[StBernard] $12M debt dogs assistant district attorney

[Westley Annis]

Couldn't have happen to a nicer guy!

Rocky

----- Original Message -----

> CHALMETTE - Glenn Diaz was an assistant district attorney, a 30-year

lawyer

> with a private practice and the owner of a well-known metal home business

> pre-Katrina.

> But now he owes more than $12 million to banks and other investors.

"Nobody

> can find him," said John Taranto, who oversees serving of subpoenas for

the

> St. Bernard sheriff's office.

>

> Diaz says he's living openly in Jackson, Miss., in a one-bedroom deer camp

> made of two construction office trailers.

>

> But he's "on the verge of (financial) collapse."

>

> Everything he had in St. Bernard - a home in Meraux, his private law firm

> and his Arabi business, MetalPro Industries - was washed away by Katrina,

he

> said.

>

> Diaz said he hasn't been dodging the courts or his debts. He's been in

> contact with creditors and trying to arrange payments, he said.

>

> "We have three major banks that we've worked with. We've worked things out

> where everyone is going to be paid," Diaz said. "I'm not hiding or running

> away. I'm just as much of a flood victim as anyone you've ever met."

>

> The 55-year-old Diaz was swamped by debt stemming from the financial ruin

of

> MetalPro.

>

> He owes Central Progressive Bank nearly $60,000, Whitney National Bank

$12.2

> million and thousands to Diagnostic Management Affiliates, a company that

> financed medical services for Diaz's private law practice.

>

> Diaz said his private law practice at 2200 Jackson Blvd. is on hold,

> MetalPro is shut down and he has taken a leave of absence from the

district

> attorney's office where was an assistant prosecutor since 1979.

>

> Until St. Bernard Parish resumes jury trials - there aren't enough people

in

> the parish to convene a proper jury - Diaz, who headed the jury trail

> docket, said he will not draw a paycheck from the district attorney's

> office.

>

> "I do not have one single belonging left since Katrina. But I have my

> integrity," he said.

> MetalPro could help rebuild the hurricane-torn Gulf Coast with modular

steel

> homes if the business could get back on its feet, Diaz said.

>

> "We have contracts to build 5,000 homes in inner city New Orleans, which

are

> needed for poor folks to come back," he said.

>

> When established roughly four years ago on St. Bernard port property,

> MetalPro offered steel-framed homes already in wide use other parts of the

> country.

>

> "Historically, this has obviously been a stick-build lumber region," said

> Jon Luther, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of

> Greater New Orleans.

> MetalPro employed 80 people before Katrina, Diaz said. The future was

> bright.

> "We had orders for 26,000 homes before the storm," Diaz said. "Every debt

I

> had was up to the minute, current."

>

> Then Katrina pushed 11.5 feet of water into his home. While he helped save

> "a lot of people" with his boat after Katrina, Diaz said the government

> won't help him.

> He applied for Small Business Administration loans and help from the U.S.

> Department of Agriculture but got nothing.

>

> "I just get kicked in the teeth by my government. No one has helped," he

> said.

> Diaz said he has not filed for bankruptcy for MetalPro. But as bills go

> unpaid, banks and others are suing him over his lack of responsiveness.

>

> "We haven't been able to serve him yet with the suit. There's been no

> resolution of the suit," said Lawrence Anderson, an attorney for Central

> Progressive Bank.

> Diaz said he has been in contact with Charles Watts, Anderson's colleague

> and another attorney for Central Progressive Bank.

>

> But Anderson said Watts never received a direct call from Diaz. He said

one

> of Diaz's former employees called Watts July 17 to say an SBA loan was

being

> sought to pay off the debt, Anderson said.

>

> When no payment arrived by Aug. 31, the attorneys resumed trying to serve

> Diaz the lawsuit, Anderson said.

>

> Diaz said it's not his fault he's not living or working in St. Bernard

> Parish so he can easily be served a lawsuit.

>

> "When they walk across the street and I'm not there, (that) doesn't mean

the

> three lawsuits in my life are not addressed," he said. "Why do I need to

get

> served if I've already filed pleadings and addressed them?

>

> Diaz said he plans to pay all his creditors in full, which means he will

> have to sell off property he owns in St. Bernard and other states.

>

> "I have not asked for mercy or to cut anything," he said. "I haven't been

> hiding."