Assistant State Attorney Kostrzewski demonstrates the Jedi mind trick.

Does everyone remember the Jedi mind trick from the movie Star Wars?  Without getting too geeky and talk Star Wars nonsense that I'm not to familiar with, the Jedi mind trick was a technique used by the Jedi to influence and control the minds of others through the use of the "Force" that only they posessed, take a look at this example of the mind trick in use...

So what does this have to do with our story?  Simple.  As you read through the hundreds of pages of deposition transcripts from the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, you come away with the feeling that Detective Jorge Baluja was being told what to do and say by Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski.  The more you read, the more you realize that the Detective didn't do anything on his own, but was instead following orders from the ASA.  Why?  I can't answer that question as I thought the ASA wasn't to meddle in the actual investigation of a crime, I was under the impression that his role was strictly as an advocate for the court.  Regardless, in one instance during one of Detective Baluja's depositions, the defense attorneys seem to be having a hard time getting the Detective to cooperate with their questions and in an effort to make things move along, ASA Kostrzewski offers to ask the Detective a few questions perhaps to clarify a few points for the defense, let's take a look...

OH!  That's great!  Now, watch as ASA Kostrzewski's attempt at using the Jedi mind trick on Detective Baluja backfires...

WHAT?!  The Detective clearly answers yes and through ASA Kostrzewski's incredible lawyering and deposition skills he turns that "yes" into a useless "I can't recall"!  NICE WORK!  I can't wait to see Mr. Kostrzewski perform his magic in court!

What are you, RETARDED? If so, you may be in luck!

No offense to the mentally retarded, in fact if you're reading this blog and find that you are mentally deficient or retarded, there may be a very lucrative job opening for you.  There's been several instances during the writing of this blog, either through listening to audio recordings of court hearings, reading deposition transcripts or just talking to people involved with the case where we've asked ourselves, are the people working these cases FCUKING RETARDED?  After seeing a mortgage fraud detective that doesn't know the fundamentals of real estate transactions or a prosecutor that fumbles through hearings misstating facts and lying to the court, one has to pause and ask themselves, what the hell is wrong with these people and how the hell did they arrive at a position of power?

What does this have to do with our story?  Well, things are starting to get a little tight financially here at the Straw Buyer, so we decided to start looking around to see if there are any job opportunities that are suited to our newly found skills that we've acquired while investigating all these nasty fraud cases and instances of police/prosecutorial misconduct.  After searching all the regular employment sites, I decided to give Uncle Sam a try, so I went over to USAJOBS to see if they had anything for us.  Once there I decided to indulge myself and see if they were hiring any attorneys and what it would take to qualify for a position with the Department of Justice, perhaps an incentive to forge ahead and go to law school!  I finally come across this opening for 10 trial lawyers for the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice.  COOL!  Check it!

 

Hell yes!  Now I'm excited!  So next, I scan down and start looking at the requirements for the job and then I come across this:

 

Ok, I understand, the DOJ wants to accommodate people with disabilities.  As I read through this paragraph, I find that they're looking to hire mentally retarded attorneys?!  EXCUSE ME?!  In case you missed it, here it is again:

I'm not going touch that with a ten foot pole folks.  After watching the players on the states side of the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case over the last 7 months and constantly asking myself whether or not they're mentally deficient, perhaps if the State Attorneys Office and the MDPD have the same hiring guidelines as the Department of Justice then we no longer have to ask ourselves that question.  No offense to those with the DOJ's "targeted disabilities", I happened to think you have a better future in private practice...


Have a great weekend!

Another lying cop BUSTED!

Well looky here!  On the evening news tonight we find a former Surfside cop arrested for creating bogus police reports in order to help people defraud their insurance company!  NICE!  Let's take a look at the charges the state leveled against Mr. Brooks:

Oh crap!  Looks like Woodward ended up going a bit wayward!  What a sleazy thing to do.  Woodward isn't the only bad cop that got busted today, let's not forget the winner of the law enforcement $hitbag of the day, Florida State Trooper Paul C. Lawrence gets arrested today for writing fake speeding tickets!  NICE!  Forget about bending the facts to suit your needs, Trooper Lawrence would just make $hit up and ticket people that he didn't even stop!  I don't think our boy Baluja ever did anything this stupid now did he?!  I don't know Jorge, making up facts, lying about the way things occurred, any of this sound familiar?

