Were you born in 1980?

Then you're about as old as a massive debt City Utilities has been trying to collect, without success, from a former Springfield lawyer.

His name is J. Douglas Cassity. He made news repeatedly in the 1970s and '80s, locally famous for being a dashing young attorney with questionable investment ideas.

He made news again July 3 when a federal judge in St. Louis ordered a bank to pay $102 million for repeated failures to protect and control trusts it oversaw, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The bank's “reckless disregard" allowed a St. Louis-area company linked to Cassity to make off with millions of dollars, the judge wrote.

Cassity began his career working from a nice office in Plaza Towers, the News-Leader reported, arguing cases in Springfield courts rather than appearing as a defendant. He was socially well-connected: John Ashcroft, then Missouri's state auditor, made Cassity a key Greene County fundraiser for his 1974 re-election bid.

Cassity was also an entrepreneur with abundant investment ideas. In 1981, the FBI and the IRS said Cassity was tied to 138 businesses, many of which functioned as tax shelters. His real estate ventures included Springfield apartment complexes, an Indiana motel and a Stone County timeshare resort.

In connection to some of those activities, he racked up a CU debt that was worth more than $82,000 by the winter of 1980, when a Greene County judge ordered Cassity to pay up. (That amount of money would be worth more than $266,000 in 2019 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Cassity's utility tab alone constituted 11 percent of CU's bad debt back in the late Carter years — the largest amount owed to CU by a single customer at that time, the News-Leader reported. In that era of international energy crisis, Springfield's public utility struggled to pay its own bills.

Since then, Cassity has never forked over the money, CU confirmed Thursday. His bill continues to accrue annual interest. It exceeded $100,000 by the mid-1990s, according to previous reporting by the News-Leader. CU said Thursday that it has not calculated the exact balance due for many years, nor does it know the amount of staff hours that it's expended in trying to collect. Every 10 years, the utility renews the judgment.

It's unlikely to see a dime. Cassity, now 73, is incarcerated at a federal prison in Pensacola, Florida, serving a nine-year, seven-month sentence for another matter. He is eligible to be released in May 2021, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

CU does not believe Cassity has any assets it could go after in court to satisfy the debt, spokesman Joel Alexander said in a Thursday email. As of Friday, no real estate was listed under Cassity's name, or those of his family members, in Greene County. That's the case in St. Louis County, too. The St. Louis City Assessor, Michael Dauphin, said Wednesday that Cassity has no real property in his jurisdiction, either.

But in the fall of 1980, Cassity lived in a spacious east Springfield home then valued at $215,000, according to a News-Leader report.

Even then, he argued in open court that he had no assets. With anger in his voice, Cassity "said he believes City Utilities and the Public Utilities board owe him for the anguish cased to him and his wife," the newspaper reported.

"I own nothing," Cassity said in October 1980, during cross-examination by a CU lawyer. "I have my hands and my heart and I'm trying to make a living."

In the early '80s, many of Cassity's ventures collapsed. Multiple Springfield investors — doctors, lawyers and business people — lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Following an 18-month FBI-IRS investigation, Cassity accepted a plea bargain in December 1981 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud charges. He was sentenced to two years and served six months. He had to surrender his license to practice law.

This did not stop Cassity. After serving less than half of his six-month prison term, Cassity asked a federal judge to allow him to be released early, by Easter of 1982. The judge denied the request, the News-Leader reported.

He moved to the St. Louis area when he got out of prison. Cassity's schemes, once denominated in mere thousands of dollars, climbed into millions. His name resurfaced in February 1994 following a $20 million settlement hashed out between "pre-need" funeral company National Prearranged Services and the office of then-Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.

NPS was the "brainchild" of Cassity, the News-Leader reported. State law mandated that such companies must deposit 80 percent of customers' money into trust accounts. They were allowed to use the remainder to cover their costs. Nixon said NPS was investing those funds itself, rather than depositing the funds according to law. A 1992 audit found that $13.5 million should have already been held in trust.

Cassity denied being involved with NPS since the early '80s, other than providing occasional consulting services. But records from 1993 showed that 88.3 percent of NPS was owned by an entity called RBT Trust II. The trust's beneficiaries were Cassity's wife and two sons.

