Law Offices Of Lawrence Irwin Wolf Los Angeles You are innocent - until you made the first payment made in full, then we screw you & take the easy way out Los Angeles California

I'll start with my original time line of the night i was pulled over by the West Hollywood Sheriffs and the following actions of the Los Angeles Gay & l*****n Center Attorney Terra Slavin, ESQ and the referral to Lawrence I Wolf. I later found out that Lawrence Irwin Wolf, Esq had a C- rating with the Better Business Bureau and a 6.5 out of 10 rating through AVVO another C- rating. Terra Slavin just so happens to be my ex boyfriends attorney 3 years ago and she called me up at home when she saw that I had put request in for their Attorney Services for Dui's and said in a very snotty tone " Is this Lance Mandernack? Thee Lance Mandernack..." and went on to tell me how she or the G & L Legal Department would never be able to represent me for anything in the future as long she is head of the legal department.

Honestly, I had gotten over that relationship and that bad time in my life but it was obvious she had not. I wonder if she referred me to Lawrence Wolf with a C- rating from 2 credible agency s to get me back for winning everything back from my loser boyfriend over 3 years ago.

Here is the timeline I wrote out myself so i could remember the details of the event a year later when trial comes up.

Lances DUI Time line & points remembered:

October 18th 2008 arrived from Florida to LA to housesit parents place & take care of dogs. Parents in Thailand Oct 20 - Nov 6th 2008.

November 1, 2008 I was headed to a sober party on the 1300 block of Crescent Heights. I was parked on the 1200 block of Crescent Heights. Parking was very minimal. At 11:35 pm a man was parked beside me. I thought he wanted parking space & I just waved him on saying sorry, just got here. I was gathering any stuff to take with me to the party and I got out of car. The man was still there and then got out of car and started saying you know what you did... repeatedly. I said no and he saw my Licence plate beginning to come loose (screw fell off) and so he took my plate hit me in the face, left side near left eye and temporal region. I looked at him and said now I have to call the cops...and he took off in his car real fast. I never did call. He mentioned somewhere about his living there
on Crescent Heights and I gathered it was across the street. So after sitting in my car for 5 minutes wondering what just happened, I decided to go around the block and see if maybe he came back. I saw my spot was still open so I used my turn signal, turned into a driveway to make a y turn and that's when I noticed the WEHO Sheriffs behind me. It was now about 11:45 pm and I figured I could at least make a report of the accost, since I knew I hadn't been driving poorly.
(I was driving very good actually).

They blocked me in the driveway of an apartment complex. I opened my window and the New Jersey cop asked for licence, insurance which I had in glove box. He asked what happened to my face and I told him. He replied with come on, I've heard all the stories, what really happened?. I told him that was the truth. He proceeded on with searching my car, my back pack, glove box, etc and I knew at that time that these guys were on a quota mission or something because they didn't care about taking any report on the accosting and proceeded to go for the DUI.

They asked if I wanted an ambulance to look me over & I said No, I'll take care of it myself with neosporin & butterfly bandages. The second sheriff asked me about 3 more times if I wanted the EMT's to check me out and knowing that I can do better than the EMT's to take care of a wound like this since I'm in the medical field at a much higher level than the EMT's , refused each time. Well, they called them anyways without me knowing it.

About 5 minutes after talking with me they put me in the back of the Sheriff car with no explanation, and continued to search the car for a good 45 minutes.

Point to Remember: It was daylights saving time so 1 hour of time was lost in their time line. That was the time I spent in the sheriffs car for no real reason.


The ambulance arrived and I was in back of Sheriffs car. They asked me to step out and I did. I looked at the EMT guy who was facing me and I mentioned I refused your help, I'm fine. The EMT then asked you refused? and I answered yes, like 4 times already. And they all flew back into their vehicles and left the scene in seconds.

The Sheriffs went through my back pack and found 12 little blue pills of which they asked me what they were. I told them it was Viagra and that was that. They also searched under my wheel well where I had my laptop computer and I told them it was mine and I had the receipt for it at home. I hid it there so that it wasn't out in plain site if the car was broken into, a regular precaution I always take with anything left in car.

After the 45 minutes they came back to me and said I was being arrested for narcotics and read me my rights.

I was thinking narcotics? Their crazy unless viagra is considered a narcotic. I'm not a pharmacist so I didn't really know what a narcotic was specifically. The viagra pills were all missing later out of my backpack so I assumed they took them as evidence.

They took me to the Sheriffs Station in WEHO , booked me. Sheriff #2 kept asking me questions about smoking meth and I kept telling him I never smoked meth and about the 3rd time he asked I was getting annoyed and told him flat out what part of I don't smoke meth' don't you understand. He left the counter quickly with out saying a word.

Later he asked me to sign this little card that talked about drug testing. As I read the card there was a word that started with the letter P that I did not know. So, I circled the P word on the card and waited for his return since I have learned not to sign anything unless I understand it fully.