So what does these cops have to do with our story?  The trooper is just an example of run of the mill police misconduct, but Officer Brooks has a link to our story and how assistant state attorney Bill Kostrzewski defines a "good" cop.  Does everyone remember the article from a few years back involving ASA Kostrzewski?  If not, here's a link to it.  What I find most interesting about this article is how ASA Kostrzewski characterizes the cop that's at the center of the story Sgt John Davis, from the article:

"John is an intense guy. Whether it's a small or big case, he will see it to the end."

Intense huh?  What a great way to characterize Sgt. Davis.  Seems to me though according to the article that Sgt. Davis had some sort of vendetta against the couple he was going after and yes, once he got you in his sights, he won't stop till he gets you, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.  By now you must be asking, what the hell does this have to do with our story?  Guess who Sgt. Davis's partner in crime is?  None other than Officer Woodward Brooks!  So what happened when a community activist Jay Senter outed Sgt. Davis' misdeeds in the quaint little town of Surfside?  Sgt. Davis and Officer Brooks got together and decided to plant cocaine on Mr. Senter then BUST HIM!  WTF?! 

Davis, who is head of the department's police union, was overheard planning to plant the drugs, apparently in retaliation for Senter's reporting of another officer to the FBI regarding the code violations case. Officer Woody Brooks is the second officer suspended in connection with the allegation.

Even worse, when the mayor of Surfside decides to start looking into rumors of Sgt. Davis and Officer Brooks nefarious activities, they decide to set the mayor up!  Take a look at this excerpt from the story by Michael Putney:

In another twist, Surfside Vice Mayor Howard Weinberg told Putney that the same officers were also plotting against him. Weinberg said that he stops by the Flanagan's in Surfside several nights a week to talk with constituents. He said that he was told that Davis and Brooks planned to stop him leaving Flanagan's and charge him with drunk driving. He said they planned to release dash-cam video to the news media to try to embarrass him.
But the alleged plan was never carried out -- and Putney says if it had been, the charges wouldn't have stuck because Weinberg drinks only iced tea.

HOLY CRAP!  Planting cocaine, conspiring to set up the Mayor with a fake DUI, what the hell else is next from these two cops!  The question I have to ask myself is how the hell did ASA Kostrzewski make that kind of statement to the New Times knowing full well that the cop that ran the case he was prosecuting was involved in this kind of monkey business?  I say fcuk Davis and his intensity and who gives a crap whether or not he sees a bull$hit case through till the end!  What the hell are you thinking Mr. Kostrzewski!?!?!  The more I think about this, the more confusing it gets, but then again, ASA Kostrzewski seemed overly fond of Detective Baluja as well, my favorite line from the ASA in reference to Detective Baluja is:

"...he's young, but he means well, he tries really hard."

No $hit Bill!  Funny how this ASA seems to align himself with bad cops.  Seems like ASA Kostrzewski was rather smitten with Detective Baluja, that is before he began using Jorge as the scapegoat for this steaming pile of $hit he called the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case.  Once things started to get a little hot (I wonder if we had anything to do with it?) the accolades disappeared and were replaced with:

"...the Detective is incompetent, ...he's so tainted he can't be put on the stand..."

HAH!  Incompetent?  Tainted?  NAH!

Moving on, I must apologize to our readers who haven't gotten their share of dirt on disbarred attorney Roger Besu.  I've been getting TONS of tips on Mr. Besu and his activities just before he decided to flee the country, in an effort to produce the most accurate record of these events as possible, I'm holding off posting the facts until I can confirm everything.  I'd really hate to screw up sensitive facts and permanently tarnish someones reputation, it's a shame that we here at the Straw Buyer take more care in preparing our facts than say certain assistant state attorneys do...

BREAKING NEWS FROM THE HERALD!

What do you think of when you hear the term "breaking news"?  In case there's doubt as to what that term means, lets take a look at the definition of the phase:

Main Entry:	breaking news
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	news that is happening and being reported or revealed at this moment
Example:	CNN reports the breaking news.

