We at CityBeat subject ourselves to reading large quantities of dry and sleep-inducing court documents to find material worthy of your perusing pleasure. Such was the case as we dove into the seemingly infinite piles of pleadings in the legal battle to force ex-lawyer Stan Chesley to honor a $42 million civil judgment against him in Boone County (Ky.) Circuit Court. Chesley, a resident of Indian Hill, has sought refuge from Ohio state judges to keep the collection wolves at bay, and so far the strategy has worked.
In all the ducking and dodging, though, an interesting disclosure warbled its way through the ponderous paperwork: a one-page list of the automobiles owned by the erstwhile Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley law firm. The cars are part of the firm inventory identified by "assignee" Eric Goering in a Hamilton County Probate Court case before Judge Ralph Winkler and Magistrate Rogena Stargel.
This is no pedestrian fleet for shuttling clients to the courthouse or the Embers, no typical conversions to Uber or Lyft. The over-the-top legal fleet of 29 cars includes six Rolls Royces, four Bentleys, four Mercedes-Benzes, three Aston Martins, two Ferraris, two Porsches and eight one-offs, among them a Maserati, a 1972 Jaguar XKE convertible and a seldom-seen Maybach 57. What's more, Waite Schneider appears not to have regarded the cars as mere inanimate objects. While four of their license plates bear Chesley's first name or initials, 14 others constitute a virtual automotive harem: Lizzie, Sofia, Camilla, Heide, Liesel, Marlie, Eloise, Olga, Ilsa, Serena, Ingrid, Gabrela, Clemmy and, uh, Crumpet.
As of now, the cars are headed for the sale block. On Dec. 1, Winkler and Stargel approved the hiring of two appraisers, one in Chicago, one in Indianapolis, to put values on the cars. No timetable was given for a sale or auction.
