He stumped, he stumbled, now he's suing the church

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published February 11, 2007

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TAMPA - News flash: Inviting a personal injury attorney to your property can be risky.

Just ask Bell Shoals Baptist Church of Brandon, target of a lawsuit by Carlos Pazos, a criminal defense attorney who dabbles in personal injury law.

Back in 2002, Pazos made an unsuccessful bid for Hillsborough circuit judge. During the campaign, he accepted an invitation to speak at a candidate forum sponsored by the church.

Pazos learned at the forum that one of his opponents, Martha Cook, regularly attended Bell Shoals. He knew his presentation would have to be "much more heartfelt" to win her fellow churchgoers' votes, he said in a deposition.

Enthusiastic applause greeted the end of his speech. Pazos said he felt gratified and headed down the stairs.

"I was going to try to make as much eye contact and persuade as many voters obviously to vote in my favor," he said in court records.

Then he fell. Down the second, third and fourth glossy wooden steps, so hard that he tore his left thigh muscle and had to be rolled out of the church in a wheelchair.

In the suit, which Pazos filed last year, he accused the church of negligence for having steps of different heights and no handrail. He wants unspecified damages for lost income and continued pain.

A trial was set for Feb. 19 but was postponed after Pazos added the contractor who renovated the church in 2000 to the lawsuit.

In court documents, Pazos said he weighed 380 pounds at the time of his fall. No other candidates had trouble maneuvering the steps, church attorneys said.

Pazos spent $186,500 before losing in the primary. Cook won.

"Our position is the church wasn't negligent at all," said church attorney David Nilsen.

Added Nilsen's colleague, Mark Hartig, "I would think there would be more sympathies for a church being sued by a trial attorney."

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.