STATEN ISLAND -- When the owner of Rocco’s Landscaping in Port Richmond wanted help in dealing with a string of contract disputes and other legal matters, he figured his best bet would be to hire an in-house counsel.

So Anthony Papapietro said his company reached out to law schools, looking for new and out-of-work lawyers, and went searching on the Internet.

Instead, he said, they got Terence Kindlon Jr., who, it turned out, wasn’t a lawyer at all.

Kindlon Jr., 42, of Myrtle Avenue in West Brighton, the son of a prominent Albany attorney, was charged Monday on a three-count indictment on Staten Island, accused of practicing as an attorney even though he had no license.

“He went to school. He passed the bar, but he was never certified,” Papapietro said in an interview with the Advance. When asked how he came upon Kindlon’s services, Papapietro replied, “Craigslist, I think.”

Kindlon Jr. is already locked up as he awaits sentencing in a similar case in Manhattan. After the publicity surrounding his January arrest in Manhattan, court officials soon realized that he was also practicing law on Staten Island, and that sparked an investigation, a law enforcement source said.

Terence Kindlon Jr.

He’s also a convicted felon, according to public records — state prison records show he was sentenced to between four years, three-months and seven years behind bars on a 2000 weapon and stolen property conviction.

Kindlon’s father, Terence L. Kindlon, is a high-profile defense lawyer and Vietnam War veteran who has worked in New York’s Capital Region for more than 35 years. His younger brother, Lee Kindlon, ran in a primary for Albany County district attorney last year.

According to the indictment against Kindlon Jr., he appeared as an attorney, even though he isn’t licensed to practice law, on the Island from July 2012 to this past January. The indictment doesn’t specifically name Kindlon Jr.’s client, though Papapietro said he testified before the grand jury last week.

“I am the in-house counsel for Rocco’s Landscaping and I am counsel for Mr. Guzman, who is an employee of Rocco’s Landscaping,” Kindlon told an investigator on Jan. 10, according to court papers filed in the Manhattan case. “I work out of 62 Tabb Place. My boss carries a .38 pistol, but I am trying to convince him to carry a .45. When I was a Ranger in the Army in Iraq, I asked my father to send me a Kimber .45 caliber pistol because I preferred that over a .9mm Barretta, which was regular Army issue.”

Papapietro said Kindlon Jr. worked for him as in-house counsel for about six months, and was living in a home Papapietro owned on the Island. The attorney helped him file cases in real estate and other business disputes, he said.

“When I read his words. I thought he was brilliant. He sounded great,” Papapietro said. “He was a good guy, he was helping me out. ... He’d come to my house. He’d eat over and everything.”

Kindlon Jr. is also listed as the initial attorney of record in a case filed in December by Papapietro’s brother, Rocco, and his fiancée, Linda Krupa, against Ms. Krupa’s ex-husband John, and his father, also John, over the sale of a house.

Attorney Irina Kushel, who would later take over that case, said the lawsuit has since been withdrawn.

Ms. Kushel said the landscaping company hired Kindlon Jr. after posting an ad looking for an attorney.

“He was willing to sue the world without necessarily understanding the procedure and understanding the merits,” she said.

Klindon Jr.’s defense lawyer, Stacey Richman, called the case a tragedy, referring to her client as a gifted, intelligent person whose mental illness has prevented him from realizing his potential.

“He aspires to be a veteran. He aspires to the highest aspects of society,” she said. “Because of his mental health issues, he believes that he’s already there, and he’s not.”

She compared him to John Nash, the mentally ill mathematician and Nobel Laureate whose life was dramatized in the 2001 film, “A Beautiful Mind.”

Kindlon Jr. attended Benjamin Cardozo School of Law for two and a half years and completed his law training through an apprenticeship; he passed the bar in February 2012 but has not been admitted to practice.

”This is an individual who’s extremely gifted. He has passed the state bar,” she said. “What is unfortunate is you have the interface of brilliance and excitement to do what he has trained to do, and I think his mental illness has gotten in the way of his perception of propriety.”

Under the terms of his conviction in Manhattan, he was slated to be sentenced to one and a half to three years in prison, though Ms. Richman said she couldn’t comment on the status of that agreement.

The most serious charge Kindlon Jr. faces on Staten Island, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, stems from a Jan. 28, 2013, court document he filed, the indictment alleges.

He’s also charged with two counts of practicing or appearing as an attorney-at-law without being admitted and registered, according to information from District Attorney Daniel Donovan’s office.

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