When he returned I asked him what that word meant and he could not give me a good answer so I told him I need to know what that word meant before signing anything and he quickly swiped the card back to his side of the counter and said something like I'll just say you refused and left the counter with the card in his hand. The card was unsigned and the P word is circled. He mentioned I should not have circled that word on the card.

No pee test since I couldn't pee. I had a little bout of diarrhea and everything came out backside, none from front. I could not help that situation.

Sheriff #2 later asked me to do a sobriety test in the WEHO Sheriffs office and I did it just fine and did the nose pointing test real fast and accurately and I was looking at him annoyed since I already passed his sobriety test out on the street.
There was another Sheriff in the office sitting behind Sheriff #2 watching me do the sobriety test just fine . The Sheriff in back didn't seem to be there on purpose as a witness, just there to watch what was going on. Im not even sure if Sheriff #2 even knew he was watching.

Only one girl in the WEHO Sheriffs station asked me about my face gash and she asked me did that happen here?. I refused to speak to anyone at that point since I didn't trust any of them and just rolled my eyes back and sighed without saying anything. She was the girl who took the fingerprints.

Spent 3 days in jail.

On Tuesday November 4th 2008 several of us from the WEHO jail were bused to the Beverly Hills Courthouse for arraignment. I was there several hours but never saw a judge or anyone for that matter. I was asked to come up to the desk and a gentleman said to me well, this is your lucky day, your case has been dropped from a felony to a misdemeanor. Just make sure you show up for court on January 6th 2009. I said Thank you, I will. And I was released a couple hours later.

I went to the WEHO Sheriff office on Friday November 7, 2008 in the morning (around 8:30 am) and asked a black Sheriff officer at the counter for a copy of the police report that occurred on November 1, 2008. He asked who I was. I told him my name & that I was the one who got arrested. He proceeded to tell me that he could not give me a copy of the police report and that my attorney was the only one who could get the report for me. I questioned that remark thinking it was ridiculous that I couldn't get a copy of the report for myself, and I asked again and he said go ask your attorney. So I walked out frustrated and left.

So I go see Mr Wolf on December 9 2008 for my consultation. The lawyers assistant Susana Perez, did all the talking. I barely saw Mr Wolf for one minute as a quick introduction. She was so on my side before she got my money. Telling me the cops are liars, and they pull this stuff all the time so it made me feel good that they actually had some strategies under their belt to prove that I was innocent because I am! I agreed to the $5500 for the entire charge up to trial not knowing if that was a good or bad price, but I knew I could afford that much so i wrote out the check for $5500 that night.

One month later I have another office visit with Mr Wolf, or I should say, Susana Perez.The feeling that they all put out at me that entire meeting was that I was the criminal and they needed more money to prove my innocence. I saw right through them and got very angry but I kept it to myself. I asked him where the first $5500 went and what was there to show for that? The only information he gave to me was the copy of the police report which I'm sure his secretary got for him. Susana Perez then went on to tell me she needed an additional $4500 from me. I let them know that this action was not right, Susan flat out lied to me about getting a few continuances on the case so i could earn enough to pay for this second unknown payment. Susana flat out said that continuances are never given out for misdemeanors and I let her know that if you can get several extensions on a traffic ticket you can get more with the misdemeanors. I'm not an idiot.

I ended up paying only 1/2 of the second payment at the end of that meeting. The whole staff was actually acting cold & mean to me and I left in very bad spirits.

A week later I was told flat out by someone who had a dui charge against them in the past that I was being swindled and to fire that lawyer. So a week later I did fire Mr Lawrence Irwin Wolf. He called me into the office a third time after receiving my Dear Lawrence letter. He said that he would represent me and not to worry about the rest of the cost of the second payment. He then went on to tell me that I had a choice "jail or program". He told me a few times "jail or program" and I was so angry that he too was just another lazy employee that I had to hire. He never once mention one angle of defense in my favor, just "jail or program".

Mind You, this is the lawyer that was supposed to actually work to find evidence that I was innocent and the whole purpose of finding an outside lawyer in the first place. He was mean , lazy and i would not recommend him to my worst enemy. A side of money making un-professionalism just dripped out all over that office that night.

So I got John Duran, the mayor of West Hollywood to represent me and he only charged me $3000 for the entire case up to tria. Big difference in price & caliber of lawyer too.

Even John Duran told me those prices were really high. Yet, Mr. Lawrence Irwin Wolf did not want to give any money back to me even after contacting the Better Business Bureau and then the CA State Bar. He was supposed to have contacted me by the guidelines of the Ca Bar by July 2nd 2009 but i have yet to hear or see one little blip of Lawrence Wolf or his associates.

I still recommend that Mr Wolf pay me back the $3750 that I asked for originally. He still got $4000 from me for getting one lousy police report and a couple of continuances with the court.

Terra Slavin, Esq, head of the Gay & l*****n Center should not be recommending Mr Wolf as a low cost attorney to the clients at the G & L Center that has a C- rating and she herself should be looked at closer by the CA Bar for her questionable legal practices.

Mandernack
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.