Through their interest in NPS, the Cassity family controlled three Texas-based insurance companies that insured or reinsured NPS funeral plans. They also controlled nine funeral homes through an entity called Cassity National Heritage Foundation. Cassity's elder son, Brent Cassity, was president.

Five months after the $20 million settlement, Cassity's St. Louis-area house graced the glossy cover of Traditional Home magazine. An 11-page spread detailed the "ritzy digs," according to a News-Leader opinion column. They included custom furnishings, expensive antiques, a swimming pool and many travel souvenirs. The family cats even had "their own delightful kitty cottage."

Cassity could afford the kitty cottage, but his 14-year-old CU bill had not been paid. Adding interest, a CU attorney told the News-Leader at the time that the balance topped $100,000. Cassity continued "to have no assets in his name," so CU was unable to collect from him.

Cassity's schemes continued to grow in their reach and impact. In the decade-old federal suit decided July 3, nine insurance-industry plaintiffs alleged Cassity and his family "preyed on consumers and funeral homes to perpetrate a multi-million dollar, nationwide scheme." The plaintiffs said they had been left on the hook for hundreds of millions in liabilities.

The following year, Cassity had to appear in federal court again on criminal charges related to the situation. The Naples Daily News reported that the millions were supposed to pay funeral expenses for some 150,000 customers.

Cassity reportedly had holdings in funeral homes, insurance companies and cemeteries, along with a swanky Naples beachside condo and other homes. He sold a $16 million house in Nantucket, Massachusetts to the CEO of Google in 2005, according to the Daily News.

Even so, his attorney argued that Cassity's pockets were empty.

"He is not living the high life," the lawyer told a St. Louis federal judge, according to the Daily News account. "He drove up here in a Jeep without windows and rented an apartment here. ... He lives on Social Security and is using credit cards for expenses."

But somehow, Cassity deposited $50,000 in cash bail that day, the Daily News reported.

In the ensuing legal battles, 46 pages of Cassity's credit-card receipts were entered into evidence. They portrayed years of what a St. Louis-based Fox affiliate called "lavish lifestyles billed to the dead." Among the many transactions:

In 2002, A Chesterfield, Missouri charter airplane company billed NPS for $29,300, listing Cassity, one of his sons and others as passengers.

In 2006, the Four Seasons Hotel of Shanghai, China charged Cassity almost $25,000.

In November 2007, Nantucket Boat Basin, "the premiere luxury destination for New England area sailors and yacht captains," according to its website, charged Cassity $6,600. Less than a week later, Barneys New York, a luxury department store, charged Cassity $5,200. By the end of that month, Fraser Yachts of Fort Lauderdale, Florida charged Cassity $64,000.

In December 2007, a single day in New York included more than $2,800 in charges to Cassity's card, featuring five transactions at Bloomingdale's department store; a run to French luxury boutique Hermès; and two restaurant meals totaling more than $1,000.

Over Christmas and New Year's of that year, credit-card receipts documented a $17,000 trip to the Caribbean.

In 2013, Cassity pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges, the Post-Dispatch reported, and he and other defendants were ordered to pay $435 million in restitution.

Doug Cassity received nine years and seven months in prison; Brent Cassity got five years. (The younger Cassity was not listed among federal inmates Friday.)

The Naples Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that most of the people who bought funeral plans were protected by state insurance-guarantee associations. But funeral homes were often left to make up the difference between relatively small insurance payments and the actual cost of the funerals.

A funeral home official in St. James, Missouri shared her displeasure with the Daily News because her firm had to eat the costs of "a few thousand" of the Ponzi-type contracts. She called Cassity "the Bernie Madoff of Missouri." (Madoff was arrested in New York in 2008; investigators documented a $17.3 billion Ponzi fraud scheme. In 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.)

In 2017, Cassity asked the Bureau of Prisons to consider him for compassionate release, citing his health problems: chronic diverticulitis, heart disease and diabetes, among others.

Cassity wrote on his request form that if the feds let him out early, he would live in either St. Louis or Los Angeles with one of his sons.

"Before I was incarcerated, I was on Social Security and Medicare and would return to such status when released with support and care paid for as per said program," he wrote.

Elsewhere in the four-page document, Cassity wrote, "I am a businessman, not a murderer."