Just what I thought, news being reported just as its happening or in the print world something that would be "hot off the presses".  We've discussed the term "breaking news" in regards to the Miami Herald in the past, somehow at least in our opinion, something is a bit off with the Heralds use of the term "breaking news".  That brings us to another point, has anyone noticed how few and far between stories on mortgage fraud have been?  I'm going through the Herald last night and I find this (click on image to enlarge):

 

Well, well, well!  Under the headline "Business Breaking News" we have more mortgage fraud arrests!  GREAT!  But upon closer inspection the article says that "ten Miami-Dade residents were charged in a $24 million mortgage fraud scheme LATE LAST MONTH!"  How exactly is this breaking news!?  WTF?!  According to the article the people indictied are:

Yamil L. Herrera, Alain C. Hernandez, Ricelda M. Hernandez, Marie G. Herrera, Samantha Portales, Edel Martinez, Osiris Garcia, Silvio De Paz, Ana G. Blanco, and Luis R. Martinez.

What strikes me as strange about this story is that the arrests happened last month and the Herald considers this "breaking news"?  Is it a slow day at the Herald?  Not much going on in the world of news?  More importantly though, has anyone noticed that this is another BIG mortgage fraud bust that isn't being prosecuted by the local State Attorneys Office and being prosecuted by the Feds?  Do you think these results had anything to do with it?

A trip down SW 22 avenue and a reading assignment for our readers...

What are we doing going down SW 22 avenue today?  At least some of our readers from the MDPD and the State Attorneys Office may have taken a trip to 527 SW 22 avenue looking for someone recently, how did that trip work out for you?  We here at the Straw Buyer could have saved our friends in law enforcement the trip, all they had to do was to look here to see who was at that address. 

Unfortunately this is probably the first time anyone in law enformcenet or from the state attorneys office has ever checked this address out, this empty lot is just one of the many inconsistancies in paperwork and statements that the states victim, Bernardo Barrera has made throught the course of this case.  Too bad that we have to be the ones that uncover these facts. 

Regardless, let's move on to a reading assignment for our readers.  Now and again, I'll read something that leaves me completely floored, today I came across one of those articles that left me just that way.  Take a look at this excellent article by Carlos Miller on his blog, what a novel concept, police going after bloggers that are critical of their work!  Incredible. 

Also, whoever made the comment about Detective Baluja's grandfather, please understand that I'm not interested in anyones personal lives, if there's no relation to our story, then forget it.  On the other hand if Detective Baluja's grandfather is somehow related to our story, then please give us some more detail so we can follow up.

Paging John Romney, paging John Arthur Romney!

Good morning folks!  Everyone remember the man that's at the head of the Bernardo Barrera Mortgage fraud, Mr. John Arthur Romney?  Mr. Romney is the man that if nothing else made a $369,896.88 profit as a result of this fraud, regardless, assistant state attorney William Kostrzewski told the court back in November that Mr. Romney was a cooperating witness and had testified against his co defendants.  That's all fine and dandy, so why hasn't his plea been formally entered?  Doesn't Mr. Romney want to get on with his life?  There's been at least three hearings scheduled before the court for Mr. Romney to formally enter his plea and all three have been delayed, first on 11/13/09, then on 12/11/09 and finally on 1/13/10.  At each and every hearing assistant state attorney Kostrzewski would make up a new excuse as to why Mr. Romney's plea had to be delayed another 30 days, the next hearing for Mr. Romney's plea is set for February 19, 2010.

There's something that happened though at the hearing last Wednesday that should have Mr. Romney VERY, VERY concerned.  See, it looks like we're not the only ones that were frustrated over Mr. Romney's plea constantly getting delayed, this time it was the Honorable Judge Barzee that looked upset with Mr. Kostrzewski's stall tactics regarding the Romney plea.  In an effort to straighten out this mess, Judge Barzee asked the assistant state attorney why the plea hadn't been finished yet to which Mr. Kostrzewski said that it was because Mr. Romney's attorney had been having trouble getting in touch with Mr. Romney and that he's been out of contact with this client for some time therefore making working out the plea agreement impossible.  The Judge was alarmed at this development and even said that the state should be "concerned" about Mr. Romney's attorney not being able to get in touch with his client.  In other words, Mr. Romney came within a hair of getting his bail REVOKED!

