Another government witness in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial admits to having lied...

"Never talk when you can nod,

and never nod when you can wink,

and never write an e-mail because it's death.

You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need."

Elliott Spitzer, interview with ABC news, circa 2006 as Attorney General of New York.

Yesterday defendant turned cooperating government witness Jacqueline Elek Trumbore took the stand in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trail.  From what we understand Mrs. Trumbore worked for Turn Key Title which was owned by attorney Steven Stoll, the title company that handled most if not all of the transactions which are the subject of the federal indictment.  As with the other cooperating witnesses, Mrs. Trumbore cut a deal early on with the government, here's her plea agreement as it appears in the court file...

jacqueline trumbore factual proffer

The problem is though that Mrs. Trumbore claims that she was pressured by her attorneys into taking this plea, the court learned this through a series of emails that were revealed during yesterdays hearings from Mrs. Trumbore to her friends and family.  Here's one of the emails...

Now, lets take a look at that "stipulated proffer letter" that she refers to in her email...

jacqueline trumbore stipulated factual proffer

If Mrs. Trumbore is telling the truth and was indeed innocent of the charges that she plead out to then how's this going to look to the jury?  If you accept the premise that Mrs. Trumbore did not commit the crimes that she plead out to, you have to ask yourself, what kind of criminal defense attorney would tell their client to accept a plea for crimes that they did not commit?


On another note, one of our readers who has left several comments over the last few weeks of posts repeatedly asserts at the end of each comment that every one charged in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud indictment had some level of guilt.  I don't think anyone is going to argue that considering the number of transactions that are in question (60+) and the way the transactions were conducted that everyone involved knew there was something that wasn't above board about their dealings.  My problem with this case is that it seems like the governments efforts are wasted considering there are crimes that are far more severe that go unpunished.  I also understand that the government want's to get their pound of flesh against these fraudsters to show the citizens that they're going after the people that theoretically helped bring the nations economy to its knees.  That's fine, but why not go after the people that were behind deals like the ones we discussed in Coconut Grove nearly two years ago?  Or how about hanging the guys involved in the fraud that occurred at 911 Columbus Blvd by their balls?  These frauds cost banks millions of dollars and were run by a sophisticated ring of criminals yet to this day no one has been punished.  Why not go after these guys rather than trying to persecute these cops who lied on their loan applications and ultimately either paid off the mortgages or are still living in the homes that are in question?