Judge orders beleaguered Pine Belt attorney to be jailed for contempt in Perry County case

Contempt order filed after Cory Farraez fails to appear for hearing or account for cash from $450,000
wrongful death settlement

From Staff Reports
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A Chancery Court Judge has ordered the arrest of a Hattiesburg attorney over his handling of a case involving a Perry County family.
Tenth District Chancery Court Chancellor Shelia H. Smallwood issued her order in Perry County Chancery Court last Thursday in which she found attorney Cory Ferraez in civil contempt and called for his immediate incarceration.
The issue at hand was Ferraez’s handling of the estate of the late Stephen Ray ‘Fuzzy’ Weatherford and a $450,000 wrongful death settlement that is part of it. Weatherford’s widow, Sylvia Weatherford, hired Ferraez to represent her interests in matter. Judge Smallwood’s order calls for Ferraez to be arrested and held in the Perry County Jail until he turns over control of a trust account containing the $450,000 from the settlement.
In November of last year, the court issued a decree ordering the settlement of the wrongful death suit, which stemmed from Weatherford’s death in a motor vehicle accident. That order directed the full amount to be deposited and held in a Farraez’s Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) until the judge ruled on the payment of liens against the estate, attorney’s fees and expenses were settled and the balance distributed to Sylvia Weatherford, who was determined to be the sole heir to the estate.
In her order last week, Judge Smallwood laid out her reasoning for issuing the contempt order, siting numerous missed meetings and court hearings. She had issued an order in May setting a ‘show cause’ hearing for Farraez and ordering him to appear in court on June 16 in Hattiesburg and explain his failures to appear in those prior meetings and hearing. That order also demanded that Ferraez provide documentation proving the wrongful death proceeds had been placed in and were still being held in his IOLTA.
Ferraez was absent for the June 16 hearing, but Judge Smallwood did hear from Sylvia Weathorford who testified that “Ferraez and his staff had failed to communicate with her about the status of her late husband’s estate” leading to a substantial financial hardship for her. From that hearing, Judge Smallwood issued a “sua sponte order,” demanding Farraez to tender the full $450,000 to the Perry County Chancery Court by June 18 and appointing County Probate Administrator David Walley as the immediate substitute counsel for the estate.
Court records indicate that deadline was not met and that Judge Smallwood denied a last minute motion to reconsider filed by Farraez, who cited kidney stones and a bout with covid as his reasoning for not complying.
“Here, Mr. Farraez could have easily provided a bank statement reflecting that the funds were being safeguarded in his IOTLA account or submitted a check to the clerk for the funds ordered to be tendered,” the judge wrote in her order, noting that Farraez had also failed to provide any documentation related to his alleged health issues.
“The Court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that Cory Farraez has failed to comply with the Court’s Order,” the contempt order stated. “Based on the finding of civil contempt, the Court orders immediate incarceration of Cory Farraez in the Perry County Jail until he tenders the sum of $450,000 to the Perry County Chancery Clerk’s office…”
As of Tuesday morning, Perry County Sheriff Jacob Garner said Farraez had yet to be detained.
“We are still in the process of trying to locate him,” Sheriff Garner said. “We have several other agencies working with us in the matter.”
Along with appointing Walley to the case, Judge Smallwood’s sua sponte order also required Walley to draft a deed transferring ownership of a piece of property located on Buck Creek Road in Perry County to Sylvia Weatherford and to “expedite the closing of the estate as soon as possible.”
This is not Farraez’s first run of trouble with the justice system. In 2018, he was sentenced in Lowndes County Circuit Court to six months in county jail after being convicted of illegally voting in a 2015 election in Lowndes County although he was a legal resident of Hattiesburg at the time. He was ordered to pay a $200 fine, $200 assessment to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund and all court costs, but his 6-month sentence was suspended, allowing him to avoid jail time.
He was indicted in 2021 by a Forrest County Grand Jury on multiple counts of embezzlement, conspiracy, mail/wire fraud, and defrauding a court. The alleged victims included his clients and his former law firm.
A second indictment in 2021 accuses him of four counts of embezzlement related to other cases he worked while with his former firm. All of those cases remain open and awaiting appointment of special prosecutors. Farraez also reportedly has multiple complaints against him with the Mississippi Bar Association.