In a medical review attached to the request, a BOP nurse rated Cassity's prognosis as "Fair."

Cassity timeline from News-Leader archives

June 12, 1974

J. Douglas Cassity named by then-Missouri State Auditor John Ashcroft as Greene County finance co-chair for Ashcroft's re-election bid.

Feb. 12, 1975

Cassity represented Greene County plaintiffs in a class-action suit related to a dispute over auto sales tax that reached the Missouri Supreme Court.

Aug. 23, 1976

Cassity, 30, pleaded not guilty on three municipal complaints: obstructing an officer, resisting arrest and speeding.

Oct. 15, 1976

Cassity's attorney asked Springfield Police Department to conduct an "internal affairs" investigation of the incident that led to the obstructing, resisting and speeding charges. His attorney argued that Cassity's version of the incident "was completely opposite" from the report made by the arresting officer. Cassity's attorney and the city police department also litigated whether the arresting officer should be compelled to take a lie-detector test.

Nov. 4, 1976

A Springfield municipal judge denied a motion made by Cassity's attorney to cite the Springfield police chief and two officers for contempt of court, over a dispute about whether law enforcement had been given proper notice for court depositions.

Feb. 22, 1977

City prosecutors dropped the resisting and obstructing charges against Cassity. Cassity was fined on a $20 speeding charge.

May 11, 1977

A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Swiss Villa Resort, Stone County, to CM Investments for $50,000. Cassity was "substantial shareholder" of the company.

April 7, 1978

A local couple sued Cassity and a business partner over a $56,000 loan made in October 1974.

April 27, 1978

Cassity sued a Boston, Massachusetts business trust for $5 million in a mortgage dispute.

May 18, 1979

The Missouri Secretary of State and Springfield Police Department investigated CM Investments for possible violations of Missouri securities laws in connection to the former Swiss Villa timeshare resort in Stone County. A Galena man complained that he sold property to CMI but no interest payment arrived on July 1, 1978 as provided by the contract.

May 23, 1979

City Utilities shut off gas and electric service to 100 tenants at an apartment complex after its owner, Springfield Property Management, failed to pay a $12,000 deposit. Earlier Cassity confirmed to the newspaper that he was a company official; the apartment complex manager said it was owned by a local developer who didn't have the cash to keep the lights on. In a separate News-Leader story, Cassity's company CM Investments was said to have been hurt by a 1978 deal to acquire an Indiana resort development, Riley Village. Around the same time, CM Investments was attempting to sell its interest in the former Swiss Villa Resort in Stone County. The company had been unable to sell notes owed on its timeshares at the resort.

May 30, 1979

Cassity took City Utilities and TV station KOLR to court in a $3 million invasion of privacy suit. "He alleges they injured his reputation by stating that he owed money to City Utilities," the News-Leader reported. The on-air statements were said to be "serious, unreasonable, unwarranted, coercive and oppressive interference" with Cassity's private life.

July 4, 1979

City Utilities sued Cassity for $82,000 in overdue utility bills. "The lawsuit seeks to recover the largest amount yet sought by CU in its effort to collect overdue bills," reported the News-Leader. At the time, City Utilities had $1.5 million in overdue accounts, and it was struggling to pay its own bills.

July 15, 1979

The News-Leader published a news profile of Cassity describing him as "fit, trim 33 years of age," "a Springfield attorney known for his controversial real estate ventures and complex corporate involvements" working out of a "stylish Plaza Towers law office." "Entrepreneurs, especially local ones, are not popular, (Cassity) says," wrote reporter Robert Edwards, "even though personally he has 'a wealth of friends.'" The story also stated "self-confidence is no problem" for Cassity.

July 21, 1979

KOLR asks for Cassity's invasion of privacy suit to be dismissed.

Aug. 31, 1979

Cassity met with Indiana state securities officials concerning a cease-and-desist order filed against an Indiana resort in which Cassity was a majority stockholder. State officials argued that Cassity hadn't complied with Indiana securities laws. Six counts of fraud were filed against the resort.

Sept. 1, 1979

Cassity denied charges of fraud against the Indiana company.

Sept. 12, 1979

Citizens Savings & Loan foreclosed on the apartment complex whose utilities were shut off two months earlier. More than $400,000 was still due to the bank. It was the second apartment building tied to Cassity to face foreclosure that month.

