Thread by @ByLaurenBerg

Happy Friday, y'all! It's a sunny (smoggy) morning in Santa Ana, where the #MichaelAvenatti embezzlement trial is underway.

Follow me for updates and catch my latest coverage here:
law360.com/articles/14079…

Joel Weiner of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is on the stand this morning

On cross, Weiner said he was the one who contacted Avenatti about working out a settlement between NBA player Hassan Whiteside and his ex-gf Alexis Gardner

Avenatti keeps asking about the mediation process and events before the settlement was reached. Judge Selna told him to move on to another topic, saying those events have been established.

Avenatti is now asking about the payment deadlines under the agreement

Avenatti asked whether Weiner understood that Avenatti/Gardner expected to receive the money by a "best effort" date, rather than the hard final deadline.

Weiner said he didn't know what Avenatti was expecting, but that he checked on the status of the payment

Just as with Judy Regnier, Avenatti is asking how many times Weiner met with the government about this case.

Weiner: A few times; I don't recall the exact number

Outside of the jury, Avenatti is asking for all of the government's notes taken during meetings with Weiner

Prosecutor Brett Sagel said Weiner was interviewed once and that there aren't any notes from other meetings (which were mostly about scheduling for the trial) to hand over

Sagel said that the Jencks Act -- which requires prosecutors to produce a verbatim statement or report made by a gov't witness after the witness has testified -- doesn't require law enforcement agent notes to be produced

Avenatti disagrees, wants judge to look at all of the government's notes privately and then decide whether they need to be produced

He said it's not good enough that the gov't said they've produced everything

Judge said he'll look at emails between the gov't and Weiner to see if they should have been produced

The jury is coming back in now

Our next witness is Alexis Gardner, who was represented by Avenatti in a dispute with her ex-bf, Hassan Whiteside. The issue settled for $3 million.

Gardner said she met Avenatti in Dec. 2016, while she was "in a bad place" and living in her car.

She met with him because she "needed someone to speak for her." Judge Selna didn't let Sagel get into why she needed a lawyer.

Gardner said she signed an attorney-client contingency fee agreement, in which Avenatti would represent her in a matter related to her personal relationship with Hassan Whiteside.

While reading the agreement, Gardner was reluctant to even say Hassan Whiteside's name.

When asked to identify Avenatti in the courtroom, Gardner gestured to him at the defense table, but broke down in tears

During the mediation process, Gardner said she never asked for a specific amount of money from Whiteside.

"All I wanted was a roof over my head and to not wonder where my meals would come from."

When an agreement was reached, Gardner said Avenatti didn't go over the document with her but instructed her to sign it because "it had been a long day and everybody wanted to leave."

Gardner said Avenatti told her she would first receive an unspecified lump sum before receiving $20,000/month for the next 8 years.

She said they never talked about when he would receive his 33% for attorney fees, but she assumed he would take those before she got her money.

However, Weiner testified that Gardner was to receive $2.75 million up front and then receive the remaining $250,000 in three years later

Gardner said the first time she saw the settlement agreement was when she sat down with the government in this case

Gardner said she signed the agreement without seeing it because "it was late, everyone was trying to leave and the lights were off in the building."

"I trusted my lawyer and also trusted that I would get a copy of the agreement."

Following the settlement, Gardner said Avenatti helped her get her own apartment. But she believed the money was coming from her settlement, not Avenatti's own pocket.

She said Avenatti told her that she would receive $16K/month for the first year to account for the rent

Avenatti never told her that he had received a $2.75 million wire transfer from Whiteside.

"That's what I hired him to do. I thought he would be honest and truthful."

Gardner said she kept in touch with Avenatti because he "seemed to genuinely care about my well-being" and the rent payments were starting to be late.

She asked Avenatti to make sure Whiteside kept up with what she believed to be his part of the deal.

We're back from lunch.

Gardner said Avenatti told her that Whiteside and his attorneys weren't providing her monthly payments because they were "assholes" who didn't want to see her succeed.

Avenatti blamed the NBA player for not providing Gardner her money.

Gardner said she believed Avenatti was fighting for her

“Nobody else was. He called me all the time. He reassured me all the time.”

When Gardner still wasn't receiving her monthly checks, she said she reached out to an Eagan Avenatti paralegal to find out why.

She said she then got a call from Avenatti, who she described as "high energy" and "upset." He allegedly told her that she should only talk to him

After months of not receiving any money from the settlement, Gardner said she wrote an apology to Avenatti for "not feeling like a competent person."

“I want to be able to afford you for what you’re worth.”

Gardner said she felt like if she'd been able to pay Avenatti an hourly rate, he could have worked to resolve her issue and it would be resolved in a more timely manner

Gardner said she had no idea Avenatti used $2.5 million of her settlement money to buy a private plane

We're onto cross now

Avenatti asked Gardner whether she deleted any of the text messages between herself and him before sending them in screenshot form to the gov't

She said no

Gardner said the gov't never took her phone to make a forensic copy of text messages

Avenatti asked her to point out a text message where she asked him for a copy of the settlement.

Gardner said she asked him verbally.

But Avenatti asked that the answer be stricken.

Avenatti asked Gardner to add up the total of what she believed she was supposed to get ($16K/month for first year, $20K/per month for seven more years).

She asked for a pencil and Judge Selna asked him to expedite it by giving her a calculator, eliciting chuckles from the jury.

Btw, the total would be $1,872,000

Now Avenatti is asking whether the gov't asked her about the total she expected to receive. She said they didn't, to her recollection.

Gardner said she understood costs and expenses were being expended for her case and that other expenses were being incurred for her living situation.

And with that, we're concluding for the day.

Some bittersweet news: As I am moving out of Los Angeles next week, this was my last day covering the Avenatti trial.

To get the rest of the scoop, follow my man @ReporterCraig!