True Lovefraud Stories, on Lovefraud.com, is a series of case studies illustrating how con artists and people who would probably be diagnosed as sociopaths ply their trade. Months, and sometimes years, have passed since these individuals were profiled. But according to updates we’ve heard, they’re still pulling their scams.
If you are still trying to believe that the predator you were involved with will see the light and change his or her behavior, read these stories. You’ll see that it’s not going to happen. Once a sociopath becomes an adult, he or she does not change.
Dennis SanSeverino
Since February, Trish Rynn, who lost her home and inheritance to Dennis SanSeverino, has been trying to hold him accountable. Back in 2006, SanSeverino pled guilty to theft by illegal retention, and was sentenced to five years probation. He was ordered to pay Rynn restitution of $275,000.
Well, he hasn’t been doing it, and Rynn has been trying to get SanSeverino prosecuted for violating his probation. The prosecutor’s office in Cape May County, New Jersey, wasn’t exactly interested in pursuing the case, but Rynn was persistent, and Judge Raymond Batten finally found him guilty of violating his probation. SanSeverino’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for September 26, 2008. He never showed up.
That day, SanSeverino’s latest girlfriend called the court and said SanSeverino was in the hospital. The judge didn’t buy it and issued a warrant for his arrest. But the con artist has apparently left the state, and authorities don’t seem to consider this case worth the time and expense of extradition.
Brian Ellington
Lovefraud has been hearing from all kinds of people about Brian Ellington. Apparently he’s been making the rounds of North Carolina golf courses, pretending to be a pro and betting $1,000 a hole. When he wins, he makes out. When he loses, he doesn’t pay. He also runs up bar tabs and leaves, forcing whoever had the misfortune of being the evening’s drinking buddy to foot the bill.
Then we got phone calls from someone with official connections saying that Elllington had been arrested in New York. He had a court appearance for a petit larceny charge scheduled for September 22, 2008, in the Bronx, but did not show up. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Ellington was also supposed to be in Manhattan court in August for a disorderly conduct charge, and we doubt showed up for that one either.
Phil Haberman
Lovefraud has written extensively about Phil Haberman, first profiled by the Dallas Observer as “G.I. Jerk.” Haberman married a woman before shipping off to Iraq so he could collect separation benefits from the military. When he got to Iraq he claimed special forces training, diving skills, medic training—yeah, right. The army shipped him back after 24 days.
Eventually, he received an Other Than Honorable discharge—his second one. Since then, however, he repeatedly tried to enlist in National Guard units that are shipping out to Iraq. His most recent attempt was last week in North Fort Hood, Texas—the largest active duty armored post in the United States. Commanders became suspicious of Haberman’s stories, and the man they asked to check Haberman out was already intimately familiar with the con artist’s scams. According to posts on ProfessionalSoldiers.com, Haberman was “shown the front gate of North Fort Hood and told to never come back.”
So what did Haberman do? He went to the Dallas JAG office and filed a complaint against the commander for kicking him out.
By the way, Haberman posted a video of himself during parachute training on YouTube.
Lance Larabee
Lance Larabee, who has conned women into buying him houses, boats and planes, has declared bankruptcy in an effort to avoid paying the judgments against him won by one of his victims, Debbie White. When White contested the bankruptcy, Larabee filed a claim against her for invasion of privacy. Apparently Larabee didn’t like what was written about him in Lovefraud and other places. Hearings are coming soon.
James Montgomery
I was contacted recently by a woman in Australia—my ex-husband, James Montgomery, is on About My Age in Australia, “The online community for over 50s.” Montgomery claims to be a “retired academic and screenwriter.” Yeah, right. This woman got suspicious about his Ph.D., Googled him, found Lovefraud and dumped him.
I checked out my ex-husband’s listing on AboutMyAge.com. He’s posted a photo that was taken in 1997, when he was married to me and was a guest on a local radio station, which is reproduced below.
When I first met Montgomery he lied to me about his age, claiming he was “a genuine baby boomer”—49 years old—when he was really 55. I wonder what he’s claiming now. Here is a current photo, taken in March, 2008. It is not posted on AboutMyAge.com.
Thank you for the comments. The positive thing for me in this, is that I only gave up that much money and not too much time. (Mine also came out of savings). It surely won’t hurt me too bad.
Seeing that people have been involved in situtations like this for years is hard to imagine.
I can still win the case if I take it to civil court, I’m just not sure I want to spend the time, energy and money to make it happen.
The other option is pushing a criminal case. She did break the law, but I am having a hard time potentially putting her in jail for fraud….not for her sake, but for her children’s.
Of course, I can just walk and write the book…..that is the easiest of the three. It would just be nice to stop her from at least ONE more victim.
While the last month and a half has been a nightmare, it also has been interesting from a stanpoint of playing detective and piecing some things together.
Again, I do appreciate the feedback, and [lostingrief], I might take you up on the offer with the book. It’s barely started but I have ben typing like mad 😉
Welcome to the site, Justgotburned.
Sounds like you have a good attitude about your experience, which will help in your healing. My experience with the P was fairly short–only about 3 months–before I figured out something was amiss. I was still very traumatized by it. BTW, I can help with the copyediting part of your book if you need it. 🙂
Dear lostingrief, I think your comment about the hungry ghost realm is right on. The image in Buddhism is a ghost with a huge belly and a tiny pinhole for a mouth. It can never get enough into it’s tiny mouth to fill the enormous belly. Good analogy. Normal people can sometimes fall into this realm when they become obsessed with greed and lust. But the sociopaths seem to reside there permanently.
