Thursday, February 23, 2012

Details, details, details...



Almost all of the cases that we've written about since the inception of our blog are paperwork intensive.  There seems to be mountains and mountains of documents in each case, either documents and exhibits that the state turns over as part of the discovery process or voluminous deposition transcripts that easily exceed several hundred pages.  In these instances it seems utterly impossible to get a proper handle on whats going on in these cases considering the seemingly insurmountable pile of paperwork that accompanies each case.  Yet to fully understand these cases, you have to go through these documents over and over and over again. 


There's been several instances to date where I've looked at a specific document dozens if not hundreds of times and have noticed nothing then somehow miraculously after looking at the document for months on end, something literally just jumps off the page is if it was outlined in neon lights.  This seventeenth century painting of an Italian piazza is a perfect example, at first glance there's nothing unusual about the painting...


Nothing strange going on there, just an old painting with some buildings and some people, you could walk by this painting a thousand times and never notice anything, that is till you take a closer look...


The minute you focus in on the painting, you realize there's something in the middle of the painting just in front of the tower so you squint and take another look then BAM...


There it is, right in the middle of the damn painting, TWO DOGS HAVING SEX!  Once you see the two dogs having sex, you realize that there's a crowd of people in the painting all watching what the dogs are doing.  Now when I see the painting, the dogs are the first thing I see and to think I've seen this painting for years and never noticed the dogs!


So what's two dogs having sex in the middle of a several centuries old Italian painting have to do with our blog?  Luckily for us, the Airways Auto Tag case has very little in the way of documents in the states case file, what little I've been able to find on my own outside of the criminal case file consists mostly of transcripts of an unemployment compensation hearings where the tellers that were accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars and subsequently fired from their jobs at the tag agency were simply looking to collect their unemployment benefits.  Luckily for us, the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, fought vehemently to deny these girls their unemployment benefits, her testimony during these hearings has turned into a treasure trove of information that I believe will ultimately be used against her if this case ever goes to trial.


According to the state and the allegations made against the tellers by the owner of the tag agency, the three tellers that were charged were accused of stealing money from the tag agency by accepting cash from the customers then after the clients left with their tags, the state alleges that the tellers would go ahead and void the transactions and pocket the money.  As I've mentioned before, the tellers have cameras and supervisors constantly monitoring them as well as keeping track of every dollar that the tellers take in.  At the end of every day, the tellers are required to fill out "closing sheets" which are basically an itemized inventory of every dollar that the tellers have at the end of the day when they close out their drawers.  Here is an example of a blank closeout sheet from the tag agency...


Simple enough and easy to understand, it's nothing more than a way for the teller to inventory the money in their drawer, itemize the various denominations, total everything up, sign and date it.  Then I suppose who ever does the bookkeeping then checks for inaccuracies then signs and dates it themselves.  


Now, lets move on to the tag agency owner's testimony regarding these closing sheets during the unemployment hearing specifically the close out sheet from the day the alleged thefts occurred, December 23, 2010...
Ms. DeCastro:  Okay, the paper that she turned in is on Page 11.  Page 11 is in her own handwriting.  And, she says that she put the wrong amount of the bill because, obviously, four $20 bills do not add to $200.  But the amount of money that she put on the right hand side add up to $14, 835.82; her handwriting which she signed and date, herself.  All we do is scan it.  The reason it has those lines on it is because we were making copies of copies, in order to do a closeout sheet; therefore, it looks like that.  But, we scan everything exactly the way they turn it in, their page. 
Huh?  What?  This excerpt of Ms. DeCastro's testimony shows a weird trait that she exhibits throughout all the unemployment hearing transcripts, she seems to ramble on at the slightest provocation.  I didn't think anything of the closeout sheet in question, till I read her her testimony for the third time.  Anyone who's every been to a deposition or a hearing of this nature is told by counsel again and again, simply answer the questions with a yes or a no, don't volunteer anything, keep your answers short and simple.  In this case all this talk about the scanning of these closeout sheets and "those lines" that she mentions that appear on the closeout sheets as a result of the scanning really got me wondering so I picked up the closeout sheet from December 23, 2010 and took a closer look to try to figure out what Ms. DeCastro was talking about.  Take a look for yourselves, as always, click on the image to enlarge...


First off, we notice at the top of the page, the fax header is from Duane Morris, LLP which we've learned is the law firm that represents the tag agency therefore authenticating the document as being a genuine close out sheet from the tag agency.  Now, as we just read, the owner of the tag agency mentions something about lines "looking like that", I can only assume that what Ms. DeCastro is referring to is the slight distortion in the lines because ostensibly as a result of the scanning process.  Once we blow up the closeout sheet, it's easy to spot the distortions Ms. DeCastro is talking about...


I went ahead and pointed out some of these distortions in in red in case you weren't able to spot them.  


