I am working on launching a site that exposes him by stating facts and linking to his past/present litigation and criminal record.

At this point I've cut my losses and understand I may never see the money. I am pretty sure I can get a civil judgement against him going by his history of not showing up. However, as you said it's still going to be a nightmare trying to enforce the judgement. I mean jeez his own lawyers who he didn't pay got judgements but aren't able to collect funds.

I'll keep pushing the DA's office. Unfortunately their VM says not to leave repeated messages so I don't want to annoy them.

About taking 1/3 advance, I donno how people do this without losing a lot business. Majority of my legit clients would not be able to pay 1/3rd in advance and just move on. In fact with agency work it's standard to wait 90 days for payment.