Jon David W. Huffman managing attorney with Poole Huffman. (Courtesy photo)

A jury awarded more than $400,000 in damages and attorney fees to a couple who was arrested on accusations they defrauded a homeowners association out of several thousand dollars for cleaning and other maintenance tasks.

Among the defendants was attorney and Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., an association board member accused of using his influence to push for the plaintiffs' prosecution over what their lawyer said were claims involving "a very little amount of money."  

The jury awarded the couple more than $411,000 in February, but they dismissed the case last week for what attorney Jon Huffman said was about $395,000.

The judgment was paid by State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance, which provided directors and officers coverage for the association.   

"We agreed to take a little less to avoid appeals and so forth," said Huffman of Tucker's Poole Huffman, who tried the case with firm colleague Michael McGuffee.

The defendants—Regency Oaks Neighborhood Association, Arrington and another board member, Corro'll Driskell—were represented by Hedrick Law principal L. Bruce Hedrick.

Arrington referred queries to Hedrick, who declined to comment.  

According to Huffman and court filings, plaintiffs Michael and Joyce Salandy were members of the association, which serves the 200-plus home Regency Oaks development in southwest Atlanta. 

The association was undergoing some financial stress around 2010 and agreed to dump the $500-a-month company that cleaned its clubhouse and let Michael Salandy, then the association's treasurer, take over the duties on a weekly basis for a reduced price. 

From 2011 through 2013, Salandy cleaned the clubhouse and other common areas, paying himself from the association's petty cash account. 

The association's property management company had no complaints with the arrangement, but in 2014 Driskell filed a report with the Fulton County Police Department charging the Salandys with theft by conversion. 

Prior to their arrest, according to a plaintiffs' account, Driskell "knowingly provided false information to law enforcement officials, failed to make a fair, full, and complete statement of the facts, and/or concealed facts."

Arrington, it said, "used his clout and connections as a Fulton County Commissioner to influence the arrest and prosecution" of the couple. 

Defense filings said that Michael Salandy wrote checks to himself or corporate "alter egos" totaling more than $15,000 over a three-year period "when the total budgeted amount for cleaning was only $3,600."

Both Salandys were arrested and spent a night in jail, Huffman said.  

"They took something that arguably could have been a case of self-dealing in a civil case and took it to the police and district attorney," Huffman said.

The Salandys were indicted and the charges hung over their heads for nearly a year-and-a-half before the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. nolle prossed them, he said.

"There was a prolonged investigation; it was quite damaging to them," Huffman said.

"There was lot of correspondence between Mr. Arrington and assistant district attorneys in Mr. Howard's office," he said, including efforts by the county commissioner to get the charges reinstated.

Arrington contacted several ADAs to push for the Salandys' prosecution, he said.

"It was very unusual for a $15,000 theft," Huffman said. 

The Salandys filed claims including malicious prosecution, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress in Fulton County Superior Court in 2017. There was also a defamation claim, but that was dismissed during the litigation. 

The defendants failed counterclaims for $12,165 against Michael Salandy.

Huffman said a mediation went nowhere and that the highest defense offer to settle pretrial was for $5,000.

During a seven-day trial before Judge Henry Newkirk, Huffman said the primary ADA testified the case was handled "in a very disproportionate way." 

The jury deliberated for about a day before awarding $225,000 in damages and $186,459 in attorney fees and expenses, for a total of $411,459, Huffman said.

Huffman said defense counsel Hedrick "did a good job. I'll give him that."

In conversation with jurors afterward, Huffman said they thought the defendants overreacted.   

"I heard from several that, even if our clients had not done everything perfect, the defendants' actions were just so over the top," he said. "The solution would have been to file a lawsuit or something."