South Texas law grad sues over $1 million challenge

David George, a partner in Houston’s Connelly Baker Wotring, says Dustin Kolodziej’s breach of contract suit against Florida criminal-defense lawyer J. Cheney Mason and Mason’s firm is serious. “It’s not a lark,” George says in an interview this morning. On June 17, Kolodziej, a recent graduate of South Texas College of Law, filed Kolodziej v. Mason, et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston. In his original complaint, Kolodziej presents the following factual background on the case: Mason appeared on NBC’s “Dateline” in December 2006 to discuss the case of his client, Nelson Serrano, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for the 1997 murders of three people in Central Florida. Serrano’s defense was it would have been impossible for him to have committed the murders and been at the Atlanta La Quinta hotel by the time surveillance video showed him there. Mason argued on the “Dateline” program that Serrano would have had to get off a jet, exit the Atlanta airport and arrive at his hotel five miles away in less then 30 minutes to appear on the video at the time he did. Saying that no one could arrive at the hotel that fast, Mason then issued the following challenge: “I challenge anybody to show me, I’ll pay them a million dollars if they can do it.” As alleged in his complaint, Kolodziej traveled to Georgia in December 2007 to accept the challenge, retraced Serrano’s alleged route and traveled from the plane to the hotel in Atlanta within 28 minutes. Kolodziej alleges he made a video of his trip and sent the video along with a demand letter to Mason. But, as alleged in Kolodziej’s complaint, Mason responded in January 2008 that the challenge was just a joke. Kolodziej further alleges in the complaint that when he wrote to Mason again to demand payment, Mason responded in February 2008 with a threat to pursue criminal prosecution if Kolodziej wrote again. So Kolodziej filed the suit. George says Mason made the challenge and reiterated the challenge on the “Dateline” program. “It’s not a joke,” George says of Mason’s challenge, noting that Mason’s client is on death row. The person who answered the telephone today at Mason’s Orlando, Fla., firm says, after checking with Mason, “There will be no response from this office.”  
-- Mary Alice Robbins