Lawyer on Covington square faces Bar complaints, criminal indictment, angry ex-clients

COVINGTON, Ga. - For anyone who has ever hired an attorney, imagine this nightmare: You think your lawyer is on the case, fighting to win you money, but it turns out he’s done next to nothing.

And not just nothing, but tanking your case completely.

A Jasper County couple says Covington lawyer David Ozburn did exactly that to them.

So in a surprise visit to his office, they confronted him. They say he admitted to it, and they got it all on tape.

Law practice on the skids

What we know:

Darren and Daphney Hilley, of Monticello, have a complaint pending against Ozburn with the State Bar of Georgia, accusing him of ruining Darren’s personal injury case and misleading him about the status.

But that’s just one of Ozburn’s problems.

The FOX 5 I-Team found records of at least two other Bar complaints, and last month the Georgia Supreme Court placed Ozburn on interim suspension after he failed to respond to the Bar during its investigation, court records show.

That means Ozburn can’t represent clients for now.

But perhaps his biggest legal problem: a criminal indictment in Newton County, accusing him of mortgage fraud and fleecing borrowers and sellers in dozens of real estate closings. Ozburn faces charges of racketeering, forgery in the first degree and two counts of theft by taking.

According to the indictment, Ozburn is accused of falsely claiming to sell title insurance, which protects homebuyers if disputes arise about who owns the property or in cases of unpaid taxes or liens.

By charging fees for fake title insurance, as well as charging closing fees based on false representation, he stole nearly $72,000, the indictment says.

Ozburn has pleaded not guilty.

Former clients take action

Other complaints:

As for the other complaints filed with the State Bar, one involves the alleged title insurance scheme. Another is by a woman who hired Ozburn to help her obtain guardianship of her three grandchildren.

The Bar alleges, after she paid $1,000 to Ozburn, he didn't do any work and ignored her when she tried to reach him. The woman told the I-Team that Ozburn eventually returned her money, and she found another attorney.

It’s not clear from state records which complaint led to the interim suspension.

The backstory:

The Hilleys also say Ozburn did little to nothing to help them. They had no way of knowing about the legal mess building up around him at the time.

Until his injury in an industrial accident, Darren Hilley was a heavy equipment operator, working in a railroad yard in Jasper County. In October 2015, he says, the cab of a knuckle boom loader came detached as he removed a log from a train car.

"When I righted it up, then that's when it fell back down, metal on metal, and it threw me back into the seat," Darren said. "And that's when I destroyed one of the discs in my back."

Workers compensation covered only some of the medical bills, and Darren was out of work. The Hilleys decided to sue the equipment company. They turned to David Ozburn, who formerly served as Jasper County’s county attorney.

"He told me the case was a slam dunk," Darren recalls.

The Hilleys allege that for years, Ozburn strung them along, occasionally having Darren come to the office to sign forms, or saying he planned to hire an expert witness.

But Daphney said she became suspicious.

"My husband was calling him on a weekly basis," she said. "He'd leave messages. (Ozburn) wouldn't return calls. He would want to set up a meeting, and it would take forever to get in."

Their nightmare was only beginning. Daphney called the Hall County Clerk of Courts to find out what was really happening with the case. She learned the case had been dismissed four years earlier. By Ozburn.

The Hilleys said they tried unsuccessfully to reach him or set up an appointment.

"I had a talk with my husband," Daphney said. "And I said, ‘This is not right. This is wrong. We need to go up to the office and we need to have a conversation with him, without him knowing we're coming.’"

The secret recording

Dig deeper:

In April 2023, they showed up at his office unannounced, demanding to see Ozburn. Daphney had her cell phone recording, holding it in her hand, but not pointing the camera directly at Ozburn.

"Basically, your case has been dismissed for a while," he is heard telling them on the recording.

Daphney told him she knew everything already, because she called the Clerk of Courts.

Court records show Ozburn's inattentiveness torpedoed things. He dismissed the case himself after failing to answer requests for records from the opposing side and having to pay $750 in attorneys’ fees.

Then on a request from the equipment company, a Superior Court judge dismissed the case with prejudice. Meaning the Hilleys can't bring it back up.

"We've been telling you what a terrible financial situation we've been living in. What are you going to do to fix this?" Daphney asks Ozburn on the recording.

"I don't know if there's anything that can be done," he said.

As for an explanation, at one point, Ozburn tells them that during the time he was handling the case, he split up with his wife, and "everything from then’s a blur."

"If you couldn't handle it, why didn't you just tell us so we could go somewhere else?" Daphney said.

His response: "Well, I thought I could, and I'd handled things like that before."

In other parts of the recording, Ozburn admits what happened to the case is "100% my fault," saying, "I was disappointed in myself about what happened, it getting dismissed."

"I know I failed y’all," Ozburn told them. "I know you put your trust in me and I completely failed you."

The 2023 recording is referenced in the Hilleys’ Bar complaint.

"I wish I could fix it," Ozburn told them. "I mean, if I had the $50,000 in the bank to my name, I would write you a check for it. But it’s not there."

Mortgage fraud allegations too

What they're saying:

There are others in Ozburn's wake who feel ripped off too.

While not as financially affected as the Hilleys, Lynne and Phillip Herrigton say Ozburn owes them money back.

"He owes me the money that I paid him for that title insurance, that he didn’t get," Lynne told the I-Team.

The Herringtons are among the victims listed in Ozburn's criminal indictment. He was their closing attorney when they bought their home in unincorporated Newton County in 2020. They said their real estate agent connected them with Ozburn.

"I guess I thought everything was supposed to be on the up and up," Lynne said.

According to the indictment, in dozens of real estate closings, Ozburn falsely represented himself as an agent and approved attorney for Chicago Title Insurance Company, even forging documents to keep up the appearance.

The Herringtons paid Ozburn $1,875 in title insurance and closing fees, their settlement statement shows.

The total allegedly stolen from borrowers and sellers across dozens of closings dating back to 2019: $71,972.

"He is an attorney. Why are you doing this?" Lynne said. "He just took money from people."

The other side:

Ozburn did not respond to interview requests from the I-Team. His attorney handling his Bar complaints and the criminal case, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, declined to comment.

What's next:

There are currently no hearings scheduled in his racketeering case.

Under State Bar procedures, if he files an answer to the Bar’s investigation, it’s possible his interim suspension could be lifted. But he ultimately faces a hearing and possible reprimand, suspension or even disbarment.

If he never responds, there would still be a hearing, and Ozburn would likely be disbarred, a Bar expert told the I-Team.

I-TeamCovington