After a look at her completely curated Hinge profile—and a fast Google search—Adam thought that Kelly DuFord Williams was precisely what he wanted after his divorce. The designer-clad 35-year-old appeared like a catch. Williams owned her personal boutique legislation agency and had received accolades in native media.
However the relationship would quickly develop into a nightmare, he claims.
“I used to be so excited at first. I met this girl and I used to be like ‘oh my gosh, she’s 35 and he or she owns her personal agency. And she or he has all these awards,” Adam, who wished to solely use his first identify out of worry {of professional} retaliation, informed The Each day Beast.
A number of months into the connection Adam says he found Williams’s darkish secret: she was allegedly stealing tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} from her purchasers, and falsifying checks.
When he tried to finish the connection, Adam says, Williams turned on him and refused to depart his home. Little did he know, Williams was already the topic of a felony investigation by native prosecutors.
Earlier this month, a San Diego warrant was issued for Williams’ arrest on 9 counts of felony theft and one rely of forging checks. In accordance with a felony criticism obtained by The Each day Beast, Williams is dealing with a number of felony costs after allegedly stealing upwards of $400,000 from former purchasers of her legislation agency, Slate Legislation Group. Up to now it seems that she has evaded arrest, and remains to be not in police custody.
Williams is alleged to have swindled tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} from settlements she secured for her purchasers. She then “spent the cash with out giving the purchasers their full share,” based on courtroom paperwork filed within the Superior Court docket of San Diego. She can be accused of “forg[ing] consumer signatures on settlement checks previous to depositing them,” based on the courtroom data.
“At one level I referred to as her out on it. I referred to as her a fraud who in all probability didn’t have pennies to rub collectively,” Adam says. “However I had no thought how unhealthy it was going to get. She made my life hell.”
The newest felony costs in opposition to Williams come simply weeks after the California State Bar Court docket advisable she be disbarred after discovering proof she misappropriated cash from purchasers and made not less than two false 911 calls in Utah, the place she allegedly posed as a district legal professional involved in regards to the welfare of a kid as a result of she was offended at a special former paramour.
As beforehand reported by The Each day Beast, Williams can be dealing with not less than two lawsuits in civil courtroom from former purchasers who declare she overcharged them for authorized companies, billed their bank cards with out their information, and mishandled their circumstances.
Williams didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Adam says that he was utterly unaware of any of Williams’ alleged wrongdoing when the pair met on-line in June 2022.
On their first date at a waterfront restaurant, Adam says Williams “led together with her accomplishments.” Williams informed Adam about her legislation agency, Slate Legislation Group, which she opened in 2020 after separating from her husband, Craig DuFord, with whom she had three youngsters. Adam says that Williams claimed that she was a millionaire, with a number of luxurious automobiles, and had a home in one of many extra prosperous areas in San Diego. Later, he says, he “realized that she didn’t personal the home” in any respect. (DuFord didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark)
“All I needed to do was lookup the tackle to determine it wasn’t hers,” he provides. (It isn’t instantly clear if Williams owned the home, however there are presently no property data listed underneath the lawyer’s identify in San Diego.)
The connection, nonetheless, escalated pretty rapidly after Adam’s ex-wife went into the hospital and he needed to handle their two youngsters for weeks. Throughout that point, Adam says, he and Williams would have their children play collectively typically, a truth he initially was grateful for as a result of “she was serving to me out.”
Quickly, nonetheless, he claims he noticed some crimson flags, together with Williams’ ingesting and fixed lies.
“She would additionally tells lies with expiration dates, so I’d know rapidly she was mendacity. She would say {that a} automobile was coming in quarter-hour to choose her up, and the automobile by no means got here. Or that she knew somebody she didn’t know,” Adam defined.
Then, he says, he had a name along with his divorce legal professional whereas he was strolling by the Tampa airport the place he briefly talked about that he had been seeing Williams.
“I might hear the audible gasp,” he says. “Her actual phrases had been, ‘That girl is a svengali.’”
The legal professional then revealed to Adam that Williams was being investigated by the state bar for stealing purchasers’ funds. He determined it was time to finish the connection, a dialog he mentioned Williams appeared to obtain properly. She mentioned that she was planning to maneuver to Lengthy Seaside.
“She mentioned she was shifting, however had moved out of her home already and wanted a spot to remain for a bit bit,” Adam says, including that Williams and the children quickly moved in. “She by no means left.”
The subsequent few months, Adam says, was nothing wanting hell.
He says that Williams refused to depart his home, forcing him to vacate the main bedroom of his multi-million greenback residence and conceal out within the downstairs room to evade her fixed “berating.” The issue, he says, was that Williams had legally established residency in his home as a result of she had been there longer than two weeks.
“All the pieces she is saying is filled with shit. She has no intention to depart my home,” Adam says. “I used to be going to must evict her.”
“This girl was spiraling and was attempting to take me together with her,” Adam says.
