Юрист, близкий к судье, составил завещание вдове на 4,5 млн долларов, лишив единственного наследника

CHARLESTON — Alice LeMacks Patrick sat on the side porch of her historic single house overlooking Colonial Lake, chatting with the three lawyers in front of her. They spoke for 10 minutes, discussing the weather and Patrick’s beautiful yard. What happened next on the morning of June 3, 2021, is the subject of a lawsuit filed this summer in Charleston County Probate Court.  Millions of dollars are left hanging in the balance of a case that highlights the coziness of Charleston’s legal community, exposing an insular culture that’s rife with connections — and potential conflicts of interest. The players in this courthouse drama include an ex-county councilman, the wife of a prominent judge and members of the city’s old guard sitting on sizable holdings. Joseph Qualey, one of the lawyers and a former county councilman, presented Patrick with a new will to replace one she’d signed seven years earlier. The other two men served as witnesses while Patrick, then a 77-year-old widow, inked her name. Within a half-hour, the trio was gone. And the future of her estate, valued at more than $4.5 million, had been permanently altered, according to the lawsuit.  Instead of giving almost everything to Patrick’s grandson — her only surviving heir — the new will directed the money to be split between him and Patrick’s two sisters. A month earlier, Qualey’s law firm had also drafted a new power of attorney for Patrick. She signed that, too, giving broad legal and financial powers to her younger sisters, including Mary Elizabeth Scarborough. She is the wife of Mikell Scarborough, a judge who has served for the last 23 years as Charleston County’s master-in-equity. The special judicial position is primarily tasked with handling civil matters like foreclosures, land disputes and debt collections. Patrick died in October in a nursing home after reportedly suffering dementia for several years. The lawsuit contends that she didn’t have the mental capacity in the summer of 2021 to enter into any contracts or rewrite her will. It’s not the first time someone has questioned a Scarborough getting involved with their relative’s will.  Mikell Scarborough’s cousin accused him in 2015 of coercing his dementia-addled aunt into reworking her estate plan to favor the judge. That lawsuit dragged on for five years before the parties agreed to settle all claims, with neither Scarborough nor his cousin admitting any wrongdoing.  In both that case and Patrick’s, the Scarboroughs shifted control and benefits of these estates to themselves, the lawsuits argue. Before Patrick died, Scarborough sold two of her sister’s properties on the peninsula, but didn’t document where the roughly $3 million in proceeds wound up, according to that lawsuit, significantly diminishing the value of Patrick’s estate. Patrick’s grandson, Jude Eaton-Patrick, lost a substantial amount of his inheritance as a result, according to the affidavit of a third-party attorney hired to examine the case. That lawyer blamed Qualey, alleging his negligence violated attorneys’ standard of care.  Eaton-Patrick, who’s in his early 20s and lives in Columbia, is asking a judge to toss out his grandmother’s new will and void her power of attorney — along with any actions taken under it, including the two real estate sales. He wants a full accounting of where that money went, and for Patrick’s previous will to be reinstated. He seeks $6 million in damages from Qualey, Mary Elizabeth Scarborough and J. Howard Yates, another attorney who served as a witness to the will signing. Lawyers for Eaton-Patrick, Qualey and Scarborough declined to comment. Yates did not respond to a request for comment. Patrick’s 2014 will left nearly all to grandson In 2014, Patrick and her husband signed similar wills. Their only child, W. Reid Patrick III, had died after a brief illness that year. So they created estate plans that left almost everything to his son, their sole grandchild. Patrick set aside money for each of Scarborough’s three children, too, plus cash gifts to various nonprofits and churches. Assets left in her investment accounts would be liquidated and poured into her estate. Scarborough and their other sister, Lisa LeMacks, had first dibs on Patrick's personal items. As an antiques appraiser, Patrick boasted an array of jewelry, furniture and silver. Her friend and business partner, Elizabeth Garrett Ryan, could make selections, too. And Patrick left her whatever remained of their business account. (Ryan is the wife of Jason Ryan, a Post and Courier reporter. She declined to comment for this story). Patrick also outlined her wishes when it came to the three properties she owned. A slice of land in rural Charleston County would remain in the family. A small townhouse tucked off Poulnot Lane could either be sold or gifted to her estate’s beneficiary. The Beaufain Street house would be sold, with any proceeds going back into the estate. Patrick’s husband died on Feb. 25, 2021. That left Patrick’s only surviving heir, Jude Eaton-Patrick, to inherit the majority of her estate upon her death. That money would go in a trust until his 30th birthday, managed by Gordon Garrett, the Patricks’ lawyer and family friend. On the day Patrick’s husband died, Garrett wrote up a limited power of attorney allowing her sisters to help oversee her finances, as that had largely been her husband’s job. (Garrett, who is the brother of Elizabeth Ryan, declined to comment for this story).  