Oct. 6, 1979

An apartment building then located at 529 E. Cherry St. was reported to be a focal point for "nerve-wracking petty crimes" including vandalism, shoplifting and "purse-snatching," according to nearby homeowners and businesses. The 28-apartment building was owned by Property Capital Investments Inc., partly owned by Cassity.

Oct. 17, 1979

Charges of securities fraud against Cassity's Indiana-based timeshare, Riley Village, were dropped after Indiana officials decided that memberships to the Indianapolis-area club didn't constitute "securities." Members had complained to Indiana officials that Riley Village reps told them their timeshares "would increase in value over time," the News-Leader reported.

Feb. 26, 1980

After months of legal maneuvers, a Greene County judge ordered Cassity to pay $82,000 to City Utilities to satisfy debts and interest. The overdue bills were held by Cassity and companies tied to Cassity and totaled 11 percent of CU's bad debt at the time. At the time, Cassity had more unpaid CU bills than any other customer, an attorney for the utility told the News-Leader.

Oct. 7, 1980

Months after obtaining a judgment against Cassity, City Utilities only recouped 12 percent of his business-related utility debt. In response, CU took Cassity to court in an attempt to cut utility service at his 17-room home east of town. He was keeping up with his residential bill at the time.

Oct. 8, 1980

Cassity, whose house was valued at $215,000 at the time, said in court that he had no assets available to pay his $82,000 utility bill. The News-Leader reported he "angrily said he believes City Utilities and the Public Utilities board owe him for the anguish caused to him and his wife." He also testified that he owed the federal government more than $100,000 in tax liens and that his federal tax returns were subject to an IRS audit. "I own nothing," he said during cross-examination by a CU lawyer. "I have my hands and my heart and I'm trying to make a living." He also said, "I have no assets surviving. All assets that I have are the assets of my wife and I." He also said he was still involved in two surviving business partnerships, both Best Western motels.

Jan. 9, 1981

Cassity and three doctors were among defendants in an $88,000 suit filed by Charles Prescription Plan Inc. Charles had sold a pharmacy to a firm tied to Cassity and the doctors in 1975; by December 1980, Cassity and company stopped paying principal and interest. The suit alleged Cassity's firm continued to do business after its corporate charter expired on Jan. 1, 1979.

April 10, 1981

A group of 10 Springfield doctors and entrepreneurs sued Cassity and a business associate. All had previously been partners in Yorktown Limited Partnership, a company that owned a south Springfield apartment complex built in 1977-78. It was later traded for a Best Western motel in Seymour, Indiana. The suit alleged that Cassity and his associate breached their fiduciary responsibility by transferring both the apartment complex and the motel to their own company, Property Capital Investments Inc., leaving the group of Yorktown partners out of the deal. They sought a court order to place the ownership of both properties back with Yorktown.

June 9, 1981

A Joplin bank won a $10,000 lawsuit against Cassity and others. The defendants failed to appear in court. Dee Wampler represented the bank, which said an $8,900 loan from 1978 had never been paid.

July 12, 1981

Empire Bank foreclosed on a 300-acre section of Swiss Villa Resort, which had already changed hands twice since 1972 due to bankruptcy and another foreclosure. The bank foreclosed on a note held by Swiss Villa Estates and Resorts Inc., but the $1.9 million loan agreement had originally been made with CM Investments, a company tied to Cassity along with another entrepreneur and two Springfield-area doctors. Cassity and the two doctors also served on the board of directors for Empire Bank. Meanwhile, CMI added a timeshare program at Swiss Villa that attracted an investigation by state securities regulators. Later, CMI sold the property to Swiss Villa Estates and Resorts Inc. The bank's attorney told the News-Leader "there is no way of knowing" if the bank would recover the money loaned. "It's problematical," he said.