Oops, here I’m offering to copyedit, and I misspelled “its”.
justgotburned,
I would definitely pursue the legal angle, if I were you. Mind that your statute of limitations doesn’t run out — that’s what happened to me. By the time I was ready to file, I found that I could only file for the money he “borrowed” from a certain date onward, and most of it was lent during that first year. As long as you plead, you can always drop the case. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get them into mediation. For that much money, which you had to borrow, it would be worth it, to my mind. There is no way I’d just get stuck with that, sorry!
Justgotburned: Was the money a “loan?” Was she supposed to pay it back? Only asking because she may say in court it was a “gift.” I was going to sue my ex for the money i paid to lawyers for him to file a divorce from his wife that he never followed through with. I spent $250 on the first lawyer visit, $250 on the next consultation and gave the ex $1250 for the atty to do the filing, another $65 to the courthouse where we filed on our own and he never followed through. I wonder if I can get that back? But, remember, you can’t get blood from a stone. All you’ll get is a judgment you can’t collect on. But $12K is worth it to see her salary garnished down the road. You may get like $40 a week from her paycheck if she ever works. What a nightmare these people are.
Iwonder,
That’s what I was told — that it would come down to a he said, she said situation and that he could argue that the money was a “gift.” That would have been b.s., but I can see how a court of law might have doubts, if there’s no signed contract between two people.
I figure it must burn you to lose any amount of money to the P, but unfortunately unless you are suing for huge amounts of money and they have assets they can’t hide it is futile to get a “judgment”
Look at the OJ thing, his wife’s family and the Goldmans sued and won a huge wrongful death judgment, but as far as I know they never got a dime and he still lived high wide and handsome until recently when he went to prison. WHOOPIE!!! There is justice!
Anyway, sorry for that little aside—okay, I’M NOT SORRY, I SHOULDN’T LIE ON THIS SITE! LOL
If you really want to take her to court and get anything at the least amount of cost and trouble to YOU–take her to small claims court. You can usually file each “loan” individually and there are usually limits on the amount of each suit, but you can file MULTIPLE SUITS.
I did this and succeeded. The small claims courts are a bit like “Judge Judy” and the amount of evidence you have to produce and the amount of weezeling out of things they do is limited. I am in fact, going to go to court in small claims against a large natural gas drilling company that ruined my water well for my farm. I am suing for the loss of the well and also for the damage to my fixtures in my house–I now have brown toilets and bathtubs and sinks, they started out white.
The limit in my state is $5,000 so two X 5= $10,000. It won’t cover all the damage to the plumbing and the mess I’ve had trying to get filters installed on my well to make the water safe to drink and not look like tea with chunks of shale in it.
Cost will be about $100 for me. So, the thing is that then I will be able to collect from a COMPANY. I used to have rental houses and learned early on that NO JUDGMENT is collectable unless YOU spend an inordinate amount of time to try to run them and their assets to ground. So I quit trying to collect bad rent, but I did get the rent most of the time.
And, you need to keep in mind, “You can’t get blood out of a turnip” (or a stone) no matter how you squeeze it. Ps seem to me to have a particular talent for being like a slimy worm and squeezing through narrow cracks in the legal and moral systems. Sometimes it’s just not worth the hassle for the money.
Again – great feedback. Each of these were considered a loan.
We live in two different states, so I would have to see which one to file in for small claims.
I didn’t know you could do multiple suits, but the largest amount was $3K. There were three for $2K, one was a [cash] deal for $1K that I might not get, and the last were 5 separate $500 ATM withdrawals by her.
I had an agreement drafted three weeks ago, with very good repayment terms, which she ended up not signing.
Supposedly, and I emphasize, SUPPOSEDLY, 😉 she is having a different one drafted right now.
I think (other than being obligated to repay), she might have been having an issue with the change of name or address by either party being reportable immediately clause.
But who knows? I have really crawled into her logic n the last month and a half, can usually anticipate the actions, but not always.
Since she is not working right now anyway, it might make sense to wait on the suit(s). Interestingly enough, she had a period of no employment last year for three months..,makes me wonder if this is the ‘annual vacation plan’.
As far as the book goes, this whole thing beagan early in the year, but didn’t really ramp up until summer…..so I am just getting into the meat of it right now. Looks like it will be a little shorter than expected.
Will keep you posted. It would be nice to have another person win once in awhile from the sociopaths.
Justgotburned,
Your comment about having someone “win” once in a while against the sociopaths, —-usually the “win” consists of getting out with your life at least. So, I did WIN, but just barely. LOL
Money is usually a lost cause, their “vacation plans” are more liberal than ours. LOL
Two o f my Ps went to jail/prison (my DIL and her BF) and my P-son is still in prison, and my son C is shed of his P-“wife” so the amount of money it cost our family (my mom and me) is totally WORTH it. I look at it as “tuition” in the University of Hard Knocks. But, this time I got the LESSON.
Welcome justgotburned
“This is a note for all to slow down and if anything doesn’t add up, check it out before you are in too deep. Fortunately for me, I caught on before it killed me, financially and emotionally.”
Words to live by! Thanks…