Patrick’s cognitive ability significantly declined in the wake of her husband’s passing, according to the lawsuit. Some days she’d forget he was dead. But three months later, Patrick signed a new power of attorney. It gave Scarborough “extraordinarily broad powers,” the lawsuit notes: selling real estate, making cash gifts and changing estate beneficiaries.  This time, it was Qualey who drafted the document, despite Patrick having used Garrett and his father as her attorneys for decades. And there’s no evidence Qualey got Patrick’s permission to represent both her and Scarborough in her new position — a clear conflict of interest, the lawsuit argues. It wasn’t the only time that Qualey had worked with the Scarboroughs, court records show. Qualey and the Scarboroughs Both Qualey and Mikell Scarborough graduated in 1983 from the University of South Carolina law school. Scarborough worked as a real estate attorney before a group of local lawmakers picked him in 2003 to be Charleston County’s next master-in-equity. His tenure hasn’t been without controversy. In 2018, Charleston County reviewed his office’s spending records and flagged around $1,000 in furniture and office expenses that didn’t meet guidelines. In a written response to the county’s procurement director, Scarborough described the items as innocent purchases intended to allow his employees to eat lunch at the office.  “We do not overspend and try to be cognizant of every dollar spent,” he wrote. Two years later, the county began investigating after The Post and Courier questioned Scarborough’s spending habits. Taxpayer dollars funded his travels to far-flung locales like Hawaii, Oregon and Wyoming, according to the newspaper’s review of records. Sometimes he’d fly first-class or extend his trips by several days, all on the public’s dime.  Scarborough contended the trips were perfectly reasonable, as they were related to judicial training events. But county auditors ultimately flagged roughly a dozen inappropriate expenses, requesting that the judge pay back more than $4,800. Scarborough quickly obliged. Qualey, meanwhile, spent more than six years on James Island Town Council before winning a spot on Charleston County Council in 2010. He served two terms before losing re-election in 2018. Qualey also kept up his own law practice. Scarborough touted Qualey’s ability to move fast and get “stuff done” while appointing him in August 2023 as a receiver to help satisfy a judgment owed in a civil lawsuit. The role gave Qualey power over the defendant’s bank accounts in an effort to collect the debts. It’s unclear how much Qualey might have earned; court documents show he charged plaintiffs’ attorneys nearly $12,000 for his work.  The master-in-equity also turned to Qualey for help in a lengthy legal battle concerning the sale of an old schoolhouse on Pitt Street in downtown Charleston. Scarborough appointed Qualey as receiver for the abandoned property, tasking him as caretaker until it was sold. That happened in July, according to county real estate records. Qualey’s law firm received nearly $130,000 in fees and costs for its work on the case, court documents show. Drafting Alice Patrick’s new will in 2021 wasn’t Qualey’s only experience with estate work. Probate court records show he assisted with settling the estate of LeMacks, Mikell Scarborough’s sister-in-law. And in a different case, Qualey stepped in to represent Scarborough while the judge served as the personal representative of his aunt’s estate. Scarborough’s aunt, Mary Ross “DeDe” Hanahan, died of lung cancer in October 2014 at the age of 74. The will she signed in 1998 was set to go into effect. So was an amendment that she signed during a lunch with Scarborough two years before her death. An old case brings similar allegations That amendment, or codicil, to Hanahan’s will replaced her son with Scarborough as her first choice to serve as personal representative. And instead of leaving almost everything for her son, Hanahan deeded her house and a neighboring lot to Scarborough. Those properties, located in Mount Pleasant’s pricy Old Village, were worth at least $1.4 million — more than 60 percent of the total value of Hanahan’s estate, according to court filings. A restaurant worker and one of Scarborough’s employees served as witnesses while Hanahan signed the document on Oct. 19, 2012, after one of their regular lunches at SetteVII, an old Italian spot on Coleman Boulevard. The restaurant employee later testified he wasn’t aware of Hanahan’s medical history, including diagnoses of mental illness and dementia. But both witnesses said they believed she knew what she was signing that day. Two months later, Scarborough and Hanahan met with an accountant to discuss estate planning strategies. She decided to transfer her interest in roughly $6 million worth of Charleston County real estate parcels to a family LLC. The move took advantage of upcoming changes in estate tax laws, cutting her liability by about $3 million. To prepare the necessary