Both Latona lawsuits still alive

Randall Latona's first lawsuit against Steve Donner, the Amerks and the Knighthawks has NOT been throw out altogether, Latona's attorney, Joe Zdarsky, just told me this afternoon.

Zdarsky also said his client and Donner's side had been negotiating a couple weeks ago to resolve Latona's SECOND lawsuit, but those talks didn't get anywhere.

I wanted to clear up any misunderstanding, in my mind as well as the public's, about Latona's first lawsuit. Not being a legal expert, I talked to Zdarsky directly on the matter. Here's the status of the two cases:

• The first lawsuit — filed by Latona against Donner, Walter Turek and the two teams and requesting that Donner be removed from power — is very much still alive. What happened in November was a hearing on a request for judicial intervention that was issued by Zdarsky on Latona's behalf. The RJI was two-pronged: One, it asked that the teams be placed in immediate receivership, under which an independent third party would take financial control of the teams; and two, it demanded that Donner's side turn over documents relating to the clubs' finances to Latona.

In November, Monroe Supreme Couty Judge Kenneth Fisher ruled on both requests. On the first one, Fisher rejected the calls for receivership because there wasn't enough evidence that the teams were in imminent and immediate danger of collapse. Zdarsky said that rejection of the first request DOES NOT mean the entire lawsuit has been tossed out.

On the RJI's second point, Fisher ruled in Latona's favor and ordered Donner to turn over the requested documents. Zdarsky said today that Donner's side did so a few weeks after the hearing. Zdarsky said Latona has been sifting through those documents, which total roughly 2,000 pages.

• The second lawsuit — technically filed by Latona and Turek's company, T&L Funding — is also still pending. Zdarsky said the suit basically demands that Donner repay the loans Latona gave him to help save the teams. Zdarsky said that a few weeks ago, "the parties were in discussions attempting to resolve (the suit), but nothing came out of that."

So, Zdarsky said, "the lawsuits are still pending, and there are other things to be done" with both actions. That means there is still a chance Donner could get the boot AND be ordered to pay up. It all depends on how the cases progress.