interest in the Oak Street Properties. Moreover, Plaintiffs did not file or submit any admissible evidence in opposition to the Defendant’s motion, nor did Plaintiffs request an evidentiary hearing.”
Panda Power LLC is the company Dusing established to own the Fort Mitchell properties with his uncle. He ultimately bought out his uncle’s half-interest and entered into an agreement with Brunson Enterprises to sell the properties. A closing was set for early April and could not take place because of the Hild lawsuit.
That sale can now proceed.
Dusing said from the initial filing of the Hild lawsuit that it was a nuisance suit and part of a continuing disinformation and harassment campaign in which Hild participated to discredit him. Dusing also said he was compensated by Hild consistent with the contract both signed and, in fact, he heavily discounted his fees for his friend.
Dusing represented Hild, now a convicted federal felon, in a federal case in the New York U.S. District Court involving securities fraud relating to Hild’s reverse mortgage company. The four-week-long jury trial returned a guilty verdict. Hild now faces the possibility of a long prison sentence. Immediately after being convicted, he fired Dusing and requested a new trial based on “ineffective assistance of counsel.”
Dusing and Hild were friends and classmates at Covington Catholic High School and when he fired his first lawyers in his complicated securities case, he hired Dusing, a former federal prosecutor and a respected lawyer known as a criminal defense attorney specializing in “white collar crimes” in federal court.
Dusing’s own domestic cases in Kenton County Family Court have lead to his temporary suspension by the Kentucky Bar Association.
“I spoke up about some things I thought shouldn’t be going on, and the people who were doing them have come after me,” he said. “One way they did that was by taking advantage of one of my clients who was vulnerable.”
Dusing has temporarily withdrawn but may reinstate a lawsuit against Gretchen Wessels Stephenson, a paralegal for attorney Stephanie Dietz, for defamation and interfering with his business relationships.
At least one of his clients has given testimony about Wessels Stephenson’s actions. That client spoke to the Northern Kentucky Tribune of Wessels Stephenson as aiming to “annihilate” Dusing.
The harrassment also extended to the staff in Dusing’s law office, who claimed they were threatened. His clients and former employees have provided sworn statements related to the harrassment.
The Tribune has confirmed that Dusing complained to the FBI in the summer of 2020 about public corruption involving attorney Stephanie Dietz and Alice Keys, staff attorney for Judge Christopher Mehling.
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams of the Southern District of New York submitted a letter to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams showing that Michael Hild was the source of disinformation under the Twitter account, “LiesAreLoud The TruthisQuiet,” to undermine the reputation of Dusing in an effort to get his conviction overturned.
Williams’ letter cites Hild’s complaint to the Kentucky Bar Association that played a key role in the temporary suspension of Dusing’s law license and says it was replete with deliberate misinformation.
See this NKyTribune story about U.S. Attorney’s letter to Judge Abrams