Aug. 30, 1981

An 18-month joint FBI-IRS investigation that led to a charge against a former Springfield-area bank president was revealed to be focused on Cassity, then 35. An FBI official described the investigation as "intensive," due to the "length of time involved and because of the complexity and scope of the investigation." The FBI assigned a Springfield-based agent to work full time on the Cassity investigation, moving the agent out of the FBI's Springfield station into a small office because the probe required the collection of a lot of paperwork. "I have been the target of an investigation for three years," Cassity told the News-Leader by phone from Dallas, Texas. "At this point I simply want to be able to start my life over. Whatever I have to do to bring this investigation to a conclusion, I'm wanting to do it." The News-Leader reported that Cassity's legal problems were "entangled with a lengthy list of transactions, including his formation of limited partnerships with several local doctors, dentists and businessmen." The partnerships invested in real estate, in some cases offering tax shelters to the business partners. Cassity's transactions "became increasingly complex through the 1970s, as he formed an alphabet soup of corporations with names such CM Investments and J.D. Enterprises." Public records showed "frequent transfers of property from one Cassity corporation to another." Cassity and the former bank president were revealed to be among a group of 14 people who "formed a voting trust that gained controlling interest in (Empire Bank)" in 1975. As registrar of the trust, Cassity oversaw voting on bank policy questions.

Oct. 5, 1981

A plaintiff was awarded a $100,000 judgment against Cassity and his wife over a $217,000 loan made in 1976 that was tied to an apartment complex. Cassity and Rhonda Leigh defaulted on the loan and failed to appear in court.

Dec. 19, 1981

Following the 18-month FBI-IRS investigation, Cassity accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud charges in federal court in Kansas City. A U.S. attorney, along with FBI and IRS officials, estimated Cassity might face five years in prison. IRS officials said Cassity and people who participated in his tax-shelter partnerships would likely owe back taxes, interest and penalties. Cassity's associate, former bank president James Jeffries, had already pleaded guilty to failing to report a letter of credit he signed for a company that he and Cassity owned. The investigation revealed that Cassity was involved in at least 138 businesses, the U.S. attorney said. Cassity admitted in court that while serving as a board member and legal counsel for Empire Bank, he did not obtain prior consent from other board members before issuing letters of credit from Empire Bank on behalf of companies he had ownership interest in. "I didn't and I suppose you sort of feel the good ends justify the means," Cassity said in court. "I did it at a time I was not, how would you say it, watching the law as good as I should." Cassity told a federal judge he was not certain whether he knew at the time that letters of credit had to be reported by law, but after repeated questioning and conferring with his lawyer in a whisper, said, "I knew it was a violation of the law."

In return for the guilty plea, the government agreed not to seek further criminal charges against Cassity in connection with his activity as an Empire Bank officer or counsel from 1975 onward. The government also agreed not to seek additional charges against Cassity in connection to income tax returns he prepared for limited partnerships and businesses from 1975 through 1979.

Jan. 29, 1982

Cassity was by then referred to as a "former Springfield attorney" in the pages of the News-Leader. A federal judge in Kansas City ordered Cassity to serve six months of a two-year sentence plus three years of probation and 20 hours per week of community service for a year to be served at the National Juvenile Law Center in St. Louis. "My client is an extraordinary individual," Cassity's Chicago-based attorney said in court. "He was consumed by a desire to succeed. Aside from a death sentence, the worst possible thing that could have happened to him is this failure he already has experienced in front of his kids and in front of his friends."

Cassity's attorney also urged the judge to place Cassity on probation and order community service rather than have him spend time in prison. "Mr. Cassity has never been a burden on society, and I submit it would be wrong to make him a burden on society for even one day," Terry Grimm said. "He has offered to pay back the money involved and he has been asked by two agencies that he has helped to come work for them."

Cassity told the News-Leader: "I hope that (the 6-month prison sentence) will serve as some sort of example that you can't stretch yourself too thin when you don't have the proper time and resources to take care of things." Cassity also agreed to surrender his law license, a requirement because of the felony convictions.

Jan. 30, 1982

The News-Leader reported that some who invested in ventures managed by Cassity were angered by the sentence that emerged following the plea deal. "I think it's an example of token punishment," said one Springfield physician who formerly did business with Cassity. "It borders on being an affrontery to those who have been injured by this man, some irrevocably injured."

A local psychiatrist said, "I don't think he's serving enough time for the misery he caused a lot of people and the burdens he put on a lot of people."

"I'm not surprised that he was sentenced to something that seems rather light," said a third investor. "Penalties for white-collar crime seem to be that way."

