A local anti-immigration group who won a successful lawsuit against the Califronia Department of Transportation is now at odds with the attorneys who represented them.
The anti-illegal immigration group filed a complaint Oct. 30 with the Carlsbad Police Department contending the firm of Kaloogian and Fuselier won't hand over nearly $100,000 the Minutemen won from the state in a fight over an Adopt-a-Highway cleanup sign.
The San Diego Minutemen, whose mission it is to protect the border, won a lawsuit against Caltrans when the agency refused to put their name on a sign near a Border Patrol checkpoint in 2007.
The group was supposed to receive close to $100,000 from the settlement. However, Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk says the law firm representing the group is withholding their money over a separate defamation lawsuit that Schwilk recently lost.
"They think that because some other money is owed in a personal case of mine that they can just take this money," Schwilk told the North County Times. "We want them to pay the money."
Repeated attempts to reach Howard Kaloogian, a conservative former state Assemblyman from San Marcos, or partner Robert Fuselier were unsuccessful the paper reported.
