Mulholland wins verdict against Winters & Yonker

TAMPA -- Personal injury lawyer Richard Mulholland has won damages that could add up to about $3-million from Winters & Yonker, a firm he said hacked into his computer and copied files to take business from him.

William Winters and Marc Yonker worked for Mulholland until 2001. So did a legal assistant Mulholland said gained remote access to the computer on behalf of Winters & Yonker. Mulholland did not sue the legal assistant, also a former employee, but sued the two lawyers in Hillsborough Circuit Court.

Late Monday, after a weeklong trial, a jury awarded damages of about $189,000 against Yonker and about $748,500 against Winters. But Florida law requires a judge to triple the jury award when attorneys are found to have violated a civil theft statute.

Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen has not entered a final order.

In a brief telephone interview Wednesday, Yonker said he has filed motions for a mistrial as well as a new trial, and if those fail, he plans to appeal. He declined to comment about the case until a judge rules on the motions.

-- Colleen Jenkins and Thomas Kaplan, Times staff writers