Petersen

BACKGROUND

I. Allegations of the complaint

According to Petersen’s complaint, he pled no contest to unspecified offenses for

events that occurred in 1986, and he served a prison term from late 1989 to April 1992.

He opened his own business, Diversified Arbitration, in 1993, and he obtained a

certificate of rehabilitation in 1999. Since 2006, he has been a licensed private

investigator and has passed extensive state and federal background checks.

From 2014 to 2017, Petersen was the victim of a real estate scam perpetrated by

Ahron Zilberstein. Petersen owned commercial real property in Los Angeles County, and

Zilberstein filed six frivolous actions against Petersen to force him into selling the

property for hundreds of thousands of dollars under market value. Feldman represented

Zilberstein in five of those actions. Feldman learned about Petersen’s background

through the discovery process in those actions. Specifically, Feldman learned about

“SLAPP is an acronym for ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation.’” (Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. LaMarche (2003) 31 Cal.4th 728, 732, fn. 1.)

2 Petersen’s criminal history and imprisonment, certificate of…