‘I was a millionaire. Now, I’m broke.’ Miami attorney says dog drugs started spiral
Being in substance abuse rehabilitation after a humiliating public situation he traced to his addiction? Suspended Miami personal injury lawyer Hector Acosta Carrillo has been here before.
But now, Acosta’s law career, marriage and relationship with his toddler son are at stake.
“I was high when he was born,” Acosta, 33, said in an interview.
All have an uncertain future after, Acosta said, after he used money from the Acosta Legal trust account to hide from his wife the financial consequences of his slide back into pain medication addiction.
Speaking from a rehabilitation facility via FaceTime earlier this month, Acosta said he’s open about why he misappropriated client funds because “I hope it helps somebody who reads my story to get help before it gets bad.”
How bad? “I destroyed myself financially. I was a millionaire, now I’m broke.”
READ MORE: Miami attorney suspended after Florida Bar auditor finds he misappropriated $10,000
Acosta is also on emergency suspension from the Florida Bar until the professional discipline case finishes. He expects that finish to be a law license suspension that will be counted in years.
Miami-Dade County Civil Court Judge Maria D. Ortiz has been appointed as the referee who will hear Acosta’s case and recommend a punishment to the state Supreme Court.
This time, Acosta said, he started his problems with doggy Vicodin. Originally, it started with baseball.
From Kansas to Miami Gardens to Ultra to handcuffs
Acosta, the son of a military man, was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, and became an All-State baseball player at Junction City High in Kansas. Cleveland drafted Acosta in the 50th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft, but Acosta decided to go to Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, where he became an Honorable Mention junior college All-America selection.
Acosta went back into the draft and St. Louis took him in 2010. Meanwhile, treatment for a wrist injury introduced him to Vicodin.
“I instantly used it in an addictive way,” Acosta said. “I really liked the feeling.”
From Arkansas-Little Rock, where he was using pills 15 to 20 days out of the month, Acosta transferred to St. Thomas University and “It was Florida in 2011 — pills were everywhere.”
Acosta’s addiction helped end his professional baseball hopes, and stayed with him into his 2013 enrollment at St. Thomas Law School, where “I was selling drugs to support my habit. The withdrawals, when you don’t have pills, are like a heroin addiction. You feel like s---.”
Acosta hit bottom at the 2015 Ultra Music Festival in Miami. An arrest on charges of selling a controlled substance, illegal drug trafficking, misdemeanor battery and trespassing after a warning earned Acosta infamy in local media and on some local legal blogs that commented on the law school student’s future.
Acosta went into a rehabilitation program for six weeks, the start of doing everything necessary to get his criminal charges dropped. He says he came out sober, got reinstated to law school in 2017, graduated in 2018 and passed the Florida Bar in 2019.
Then, came 2020.
READ MORE: A Miami lawyer misappropriated $26,500 of a client’s settlement, Florida Bar auditor says
Popping pills and moving money
Acosta and Benjamin Geffon officially opened Acosta Geffon law firm on Sept. 1, 2020. But by the next month, Acosta said, he’d been reacquainted with pills after a veterinarian prescribed Vicodin pills for Acosta’s mastiff. Acosta took some.
“I had normal stress like everyone else,” Acosta said. “My life was trending up. I had a lot of money.”
And, that, he believes was a big difference between his previous run of addiction — Acosta had money to buy Vicodin, then oxycodone in increasing strengths. He also had the money to pay, he says, cash for nine different rehab stays before his current one.
“It was a little bit of ego because of the money,” Acosta said. “Like, ‘I can do this on my own.’ The money was a big enabler. I was spending about a $1,000 a day on opiates.”
In April 2022, while still an Acosta Geffon name partner, he registered personal injury firm Acosta Legal with the state. Later in 2022, Acosta said, he’d go from oxycodone to fentanyl. A check from Acosta Legal’s trust account bounced on April 20, 2023, triggering a Florida Bar auditor investigation of the trust account.
Bar auditor Matthew Herdecker found 15 unexplained trust account withdrawals for $4,980 from February through April, as well as a $5,115 transfer from the trust account to Acosta’s personal Chase Bank checking account.
At one point, Herdecker said, a client and two medical providers were owed $10,097 from the trust account. The account balance was $57.
Though Acosta eventually paid the client and two medical providers, attorney trust accounts never can be short. Being short $10,040 equals $10,040 in misappropriated funds, even if everyone eventually got their money.
“The withdrawals, that was me trying to hide my usage from my wife,” Acosta said. “They caught me right away. You cannot take from the trust account.”
Acosta is at a 90-day rehab facility in South Florida. He’ll be out in March. Beyond that, nothing is assured.
“I’ve done this before,” he said. “I know it’s possible if I stay sober.
“This has destroyed my reputation, destroyed me financially. I want to say to people, ‘If this happens to you, get help. Don’t do what I did. Take it seriously.’ ”
