The state's victim, WHO DAT IS?

Just like the title of this post says, the state's victim, "WHO DAT IS" YO?!  I think by now those of you who've been diligently following our story of a botched mortgage fraud investigation know that the man that the state alleges was the victim of the mortgage fraud that involved the home located at 3390 Oak Avenue is none other than Bernardo Humberto Barrera.  Smile for us Bernie...  

Finally we have a face to attach to the name that we've been throwing about for the last seven months or so.  Unfortunately we here at The Straw Buyer have a hard time buying Mr. Barrera's claims of identity theft, we discussed our doubts at length several times, when it comes to Mr. Barrera's claims of being in the dark regarding this transaction, I have to defer to an old friends favorite saying, "NO SALE!".  I digress.  The other day I'm listening to some recordings from the latest court hearings regarding this case and I noticed that Assistant State Attorney William Kostrzewski among other things kept mispronouncing Mr. Barreras name.  I didn't thing anything of it until I heard the judge make the same mispronunciation.  WTF I asked myself?  There was so much more comedic material in that hearing that I let the mispronunciation slide and I quickly forgot about it until this afternoon when I heard someone else pronounce a name that sounded very similar to Barrera but with the same mispronunciation as the ASA and the judge had made.  I thought for a moment that perhaps I had miswritten Mr. Barrera's name at some point and then kept miswriting the name again and again.  So I decided to go back through the mountain of paperwork I've accumulated and find the original incident report that Mr. Barrera filed with the MDPD.  Here is what I found:

That's the card that the police officer (in this case a PSA) gave Mr. Barrera when they took down all his information in the form of a MDPD "Offense-Incident Report".  Let's take a look at the first page of the incident report and see if we can find Mr. Barrera's name...

There it is in red (I've outlined it in red for the sake of clarity), let's take a closer look at that name...

Ok, so the man who claims to be the victim of identity theft is Bernardo Humberto Barrera.  So far so good, only problem is that I keep hearing an "I" in his last name every time ASA Kostrzewski or the judge says his name.  What gives here folks?


To say we here at The Straw Buyer were frustrated would be an understatement.  We needed an explanation, what better place to start than the arrest affidavit prepared by none other than Detective Jorge Baluja?  So here it is...

Uh oh!  Did anyone catch it?  Let's take a closer look...

Bernardo Humberto WHO?  Barreira?  That's the damn "I" that I kept hearing!  Perhaps that was just a typo, let's take another look:

Who is the "true Bernardo Humberto Barreira"?  I thought the victim was name Bernardo Humberto Barrera?  Let's take another peek...

Ok, now you got me Jorge, who's the "alleged buyer Barriera"?  Was this a typo or is "alleged buyer Barriera" and "true Bernardo Humberto Barreira" one and the same or two different people?  Then who the hell is Bernardo Barrera?! FCUK ME!  Is this for real?  I'm beginning to think I'm stuck in an Abbott and Costello "who's on first" routine!

Ok, I know what you all are thinking.  I'm sure what's going on in everyone's mind is "damn the straw buyer is being more of an a$$hole today than normal", what gives?  Remember folks, in this story of mortgage fraud and the subsequent botched investigation, PRECISION IN EVERYTHING!  If names, dates or amounts are screwed up then the outcome of the case can be completely different than what Detective Baluja intended.  I would like to think that the extra "I" in Detective Baluja's arrest affidavit is simply a spelling error, but I can't rest until I confirm that theory.  Let's now move on to one of Detective Baluja's deposition transcripts and see if the state's victims is Bernardo Barrera, Bernardo Barriera or Bernardo Barreira.  What say you Detective Baluja?!

WELL SPANK MY ASS AND CALL ME CHARLIE!  Jorge, WHO IN THE FCUK IS ROLANDO BARRERO?  Good lord!  Let's see how many victims the state now has:

1. Bernardo Humberto Barrero
2. Bernardo Humberto Barreira
3. Bernardo Humberto Barriera
4. Rolando Barrero

HUH?!  Who's on first Jorge?  Now I'm really confused.  It's a god damn shame that Detective Baluja put together a document that was going to permanently alter the lives of three people AND HE COULDN'T EVEN TAKE ENOUGH CARE TO GET THE VICTIMS NAME RIGHT!


Is anyone surprised?  I'm certainly not.  What we've seen here today is not just an example of sloppy police work, it's just another incident of piss police work that Detective Baluja has exhibited throughout this mortgage fraud investigation.  Disappointing to say the least.  I do have a theory that would partially exonerate Detective Baluja from most of the blame for these mistakes, what if Detective Baluja didn't write this arrest affidavit on his own?  What if Detective Baluja didn't write this arrest affidavit at all?  Consider for a moment if someone else wrote it for him, I wonder who would be so kind as to do that for him?  Any guesses folks?  We'll examine that theory in more depth tomorrow.  On the other hand, If Detective Baluja did write this arrest affidavit then there's only one word that can describe his performance...