Help Me Howard: August Follow-ups

WSVN -- Let's catch up with Sharon Solano.

Sharon Solano: "I've worked on Playboy models, for Playboy magazine."

A good businesswoman who had a bad divorce. The latest salvo from her ex, this tag that sits on his truck.

Sharon Solano: "The way I see it, he is saying, 'My ex-wife is a snake.' I just think it's pretty rotten that my son has to see this."

When we left Sharon she was filing a complaint with the state asking them to revoke her ex-husband's tag. The state looked at and decided there is nothing wrong with him calling her his ex-snake on his tag.

Sharon Solano: "Pretty sad, it's pretty sad."

But Sharon isn't giving up and is now asking a judge to remove the tag because, in her divorce agreement neither side can put down the other.

Sharon Solano: "I'm not going to let it ruin my day because I have a great business and great friends, and I have a great support system, but I will definitely let a judge decide what he thinks is right."

Now let's catch up with Francisco Rodriguez. When we first met him, he was paying child support for a child that even the girl's mother agreed was not his.

Francisco Rodriguez: "DNA test shows I am zero. Zero probability of being the father to this child."

But for years the courts ignored him when he couldn't keep up with the payments for someone else's child in addition to his own two children. He was sent to jail. Then we asked attorney John Sorkin to represent him.

John Sorkin: "Mr. Rodriguez is not the father of the child."

Sorkin battled in court for almost a year for free. He won when a judge ruled Francisco was not the father.

Francisco Rodriguez: "Stamped seal of approval by Rene Goldenberg. It's officially over."

It will take Francisco awhile to recover. His credit is ruined, his savings are gone, but at least he and his wife Michelle can smile.

Francisco Rodriguez: "We didn't go out just yet. We are still a little financially strapped down, but we celebrated with praises and hugs to each other, but it's in the making. We need a vacation."

Francisco Rodriguez: "I'm very, very honored what I'm getting from Channel Seven, from Patrick."

When we first met John he couldn't get a termite company to tent his house even though he had paid them for 20 years for termite protection. We got them to honor the contract. They tented.

John Poka: "Blood sucking leeches."

But John's opinion of them, well, he kept repeating it over and over.

John Poka: "Blood sucking leeches, that's how I feel."

And finally, let's catch up with Ouzo's Restaurant.

Liza Meoli: "We were shocked."

Liza and Gigi had sold their house and borrowed money from their family to open this Greek restaurant on Miami Beach. Things were doing well ... until Florida Power & Light showed up with a construction crew, blocked all four roads leading to their restaurant and refused to compensate them for their lost business.

Liza Meoli: "This is our livelihood. This is all we have, this will ruin you, it will ruin us."

It did. They had to shut down and lost everything after FPL's construction dragged past the date Liza and Gigi were promised.

John Poka: "And then all of a sudden we saw signs until Aug. 1 and now it's Sept. 1, so they were probably just stringing us along. That's what it felt like."

They lost their restaurant, but they have not given up, instead looking for an investor to open a new restaurant with them.

John Poka: "We feel that we found a cute location for us, much smaller, and now we are just waiting for people to trust us with the financing."

It was a great restaurant, and they say the next one will be just as good, with one difference. They are going to make sure there are no road projects, power projects, any project that will block people from getting into their restaurant.

Tags, termites, restaurants, child support, just part and parcel of what we do here, and is a solution to your problem escaping you? Contact us. Sometimes we get the bear, sometimes the bear gets us.

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