The U.S. attorney who made the plea deal with Cassity assured News-Leader readers that the government is committed to fighting white-collar crime, saying, "How people interpret this sentence will not affect the commitment on the part of the executive branch, and specifically the U.S. Attorney's office in pursuing white-collar crime."

Feb. 12, 1982

A Wichita, Kansas bank sued Empire Bank seeking payment of $100,000 on a 1976 loan made to Cassity. Cassity and an associate failed to pay any of the note back, the Kansas bank alleged. Empire Bank, no longer tied to Cassity by that time, refused to pay the $100,000. Cassity had recently begun serving six months in prison on federal felony conspiracy and tax fraud charges.

April 9, 1982

After Cassity served less than half of his six-month prison term, he asked a federal judge to allow him to be released early, by Easter of that year. The judge denied the request.

Feb. 3, 1994

Cassity's name resurfaced in the News-Leader following a $20 million settlement hashed out by "pre-need" funeral company National Prearranged Services and then-Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's office. NPS was the "brainchild" of Cassity. State law mandated that such companies can use 20 percent of customers' money to cover costs but must deposit 80 percent of it into trust accounts. Nixon said NPS was investing those funds itself, rather than depositing the funds according to law. A 1992 audit found that $13.5 million should have already been held in trust. State officials also complained that NPS was not always cooperative with auditors and monitors.

"Cassity has denied any involvement other than occasional consulting services to NPS since the early '80s," the News-Leader reported. But records from 1993 showed that 88.3 percent of NPS was owned by an entity called RBT Trust II. The trust's beneficiaries were Cassity's wife and two sons. Through their controlling interest in NPS, the Cassity family also controlled three Texas-based insurance companies that insured or reinsured NPS "pre-need" funeral plans, and nine funeral homes through an entity called Cassity National Heritage Foundation. Cassity's son Brent Cassity was president.

NPS's attorney, Howard Wittner, said he was "thrilled" by the $20 million settlement. "It ratifies everything my client does ... It brings to an end the most ridiculous, ludicrous piece of litigation I've seen in 35 years."

May 18, 1994

News-Leader opinion columnist Chris Bentley wrote about the July 1994 issue of Traditional Home magazine, a glossy from the publishers of Better Homes and Gardens. "The cover and 11 pages inside focus on an opulent mansion in the St. Louis area where former Springfield lawyer Doug Cassity and his wife, Rhonda, live," Bentley wrote. He wrote that he "bet a lot of people in Springfield will be furious" once they saw the magazine piece. It detailed the Cassity house's "chintz-covered overstuffed chairs," a "fancy mailbox custom painted by an artist," along with "expensive antiques," a "big swimming pool," an "Amish-made twig canopy bed," a "custom-made dressing table," a "Victorian needlepoint chair," "antique children's collectibles" — many of which were "treasures picked up on travels."

The family cats even had "their own delightful kitty cottage."

Traditional Home — which reportedly did not mention Cassity's stint in federal prison — also wrote that the home was "a place where Rhonda's lifelong quest for domestic graciousness would eventually blossom," a line that earned scorn from the News-Leader's Bentley.

"If the writing style isn't enough to make you sick, the subject matter likely will have you seeing red — because you may have helped pay Doug Cassity's utility bill in Springfield," Bentley wrote.

Cassity's $82,000 bill dating back to 1980 had not been paid as of May 1994, Bentley reported. Adding interest, a CU attorney said it had climbed over $100,000 by that time. Cassity continued "to have no assets in his name," so CU was unable to collect from him.

Guess who paid the bill?

"Everybody else," in the words of CU's lawyer. "I ought to get one of those magazines," he said. "Maybe we ought to get (Cassity) down here again in court, and let him explain some of this again."

May 26, 1994

Cassity's son Brent Cassity responded to Bentley's column about the Cassitys' St. Louis-area manse with a letter to the editor, characterizing the column as "journalism run amok," a "deliberate, hurtful and seemingly vengeful personal attack on my mother."

Nov. 25, 2010

In a St. Louis federal court, Cassity is indicted on 50 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and other charges, almost 30 years after he pleaded guilty to federal felonies in Springfield. His lawyer said, "Mr. Cassity has been waiting to confront this in court, line by line, item by item. He feels confident that he can, and he intends to do so."