Now, let's take a step back and analyze what's going on.  If indeed Mr. Romney is not communicating with his attorney, then we here at the Straw Buyer suggest that he gets in touch with his attorney as quickly as possible as the outcome of the criminal case against him depends on it.  We all make mistakes in life and putting this case behind him is going to be the first step in Mr. Romney's new life.  Don't jeopardize all the hard work you've done with your cooperation and all the work your attorney has done getting you a sweetheart deal with the state Mr. Romney, give him a ring!


That's all well and good if you believe Mr. Kostrzewski's claims that Romney isn't in touch with his attorney.  But what if Mr. Romney was in fact in touch with his attorney and was ready to plead out?  What if Mr. Kostrzewski's claims were indeed false?  That would be pretty $hitty wouldn't it?  If indeed Mr. Romney, you are in touch with your attorney and you have gone to each of these hearings ready to enter your plea and get on with your life, then I suggest that you let the court know that Mr. Kostrzewski lied to the court.  If he wasn't telling the truth, that little lie almost got your ass thrown back in jail.  I would take that behavior VERY SERIOUSLY!  You may even want to let these folks know about it...

Let's take a look at the purchase contract for this fraudulent purchase!

Before we start today, I'd like to thank all those readers over the last week or so that have sent us emails complimenting our work on the blog, it's because of you guys that we keep writing about the misdeeds of people like Detective Jorge Baluja and the others that we've outlined in our blog.  At the very least, the people who we've been writing about now know that we have a growing studio audience...

 

 Everyone remember the quote from Detective Baluja's arrest affidavit a few days back that got our spidey senses tingling?

 

It was that quote and the mention of "other grantors" that really got me wondering and caused me to dig through the mountains of paperwork I've accumulated in order to find the purchase contract for the home that's at the center of this mortgage fraud.  From what we've been told by Mr. Baluja and what the state has asserted, we are to believe that Bernardo Barrera had no involvement with the purchase of this home and that John Romney purchased the home from Maxine Andrews "and other grantors".  Shortly afterwords Mr. Romney turned around without the consent of Mr. Barrera and unlawfully used his identity to obtain a fraudulent mortgage for this property.  The point of finding the original purchase contract for the purposes of this blog was to discover who the "other grantors" were, let me tell you folks, I was totally unprepared for what I found.  Take a look for yourselves...

 

 Do you guys see that?  Look whose name is listed on that purchase contract!  It's non other than the states victim, Bernardo Barrera!  

 

That doesn't mean anything right?  Anyone could have written his name in the contract, let's move on...

WELL!  Look at that!  Just to the left of Mr. Romney's and Maxine Andrews initials at the bottom of the first page, is another set of initials, there's a third set of initials!  Who could this be?  Moving along...

UH OH!  Whose signature is that Jorge?!  I would hate to think that could be Bernardo Barrera's signature on this purchase contract!  NEXT!

 

GOODNESS!  Whose address is that Jorge?  Is that Bernardo Barreras primary residence?  Look at the date next to the signature Jorge, 1/14/08!  That's months before Mr. Barrera claimed he found out his identity got stolen!  Can it get worse?  

Not looking good Jorge!  More initials that don't belong to either John Romney or Maxine Andrews!  Oh boy!

OH $HIT!  There's that set of initials again!  Could there be more?!

 

OH CRAP!  What do you think Jorge?  Mr. Kostrzewski?  Any thoughts?  Here we've laid out evidence that YOUR victim Bernardo Barrera may have been involved in this fraud from the get go.  Remember, this isn't the contract for the purchase of the home by Barrera from Romney, this is the initial purchase contract from the original seller that Romney purchased the home from that includes Bernardo Barrera!  How the hell did you guys miss this?  Or did both Detective Baluja and the man who was running his investigation Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzweski know about this evidence but chose not to act on it?  Before we get carried away we're going to have to collect other samples of Mr. Barreras signature and initials then compare them to what we've found on this purchase contract.  If indeed the samples do match up it looks like the real victims of fraud are the citizens of Miami Dade county.

Enjoy your weekend!