My roommate stole everything, need advice!!

I moved into "my friend's" apartment for three months only to find myself sympathetic and taking care of the dog he neglected for 13 hours at a time. On days I didn't find time to let the dog out she would go to the bathroom inside. For a month or so I repeatedly asked my roommate to get the carpets cleaned.
He never did, so for the last month I began staying at another friend's apartment.
I would occasionaly stop by for the dog, to do laundry, and rotate my suitcase of things I had been transporting.
When it came time to pay the month rent I gave him half of my rent due informing him the air was so overwhelming I couldn't stay there if I wanted to and if he still needed help with rent I would pay him a storage fee because my other friend didn't have much space. He got angry and said to come get my stuff that night(friday). Unfortunately, something came up and I didn't have time to stop. I tried calling to inform him but his cell phone number had been changed.
Over the weekend two mutual friends told me he set my things out on the porch. Ignoring what I heard in disbelief, I told my roommate at work on monday I would be by to pick up my things after work. He stood there without expression and said, "Oh, you mean you didn't get it?, I sat it out for you."
I went to the apartment, the locks had been changed.
He let me in the next night. Everything was gone.
I filed a police report that night.
I am taking him to court but my lawyer seems to make no defense telling me without reciepts of everything i lost makes for a tough case.
My roommate did confess to setting my things out but only one container.
They tried to settle cheap after he claimed i didn't pay all of my rent the whole time I lived there. I did pay, but he never gave my reciepts and said it wasn't neseccary.
I eventually moved back home with a suitcase, instead of a carload and a half like I had moved in with.

If anyone has any advice to help me in court I could really use it!!!! Thanks!!!!

You can't just unilaterally decide that you will pay half the rent because of a smell (you were free to clean the carpets yourself, but that's not a basis to withhold rent).

You can also go after him for unlawful eviction if you hadn't surrendered possession or your keys for changing the locks and putting out your stuff.

"I filed a police report that night."

And what did the cops do??

"I am taking him to court but my lawyer seems to make no defense telling me without reciepts of everything i lost makes for a tough case."

"They tried to settle cheap after he claimed i didn't pay all of my rent the whole time I lived there."

Don't know who you mean by "they".

As for rent receipts, either pay with a check or get a receipt. Don't pay in cash without getting a receipt.

"If anyone has any advice to help me in court I could really use it!!!!"

Try to get the witnesses to his having told them he put all your stuff out, and witnesses as to what stuff you brought with you to the new place to come to court.

By the by, the penalty for his unawful eviction on its own may be enough to cover the value of what you lost (not necessarily what you paid for it, but what it was worth at the time).

I trust your report to the police included a list of the stuff that was in your room. I'd present that to the judge as well.

LL's suggestions:

I'd be going after an illegal lock out as well.

Hint==consider the reverse--if a tenant leaves a pile of junk entrusted to my care, say 50 items of pure junk I have a serious problem of disproving that it contained 150 items of pure good stuff if I show up with dirty hands. And thus I NEVER toss junk w/o records--and its too easy to flip the issues against me! My local tenant friendly judge will rip me a new one if I showed up doing a stunt like this!

If its a pure bailment its bad enough but to toss tenants stuff via the porch routine is wildy bad news for me if properly presented against me --and in my town I can name at least two attorneys who will make me want to cry--and in your case you need somebody like this----.

I only pulled a stunt like that one time in many years of being a LL and I was pretty sure I was 98% right--and I kept photo records just in case to show it was "junk."

I don't know, but it doesn't seem like this is a LL/tenant issue at all. From what I gather, you were staying with your friend in an apartment that he was renting, and helping him with the rent? In my renting experience, it's probably against the terms of your friends lease to allow another person to inhabit the apartment without signing a lease with the landlord as well. Correct me please, if I'm mistaken.

I believe you are mistaken-generally--her friend would be her LL and there enough of a consideration element to push it past any guest status. State law could vary--but I'll bet it comes down on tenant status--and that means her friend needs to follow the rules --and he very likley did not.

Sure, you can toss a guest--and English laws going back to at least 1750 say so--but a lot of places a paying guest looks a heck of a lot like a tenant and you better be darn sure she is but a mere guest.

The fact that it maynot be consistent as between the higher level lease of owner/LL to him is not relvant to her protections if she gets one tiny foot into door that she is his tenant and I'll bet he cannot prove otherwise--and I'll bet burden to disprove is upon him once she makes the initial claim of status.

"...it's probably against the terms of your friends lease to allow another person to inhabit the apartment without signing a lease with the landlord as well."

Maybe so, but that would be a breach of contract issue between that person and the landlord, not the poster. If this person's roommate (named tenant on the lease) rented a room to her, that person became the poster's landlord in his-her own right and thereby it becomes a landlord-tenant issue.

Thanks for your time and advice!!

I filed a report the night I found everything was gone, the super-cop took my information and I made a report including a rough estimate of value. He advised me to get a lawyer, implying the cops would't be of much help.

"They" who tried to settle cheap meant my ex-roommate and his lawyer for about $1,000. After paying my lawyer one-third of that for his kindness that cheap offer might help pay for my diamond earings and leather coat. Maybe.

And who has the time to waste with reciepts? I like paying with cash and realize there will be no proof of my purchases but I always thought it was easier just using cash.

Thanks again for your time!