Hattiesburg attorney, Corey Ferraez, turned himself in to the Chancery Court on Monday nearly a month after his order for incarceration on June 19. Ferraez paid $214,831.23 of the $450,000 owed to the court in a wrongful death lawsuit and filed a motion to vacate the order for incarceration due to mental health and substance abuse issues, lack of staff to handle the remaining business of his practice and “media scrutiny” being defamatory. His motion was denied, he was arrested by Perry County Sheriff Jacob Garner and is being held without bail at the Perry County jail until the remaining balance owed to his former client of $195,168.77 is paid in full.
After Ferraez’s attempt to have the media excluded from the courtroom, which was denied by Judge Sheila Smallwood, he apologized and explained to the court that his absences from previous hearings was due to medical issues such as kidney stones and a COVID diagnosis, which the attorney told the court he’d suffered from on three occasions.
“I wouldn’t be before the court today if I didn’t believe sincerely the contempt was due to serious and severe medical issues and my mental health,” said Ferraez to Judge Smallwood. “I have not acted willful in trying to demean this court. I never had a track record of this until I began experiencing these issues. To place me in incarceration when, as the court is aware, due to this media scrutiny, it’s not only defamatory to me, but my entire family and the state of Mississippi. It has sent me on an even worse spiral having to deal with these issues, which is why I need to seek additional treatment because these problems have been made worse due to the severity of the issue.”
Judge Smallwood recalled the numerous attempts to reach Ferraez and court dates he did not attend- including a Zoom meeting, noted that he had been evading arrest and costing law enforcement time and resources and reminded Ferraez that his delays have cost a widow thousands of dollars of interest from loans against the estate.
“It’s the obligation of the court to enforce its own orders,” said Judge Smallwood. “You took an oath, as a lawyer, to represent your clients zealously, and you have failed to do that in this case- a result of which has caused a widow who has no other source of income other than Social Security to live without air conditioning, to almost lose her home, because these funds weren’t there.”
Judge Smallwood asked if Ferraez could pay the remaining balance of $195,168.77 to the Perry County Chancery Court by the end of the day. Ferraez alleged that he could not pay the remaining balance because a media outlet had leaked his banking information which resulted in all of his accounts being inaccessible.
While this particular case is now on its way to resolution, this was not the first occasion of alleged fraud for Ferraez. He still faces a 2021 indictment for embezzlement by an attorney and conspiracy to obtain signature with intent to defraud and mail/wire fraud on four counts. Count I accuses Ferraez of filing a lien against a bankruptcy estate on behalf of his former law firm for $52,000, which forced his client to pay a total of $312,000 in attorney’s fees. Count II through IV alleges Ferraez deposited payments into his own bank account instead of the account of his former law firm.