deeds, Scarborough contacted J. Howard Yates — the same attorney who, years later, would witness Alice Patrick sign her new will. Yates testified that Scarborough left the room while he made the transfers. An operating agreement was drawn up for MRH Family LLC: Hanahan retained 2 percent ownership, while her son, Mikell Henderson, took 68 percent. The remaining share went to Scarborough. The accountant would later testify that he initially suggested a smaller stake for Scarborough. But Hanahan insisted Scarborough receive 30 percent interest, saying he was like a son to her. Scarborough and his aunt enjoyed a “close and loving confidential relationship,” one court filing states. He helped manage her investments and real estate portfolio, whereas Henderson took care of her day-to-day finances. While Hanahan previously mentioned wanting to leave her car to Scarborough, she never said anything about him inheriting her house, Henderson said in court documents. Henderson, a former Berkeley County prosecutor, didn’t learn about the codicil until after his mother’s death. He sued Scarborough the following year. He asked a judge to restore Hanahan’s 1998 will and void the codicil, arguing she didn’t have the mental capacity to sign it due to her dementia. Scarborough used his position as Hanahan’s trusted confidant to coerce her into doing so, Henderson alleged. He also requested the family LLC be dissolved, and those properties transferred back to the estate. Scarborough disputed his cousin’s claims in a flurry of court filings. He cited these arguments in his defense: Hanahan had mentioned to him on numerous occasions her desire to amend her will, leaving the Mount Pleasant house to him. She arrived to their lunch armed with the codicil. The judge previously told her it was a bad idea that would create controversy with Henderson. But Hanahan wished to proceed regardless. Scarborough testified that he had no clue who drafted the document, and said that he left the table while Hanahan signed it.  Doctors who treated Hanahan days before the lunch noted that the 72-year-old was alert and doing well. Her home-health providers observed the same. As for the LLC’s creation, Scarborough pointed out that Henderson signed the ownership agreement, received income and didn’t question his mother’s capacity to create it until after her death. Yates, the attorney who prepared the deeds, didn’t know Hanahan had dementia. If he had been aware, he “probably would have investigated that further,” he testified. However, she appeared “vibrant and very congenial” on the day of the transfers, he said. A circuit court judge ruled in Scarborough’s favor with regard to the LLC’s validity, finding that Hanahan had the mental capacity to execute the agreement. That left the codicil, and the fate of her estate, to resolve.   The cousins reached their first settlement agreement in June 2018, before the case went to trial. Scarborough would keep his role as personal representative, and he’d receive Hanahan’s 2002 Mercedes plus her Old Village home. Henderson would get nearly everything else, including the vacant lot next door. Neither man admitted any wrongdoing. Scarborough did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Henderson declined to comment due to pending litigation with his cousin over a separate real estate matter. In a subsequent June 2020 agreement, both parties agreed to dismiss all remaining claims. Henderson bought out Scarborough’s stake in the LLC. And his mother’s estate could finally be closed in probate court.  Qualey, the attorney and former councilman, appeared on Scarborough’s behalf in late 2021 — the same year he presented Alice Patrick with her new will. While Qualey knew the Scarboroughs, he hadn’t represented Patrick before, according to her grandson’s lawsuit. In fact, the two had no prior relationship — one of several red flags that should have alerted Qualey that this wasn’t a typical will execution, said an expert attorney asked to examine the case by the grandson’s lawyer. Patrick’s 2021 will has key changes Patrick’s new will made several changes to her first one.  Before, almost everything went to her grandson. Now, it was to be divided between her grandson and her sisters. Before, Patrick’s longtime lawyer was meant to be her estate’s personal representative. Now, that role went to Mary Elizabeth Scarborough. Written out of the will entirely was Elizabeth Garrett Ryan, her friend and business partner. Proceeds from the sale of Patrick’s personal items — an estimated $250,000 in furniture, silver and other antiques — would be shared among her estate’s beneficiaries. Same with the remnants of her bank accounts, which included nearly $1.3 million in stocks and bonds belonging to her late husband. And the two properties she owned in downtown Charleston. Mary Elizabeth Scarborough, acting as Patrick’s agent, sold the Poulnot Lane townhome in July 2022 for $650,000, according to the lawsuit. She sold the Beaufain Street house the following year for $2.375 million, the lawsuit stated.  But none of this money — some $4.5 million — was reflected in Patrick’s estate when Scarborough filed its inventory in January. All that remained, according to probate records, was about $19,000 in cash and a 4-acre plot of land in Hollywood.