After weeks of continually asking her to depart, Adam says that he noticed his first alternative to get Williams out of his home on Sept. 30—when she went to go to a buddy in Lengthy Seaside for the weekend.
Whereas she was away, Adam says, he referred to as a locksmith to alter all of the locks on Oct. 1 so Williams couldn’t re-enter. The subsequent day, he says he determined to cover out in his personal main bedroom to verify the home was safe when Williams got here residence.
“I assumed ‘I will have all of the lights off, the blinds closed, like all over the place in the home. I will simply be up there,” he says. “I had a cooler pack of, like, drinks.”
However Will
iams didn’t take the Oct. 2 pressured eviction properly, he says. After studying that she couldn’t enter the home, he says that she tried to interrupt a window and finally climbed a fence into the yard to arrange camp together with her children. He says at one level, Williams even “began the barbeque and began to prepare dinner frozen pancakes for her children.”
The saga was additionally detailed in a Home Violence Restraining Order that Williams’ ex-husband filed in opposition to her on Oct.11, 2021.
Within the order, which Craig DuFord filed in an try to realize custody of the pair’s three youngsters and obtained by The Each day Beast, he mentioned Williams’ psychological well being had been deteriorating and alleged that she “abuses alcohol and prescription medicines” and he or she has expressed “suicidal” ideas.
“Upon discovering out that she couldn’t entry the house, Ms. DuFord went right into a rage. She refused to depart the property and started ingesting closely,” DuFord wrote within the order in regards to the Oct. 2 incident, including that on the time her children had been ages 7, 6 and 4.
The kids had been “with out fundamental requirements, together with meals, blankets or bedding” in a single day, based on the order.
After dropping the youngsters in school the subsequent morning, Williams returned to the yard and saved ingesting, DuFord wrote. Ultimately Adam referred to as the police, who unsuccessfully tried to get her to depart, the restraining order notes.
“She was there all night time,” Adam says, including that his yard was affected by alcohol cans. He provides that the entire expertise was traumatizing.
The order additionally burdened that Williams “is a pathological liar” who additionally allegedly informed Adam
“she was pregnant along with his youngster simply earlier than she mentioned she was going to commit suicide” after she was locked out of his residence.
In her response to the home violence order, William vehemently denied the allegations of abuse.
“I had no thought how unhealthy it was going to get. She made my life hell.”
“All of the statements of abuse or neglect of my youngsters are false,” she wrote.
Williams additionally challenged DuFord’s model of occasions, claiming to be a sufferer of a posh conspiracy devised by DuFord and Adam.
“Mr DuFord works for Adam…my now ex-boyfriend’s ex-wife’s divorce legal professional who additionally represents Mr. DuFord on this matter,” she wrote in her response, “Mr. DuFord came upon I used to be courting Mr. [Adam] and was not joyful. Mr. [Adam] and Mr. DuFord then created this matter collectively.” (Adam confirmed, nonetheless, that his former partner’s divorce lawyer labored in the identical workplace as DuFord.)
In response to Wiliams’ claims, Adam laughed—calling it the “most insane factor ever.”
“It doesn’t shock me as a result of she is a lunatic,” Adam says, denying Williams’ claims. “I feel she is so deep in her lies.”
And Adam isn’t the one ex-paramour who has been burned by Williams.
Jesus Rogelio Huerta informed The Each day Beast he started courting Williams in early 2021—however broke up together with her simply weeks later after the lawyer began telling “bizarre lies.” The break-up occurred simply earlier than a deliberate journey to St. George, Utah, with some pals, he mentioned.
In accordance with textual content messages reviewed by The Each day Beast and included within the California State Bar Court docket’s choice, Williams was livid that she was not invited on the journey and finally threatened to name the police on Huerta and promised to “come for you such as you don’t even know.”
Williams finally made two cellphone calls to the Hurricane Metropolis Police Division, the state bar courtroom’s choice states. In one of many calls, she claimed to be a “deputy district legal professional in San Diego,” who was involved in regards to the welfare of a 2-year-old youngster of one in all Huerta’s pals.
The Hurricane Metropolis Police Division finally deemed the risk to be false, and even accomplished a felony criticism request kind for Williams. They might not arrest her, state bar courtroom choice states, as a result of she lived out of city. Williams isn’t but dealing with felony costs for the Utah calls, however prosecutors did point out 16 counts of misconduct that had been established by the California State Bar, together with “ethical turpitude [and] offering false statements to legislation enforcement.”
For Adam, the concept he turned entangled in William’s “black widow net” remains to be “so extremely painful and chaotic.” Whereas that was the final time he noticed Williams, he mentioned, it was not the final time he heard from the lawyer. He says that whereas he has blocked Williams from most social media, she remains to be sending him emails. The emails, as reviewed by The Each day Beast, vary from a easy request for a duplicate of her ID, to reminders that she is a “good woman” who has been specializing in “getting centered.”
“She is evil and he or she is sensible,” Adam says. “I’ve by no means been in a relationship like that. If I had met her now, I’d by no means give her the time of day.”