Ronda Behrens, 73, rode the Northshore real estate wave caused by Hurricane Katrina to great success in the mid-2000s. She founded her own company, partnering with another established agent, bought an office building in downtown Covington, and was poised for success into retirement until she says a kind gesture dragged her into a downward spiral, taking several of her friends and family with her.
Trips to the hair salon brought both fresh hair and friendship to Behrens, leading her to loan her hairdresser’s daughter, Melissa Ficarra Kagel, $18,000 in 2006 to help fund a lawsuit over the sale of a Ficarra family business, Seago’s Starting Systems & Services, LLC.
“I’ve been wealthy and I’ve been broke and I’ve been wealthy again. And now, I’m broke,” Behrens said.
A handwritten IOU, the first of many Behrens says she witnessed Kagel sign, still sits tucked in a banker’s file folder that Behrens has kept over the years. She turned that file over to the police last year when she realized she would never get her money back from Kagel.
Now Behrens and her friends and family who were also dragged into the deal are hoping federal authorities will step in to take over the investigation and prosecution of Kagel, who was charged with two counts of exploitation of the infirmed in St Tammany Parish in March.
Feeding financial hole
Behrens admitted she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, attending expensive private schools, living a privileged childhood. But her life ping-ponged back and forth to the opposite ends of the wealth spectrum.
She went from owning a multi-million-dollar business to not being able to buy food to feed herself, her partner and her dogs.
“We almost lost the house. If they hadn’t allowed me to put it in forbearance, we would have lost the house,” she said.
Hurricane Ida ripped it apart three years ago when a pine tree fell through the roof, but the extensive damage still isn’t fully repaired because she claims she doesn’t have the money to fix it.
Behrens didn’t lose her money living a lavish lifestyle. Over the years, more than a decade in fact, she lost it by feeding it to Kagel, getting deeper and deeper into a financial hole. As Behrens tells it, she saw the settlements as the only way out.
Where’d the money go?
Behrens’ downfall began by giving money to Kagel to fund the Seago lawsuit and a lawsuit Kagel’s father, Sal Ficarra, had filed against insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana for breach of contract.
“I had money. I had a lot of money. And I’m a believer in, ‘what goes around comes around’,” she said.
What started with an $18,000 loan for attorneys’ fees and court costs turned into a consistent push from Kagel for more and more money.
Kagel allegedly sent Behrens fake invoices from attorneys to back up her claims that she needed to pay additional costs.
WWL-TV reviewed 1,600 pages of text conversations Behrens said she had with Kagel dating back to 2020. In them, Kagel repeatedly claimed the lawsuits would be settled for millions of dollars, and that she stood to make a large chunk of the money, paying back Behrens and then some.
“She’d say, ‘I need $10,000 for this. I need $750 for documents, copies.’ You know, it was always, always something,” Behrens said.
Behrens’ bank statements show tens of thousands of dollars in wire transfers from Behrens to Kagel in 2023 alone.
The manipulation followed a similar pattern. For example, on September 8, 2022, Kagel texted Behrens that she needed ten thousand dollars that day to pay “invoices” or the suit would be dismissed, and they would lose all the money they invested.
Behrens replied that she’s asking friends to borrow the money and applying for credit, but she can only get about $1,600.
Kagel fired back, “It’s no sweat off my back anymore Ronda. I’m sick of trying to protect a $12 million investment.”
Behrens’ credit died by a thousand cuts.
“It was $10,000 here and $5,000 here. And it just kept going and going and going. So, every time I had a sale, she took my whole commission. I could barely keep my head above water,” Behrens said. “[The settlement] was always close. It was always close.”
Behrens borrowed tens of thousands from a handful of friends and family, getting in so deep she couldn’t pay it back unless the lawsuits paid out. She did things she admits she is not proud of to get the money.
Behrens has been sued at least six times for over $50,000.
She said she was desperate for Melissa to get the lawsuits settled to get her money back so she could get them their money back but that never happened.
