El Cajon City Councilman Bessmon “Ben” Kalasho is suing his former attorney in San Diego Superior Court.
Kalasho and his wife, Jessica Kalasho, sued attorney Stephen Liosi this week, alleging that Liosi’s legal malpractice cost the councilman almost $40,000 in a legal judgment and a host of additional damages.
The lawyer “owed plaintiffs certain fiduciary duties to act at all times in good faith and in plaintiffs’ best interests,” the complaint states.
Liosi disputed the allegations, saying he acted professionally but was presented an unwinnable case.
“The deeper I got into representing the Kalashos, the more I realized they’d have great difficulties defending themselves against certain allegations,” he said by email.
The underlying lawsuit accused Kalasho, his wife and their for-profit chamber of commerce of fraud and defamation. Among other things, they were accused doctoring photos of naked women to harass a one-time winner of the Miss Middle East USA Beauty Pageant.
According to that case, the El Cajon councilman also created a series of fake social-media profiles to post unflattering comments about the plaintiffs. The 2017 lawsuit also accuses Kalasho of offering to name another woman the winner of his Miss Middle East USA beauty pageant if she agreed to sleep with him.
Kalasho denied all of the allegations, and filed a countersuit against the accs. A Superior Court dismissed the counter-complaint as unfounded — a decision Liosi said he told his clients was likely. Earlier this year, the judge accepted the allegations as true when Kalasho did not appear to dispute them. Before that, Kalasho was ordered to pay almost $40,000 in legal fees to one of the plaintiffs.
Internet records showed that many of the social media posts came from the Kalashos’ home computer and another IP address at the Los Angeles area home of a family friend — while Jessica was visiting the woman, court records said.
“The matters traced back to their IP addresses would be virtually impossible to defend against,” Liosi said. “As I explained to the Kalashos, ‘Who else would do something like that? Who else would have such a motive other than the two of you? I can’t imagine a jury thinking it was anybody else but the two of you.’”
Neither Kalasho or his new lawyer, James Finigan, immediately responded to questions about the lawsuit.
Previously
- Lawsuit against El Cajon councilman alleges beauty pageant fraud
- Kalasho files cross-complaint against beauty pageant contestants
- Middle East beauty pageant ran for three years without nonprofit status
- El Cajon official who ran private chamber voted on issues affecting paying member
- El Cajon council to retake votes on trash liens over Kalasho situation
- Regulators move to revoke tax-exempt status of Miss Middle East pageant
- Do-over on trash votes is costing City of El Cajon thousands of dollars
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