DENVER -
When we went by his down town office, Frank Pignatelli was no where to be found. Which is exactly why some of his clients are so upset.
"He told me he would visit the inmate and he didn't, um, he didn't show up for court, he didn't show up for court, he didn't return my phone calls," one former client told us.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, paid Pignatelli 5,000 dollars to defend her husband. But the lawyer, she says, no-showed, for the bail hearing, leaving her husband stuck in jail.
"I'm sure this isn't the only person that he's done this to," she said.
In fact, a second Pignatelli client called Fox31 saying the lawyer stopped working on her case too, after she paid him 15 hundred dollars.
In Colorado. Pigantelli was working small parts of some of the areas' biggest drug cases: the brian hicks investigation, and a marijuana ring run by an asian drug cartel.
But Pignatelli disappeared, clients say, after news broke that back in Ohio, the lawyer had turned informant, ratting out allegedly many of the people he was representing.
"It is in fact outrageous. All involved in the criminal justice system and citizens themselves should be outraged by it," legal analyst Dan Recht told us.
Sources say Pignatelli quickly resigned from the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Association.
The woman who paid 5,000 dollars finally got a call this afternoon from Pignatelli. She got an apology, and her money back. But it took numerous calls from her, and from Fox31
"I think that had something to do with it, putting pressure on him really," she said of our calls.
The Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation is the body in charge of investigating any complaints against Pignatelli. Sources tell us individual complaints against the lawyer have been, or could be filed. And the office does not dispute that, although they won't say anything more publicly that -- they know where Pignatelli is, and they are monitoring his case.
"He told me he would visit the inmate and he didn't, um, he didn't show up for court, he didn't show up for court, he didn't return my phone calls," one former client told us.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, paid Pignatelli 5,000 dollars to defend her husband. But the lawyer, she says, no-showed, for the bail hearing, leaving her husband stuck in jail.
"I'm sure this isn't the only person that he's done this to," she said.
In fact, a second Pignatelli client called Fox31 saying the lawyer stopped working on her case too, after she paid him 15 hundred dollars.
In Colorado. Pigantelli was working small parts of some of the areas' biggest drug cases: the brian hicks investigation, and a marijuana ring run by an asian drug cartel.
But Pignatelli disappeared, clients say, after news broke that back in Ohio, the lawyer had turned informant, ratting out allegedly many of the people he was representing.
"It is in fact outrageous. All involved in the criminal justice system and citizens themselves should be outraged by it," legal analyst Dan Recht told us.
Sources say Pignatelli quickly resigned from the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Association.
The woman who paid 5,000 dollars finally got a call this afternoon from Pignatelli. She got an apology, and her money back. But it took numerous calls from her, and from Fox31
"I think that had something to do with it, putting pressure on him really," she said of our calls.
The Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation is the body in charge of investigating any complaints against Pignatelli. Sources tell us individual complaints against the lawyer have been, or could be filed. And the office does not dispute that, although they won't say anything more publicly that -- they know where Pignatelli is, and they are monitoring his case.
