Detective Jorge Baluja's perspective on events that we deem important...

Here we are again at the end of another week, specifically the week before the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case is to go to trial, don't get worked up though as we sincerely doubt that the trial will start on May 10 as anticipated.  How do we come to that conclusion?  Simple, as we've seen at least seven other times, defendant and government witness John Arthur Romney still hasn't finalized his plea agreement, this stifles any attempt by the other defendants to depose Mr. Romney.  With that said and the complete lack of any evidence on the docket of his attorneys preparing for trail, it's safe to say that there's an insurmountable obstacle to going to trial.  Monday should be interesting day in court though as the judge hearing the case has been progressively getting more and more impatient with the nearly two years of continuances on this case, so no trial on Monday, but there's definitely going to be some interesting moments before the judge.

Moving on, over the last few weeks we've rehashed several aspects of the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud investigation and how the state had handled it, today let's specifically look at how Detective Baluja investigated Mr. Barrera's previous identity theft case.  From his deposition...

Detective Jorge Baluja being questioned on the first Bernardo Barrera identity theft case


In a nutshell, Detective Baluja in his infinite wisdom didn't even bother to look into his "victims" previous claim of identity theft.  FANTASTIC!  From the depo:

"Detective Baluja, he's coming to you, telling you someone is using his identity to purchase a home and he also tells you that someone is using his identity to purchase a boat and you thought nothing of it...You didn't think it was important?"

He then responds...

"NO."

FCUKING BRILLIANT!  Let's try to follow Detective Baluja's line of reasoning here, let's look at the following examples:

• Your home is broken into, you report it to the police and also let them know that your home was broken into just days before.  Wouldn't the cop consult with the cop who took care of the previous break in order to help find the burglar?
• You were raped, you report it to the police and also let them know that you were raped just days before.  Wouldn't the cop consult with the cop that took the report on the previous rape to see if there was anyway they could link the two incidents together?

I'm sure those among our readers that aren't completely brain dead can see the point that were making here.  If indeed the Detective would have spoken to the Detective who worked on the other identity theft case, perhaps they would have seen some similarities and maybe proved the hypothesis we presented the other day about the guy claiming identity theft having sold his identity to a ring of fraudsters?  The ultimate irony about this inaction on the part of Detective Baluja is that the Detective that worked the original identity theft case not only works in the same office as he does but they're also FRIENDS! 


We've also recently discussed how important the timing of Mr. Barrera's claims of identity theft were and that if one were to set up a time line of the two separate identity theft cases a disturbing pattern would emerge that would cast serious doubt on Mr. Barrera's claims of not being involved with either fraud.  So how did Detective Baluja handle these dates during his investigation?  Once again, let's look at his performance during one of his depositions...

Detective Jorge Baluja being questioned regarding dates involving key events in the Bernardo Barrera mortga...

Once again, FCUKING BRILLIANT!  We've gone to great lengths to show how important dates are throughout the investigation of the Bernardo Barrera frauds and what does Detective Dipshit have to say?

Q: When did he become aware of it?


A: I don't have a specific date.  Prior to him making the report.


Q: As you sit here today, you don't know when Bernardo Barrera became aware of this transaction?


A: Not specific date, no.


Q: Is it documented anywhere in your Offense-Incident report?


A: Not to my knowledge.

If that wasn't enough, it get's better...

Q: Do you agree that the date Bernardo Barrera became aware of this transaction, which he denies any involvement it, is an important date?


A: The specific date, no.

Brilliant.  In what planet are dates regarding crimes like this not important?  The question that begs to be asked now is whether or not Detective Baluja ever received any training regarding these kinds of dates, once again from his depo...

Q: That's something that you were trained to include in your report,  correct, important dates, right?


A: Not specific to that, no.

MY GOD!  So not only are dates not important to the good Detective, but we now have learned that he wasn't even trained to include important dates in his police reports!  HOLY $HIT!  Detective Dipshit, I'm sorry, Baluja, have you lost sight of the fact that the entire steaming pile of shit you built called a case is built entirely on dates and the dates and times when monies went in and out of the defendants hands?  WHAT IN THE FCUK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

If you're as pissed as we are, it's time to take a step back and chill...

Now that we've taken a deep breath and calmed down a bit, consider the following, Detective Baluja was being supervised by people within his own office that have far more experience than he did.  There is no reason why his superiors shouldn't have realized how grossly incompetent he was.  Even if his incompetence and gross negligence wasn't recognized by his superiors, there was someone far more educated and experienced working the case with him, Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski.  There's no excuse for any of this to have happened considering the prosecutor was by the Detective's side every step of the way while the case was being put together, that's what makes this even more unbelievable.  What this proves isn't just the lack of knowledge and total incompetence by the cop, but of Veteran Economic Crimes Prosecutor, Bill Kostrzewski as well.


With that said, have a great weekend folks and let's see what Monday holds in store for the Barrera mortgage fraud case...