Behrens’ close relative stepped in to help. He asked not to be identified by name for this story.
“I had resources. And Ronda was, according to her, getting ready to lose everything. I just kept feeding the pig,” he said.
Why would two successful businesspeople hand over hundreds of thousands to a woman who never got results?
“She was plausible. She had an answer,” the relative said.
Fraud continues
For years, Kagel claimed to be paying two New Orleans attorneys named Mark Vicknair and Jeffrey Smith.
She sent Behrens invoices as proof that Vicknair and Smith needed more money to keep the lawsuit going, invoices Vicknair and Smith confirm are fake.
Behrens’ texts show on February 26, 2023, Kagel sent her one, that she claimed was from Vicknair, for $16,160.
The text messages indicate Behrens questioned it and Kagel replied, “…his daughter has cancer. He needs his money!!”
Kagel even sent faked supposed screenshots of her texts with Vicknair to back it up, but Vicknair has never heard of Kagel. He has never texted her. And he does not have a daughter with cancer.
Criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Smith said the same thing. He does not know Kagel. In fact, he has rarely, if ever, handled civil cases.
Kagel also sent fake court documents to Behrens, like a doctored settlement agreement, claiming it was pending for one of the lawsuits.
The faked document reads that Blue Cross Blue Shield was going to pay Kagel’s father $26 million.
WWL-TV analyzed the document and found many red flags about the document, including the fact that Ficarra’s lawsuit was never filed in Jefferson Parish. The JP Clerk of Court letterhead is plastered across the top, but again, the BCBS lawsuit was never filed in Jefferson.
But Behrens and her relative said they didn’t know the ins and outs of the legal system to tell the difference.
“Reproducing invoices from attorneys, even documents from the court suggesting that a multi-million dollar settlement was pending. I mean, the depth of the fraud and theft is extraordinary,” Behrens’ relative said
Kagel’s attorney declined to comment and Kagel didn’t return WWL Louisiana’s phone calls.
Doesn’t add up
In 2023, Kagel turned up the heat asking for more money from Behrens. She claimed someone was beating her because she couldn’t come up with the cash.
She sent Behrens a photo of what appears to be a scrape on her forehead.
“She sent me the same picture,” the relative said.
On May 30, 2023, the text messages indicate Kagel claimed she was desperate for money again, this time because the Jefferson Parish District Attorney was threatening to arrest her if she didn’t pay for some bounced checks.
She sent Behrens an alleged screenshot of her voicemails with the JP DA’s number on it and a recording Kagel claimed was a voicemail left by a DA’s staffer.
“This is Dana with the District Attorney’s office calling for Melissa Kagel,” the recording says, “I need to speak with you today by the end of the business day. I need the checks paid by 8 am tomorrow morning. If not, I have no other option than to issue the indictment and a warrant for your arrest.”
The recording verbiage doesn’t match the alleged transcription Kagel sent to Behrens via text either.
When asked, a spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish District Attorney said in a statement, “The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s office has no record of a criminal case or investigation involving a person named Melissa Christine Ficarra Kagel.”
What’s next?
The real lawsuits were settled more than ten years ago, shortly after Behrens first started loaning Kagel money.
The BCBS breach of contract lawsuit settled in 2009, not for $26 million as Kagel’s fake settlement agreement claimed, but bankruptcy records show it settled for $175,000.
The Seago lawsuit was thrown out in 2011.
The whole thing not only cost Behrens her financial future, but her own desperation to pay Kagel to get her money back led to broken relationships and the loss of her business.
“It ruined my reputation. It caused me incredible physical problems as a result,” she said.
Kagel is now facing two counts of exploitation of the infirmed in St Tammany Parish and she has a warrant out for her arrest in Sandy Springs, Georgia. That’s where Kagel’s close relative lives. He says he lost half a million dollars both by paying Kagel directly, and by giving money to Behrens to keep her afloat.
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