Mauro Restrepo felt certain he was cursed. It wasn’t something he could prove, but he could sense it — things just weren’t going his way. Worse yet, he suspected an ex-girlfriend had hired a witch to apply the curse. In desperation, Restrepo turned to the internet for help.
He discovered a website for a psychic who promised him relief from the curse. Her real name is Sofia Adams, though she bills herself as a “Psychic Love Specialist” and claims to be a “Ph.D. Life Coach.” Restrepo alleges that he and Adams texted twice before she invited him to her home office in the wealthy seaside community of Palos Verdes Estates for a consultation.
During his appointment, Adams allegedly conducted a tarot reading and determined that Restrepo had mala suerte, Spanish for bad luck. The psychic identified that the bad luck was indeed the result of a witch’s curse; his girlfriend was engaging in psychic warfare against him. According to Restrepo’s claims, Adams warned him that if she didn’t remove the curse, it would ruin his life, his marriage and his children’s wellbeing. Properly terrified, Restrepo asked Adams how much it would cost.
He claims the psychic told him she could have him curse-free for the low, low price of $5,100. She just needed a grand as down payment to get started. Restrepo agreed and Adams allegedly went to work fighting to free him and his soul from eternal torment.
A month later, after Restrepo’s marriage continued to falter and he’d suffered through “sleepless nights, anxiety and anguish,” he hired someone else to help him — a lawyer. He went to the courthouse in Torrance, California, and filed a lawsuit against Sophia Adams, Ph.D. Life Coach, professional psychic. In his lawsuit, Restrepo accuses Adams of acts of negligence, a civil conspiracy and inflicting emotional distress. He’s seeking $25,000 in compensatory damages and is requesting punitive damages as well.
In hindsight, he should have gone with sorcerer-for-hire Raymond Scott, who guarantees that he can “clear a person or area of ghosts, demons, djinn, elementals and aliens,” per his website. For the price of a bag of some good pot, he’ll fight off evil for you. Better still, if you pay for Scott to remove a demon, and then ask for a refund, you get it all back. There’s a catch, however, which he explains in clear terms: “Our refund policy, for Demon Removal, is like buying a TV. Everything gets returned back to the condition it was in prior to starting. To explain further: The money is returned, and Demons are returned.”
As for what’s next with Restrepo? Only the justice system — or black magick — will tell.
Zaron Burnett III
Zaron Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL.
