NARDIZZI & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Some case studies:

• Defunct business still asset-rich: The owner of a restaurant chain was found liable for damages to former employees. Despite his claims of being without assets, a careful trace of assets revealed real property in the United States as well as significant fleet vehicles and bank assets (revealed in an application for a loan that was part of the public record). Plaintiff moved and quickly attached several million dollars of assets.

• Client Settles Civil Rights Case for $3.4 million: Our client, The Estate of Kenneth Waters, settled a civil rights case against The Ayer Police Department, Officer Nancy Taylor, and other Ayer police officers, for $3.4 million. Kenneth Waters was wrongfully arrested and convicted. He served 18 years of a life sentence for the 1980 murder and armed robbery of Katharina Brow. Waters was released from prison after DNA evidence had revealed the blood of an unknown person at the murder scene. Waters died during an accidental fall shortly after being granted his freedom. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, had put herself through law school in order to represent one client: her brother. She located the biological evidence and worked to have it subjected to DNA testing.

Waters complaint alleged that the Ayer Police and Taylor's deliberate bad-faith suppression of favorable evidence led to his conviction – including suppression of evidence that Waters was not the source of the perpetrator’s bloody fingerprint on a piece of a toaster on the dining room floor; as well as suppression of Waters’ time card from work, which cemented his alibi. Taylor was also accused of used coercive and suggestive tactics to manufacture falsely incriminating statements from witnesses Brenda Marsh and Roseanna Perry.

• Client Settles Civil Rights Case for $3.1 million: Dennis Maher reached a $3.1 million settlement in his civil rights case against the town of Ayer, according to the Boston Globe. Maher was released from prison in April 2003 after having served 19 years of a life sentence for rape. He was exonerated when forensic tests revealed his genetic fingerprint did not match DNA evidence found at the scene of an alleged 1983 Ayer rape at the Caza Manor Hotel. Maher claimed his civil rights were violated due to the negligent management and training of Ayer Police Department investigators, including now-retired Officer Nancy Taylor-Harris.

Maher's civil case was based partly on evidence unearthed by private investigator John Nardizzi, who discovered that one of the alleged rape victims had faced criminal assault charges of her own during that era. These charges were dropped in exchange for her cooperation on the Maher case. Defense counsel was never told about the arrangement that Taylor and the Ayer Police had engineered with the victim/witness. The witness's criminal charge was transferred to another court and essentially disappeared from the public docket, only to be unearthed two decades later. The prosecutor who handled the Maher case later testified at his deposition: "Officer Taylor, in my opinion, engaged in misconduct by working some side arrangement with the victim not to prosecute her for a criminal case against the police department, and withheld that information from me."

Nardizzi also unearthed evidence that a key witness at trial, Richard Nichols, was well-known to Ayer Police and Nancy Taylor (who denied any memory of him in her deposition). Nichols was the son of a former police matron employed for decades at the Ayer Police Department. Moreover, Nichols had been arrested multiple times. Ayer Police were not able to produce any notes, reports, or statements from interviews with Nichols, despite the fact that a meeting between Nichols and Taylor was documented in a police log, and Nichols turned out to be the centerpiece of their case.

• Sexual harassment: The CEO of a client company was named a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Research revealed the plaintiff had filed numerous similar lawsuits against former employers. Interviews with various witnesses revealed that, in the past, the plaintiff had praised the defendant CEO even while openly discussing a plan to file suit in hopes of a quick settlement. The case was later dismissed.

• Patent infringement: A client in the electronics industry suspected that a rival was conducting operations of a particular type at its Florida lab. Research of public records revealed maps and diagrams that outlined the rival firm’s operations. Interviews with former employees and vendors provided detailed explanations of several industrial processes that proved the rival was infringing upon our client’s patent.

• Broker fraud: A stockbroker was charged with negligent management of assets and unauthorized trading by a plaintiff, who presented himself as a naïve investor. An exhaustive investigation revealed the plaintiff to be well-known among brokers in New York City as a speculative investor. Specific trades were tied to discussions he had engaged in with high-level investment managers just hours before executing trades. The multi-million dollar claim was dropped by the plaintiff.

Litigation Support

Nardizzi & Associates provides clients with superior service in the areas of locating and interviewing witnesses, as well as gathering supporting evidence. The firm analyzes the merits of parties and deposition testimony, pointing out areas for further inquiry. The firm advises on methods for winnowing a large pool of potential witnesses, and memorializing critical testimony with affidavits.

Some of the firm’s most successful litigation research has exposed fraudulent claims and dismantled the other side’s case in a matter of weeks.

• Medical malpractice defense

• Trade secret theft / infringement (patented designs, software copyrights)

• Civil rights cases (wrongful convictions, racial discrimination, police brutality, victim rights)

• Environmental cases (PRP identification, coverage disputes, illegal dumping)

• Products liability (negligent design, failure to warn)

• Securities / broker fraud (churning, insider trading, shareholder suits)

• Employment (sexual harassment, noncompete agreements, race/gender/age discrimination)

• Insurance / business fraud

• Premises liability (negligent security, slip & fall, construction defect)

Other cases have involved privacy torts (false light, commercial misappropriation, identity theft); libel and slander; and child custody/probate issues.

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