After reading the transcripts, I was startled by Ms. DeCastro's willingness to ramble on, almost unprovoked.  I've learned over the years that no matter what the situation, if you give someone that's got something to hide enough rope, they're eventually going to hang themselves and in this instance Ms DeCastro didn't disappoint. Take a really good look at that closeout sheet from December 23, 2010 again and see if you see anything strange, for the astute among you it should be clear as day.  We'll discuss tomorrow...

7 comments:

  1. the truth nothing but the truthFebruary 23, 2012 at 2:01 PM

    ONCE AGAIN I LOVE THIS CASE BUT I CAN SAY AS I LOOK TRU AL THE PAPERS HERE I CAN SAY THAT IM TRULLY SORRY, BUT WHEN YOU SCAN A PAPER IS LIKE YOU SCAN THE ORIGINAL AND IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM THE LINES CHANGE WHEN YOU REPRINT THE PAPERS, BUT IN HERE IT LOOKS LIKE THEY HAVE CHANGE AND IN AN AMAZING WAY. I WONDER WHAT TYPE OF MACHINES DO THEY USE AND WHAT TYPE OF SOFTWARE THEY USE THAT CREATE THOSE LINES THAT LOOKS LIKE A 1 YEAR OLD KID DREW THEM. .............WELL THIS PAPERS LOOK TO ME LIKE THEY USE WHITE OUT THEN IT HAS BEEN COPIED AND THEN THEY WROTE WHAT EVER THEY WANTED ON THE PAPERS ....TRY THIS GET A PAPER PUT WHITE OUT AND THEN MAKE A COPY.....WOW EVER TIME I READ THIS STORY I GET AN UPSET STOMACH IT MAKES ME BARF THIS CASE IS A WASTE OF TIME IT SHOULD NOT EVEN MAKE IT TO TRIAL I AM TRULLY DISCUSTED WITH THE WAY THE STATE WILL PAY ATTENTION TO THE MARTINEZ DE CASTRO BUT AT THE SAME TIME I MA PLEASED BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE CORRUPTED ALL THE WAY TRU

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  2. I think you're turning into a big headache for Martinez De Castro.Lol, and I like it!!

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  3. go to school and learnFebruary 23, 2012 at 3:45 PM

    well i guess MARTINEZ DE CASTRO FORGOT THAT WE ARE IN THE USA WHERE EVERYTHING AND ANYHTING GETS INVESTIGATED AND MOST OF ALL....

    COPS DONT TAKE A CLASS ON HOW TO COMMIT FRAUD THE CLASS THEY TAKE IS HOW TO AVOID FRAUD AND INVESTIGATE IT LOL LOL I WONDER WHAT UNIVERSITY HE WENT OHHHHH? I KNOW MARTINEZ DE CASTRO GHETTO INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY LOL LOL LOL

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  4. this papers cant be for real no way please i am laughing my ass off with this papers no way in hell a company with so many high class people can have a copier this bad no way



    i wish i can sent the straw buyer a paper coming out of a scanner please it never comes out like this oh no no no martinez de castro on this one they fucked up big time

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  5. OKAY SO I SAW THIS STORY TODAY AND I HAPPEN TO PRINT THE PAPER IN ORDER FOR ME TO TAKE A BETTER LOOK AT THE DISCREPANCY AND IT DOES NOT TAKE A GENIOUS TO KNOW THAT THIS IS A BIGGGGGGGGG SCAM LET ME START WITH MY INVESTIGATION:

    1- LOOK AT THE NUMBER 2 ON TOP AND ON THE BOTTOM THEN TAKE A LOOK AT THE NUMBER 2 IN THE SPOT WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOST TO PLACE THE CENTS LOL IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THE SAME NUMBER
    2- THEN TAKE A LOOK AT THE 20.00 DOLLAR SPOT LOOK AT THE 2 AGAIN AND I MA SURE THIS TELLERS KNOW HOW TO COUNT BUT WHOM EVER ALTER THIS PAPER NEEDS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL 4*20=80 NOT 200.00



    THIS GIRLS ARE INNOCENT ALL THE WAY I CAN SAY THE ACCOUNTANT FOR THIS PLACE IS A COMPLETE DUMB ASS HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO KNOW THAT MONEY WAS MISSING THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

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  6. My question for Miss De Castro it's Don't suppose to keep by law the original paper in case that something like this case happen she can have proof? Because we are talking about only months not years that maybe she can blame it for.I'm sorry Miss De Castro there is no court in the world can accept those papers like that.

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  7. Since I reading this blog I staring making friends with another tag agency clerk and I found out that everyday they return their money and the accounting every morning counts the money and they make sure the teller balance in FRVIS and the receipt system and also because they don't work on Sunday's the money make it on Saturday they count it on Monday's and what happen if the money it's short.Guess what teller pay it or go to jail.In some agency they let you pay little by little if its little among they will discount from their paid check.but let me get clear go to jail I mean right away not in four months later p,ease come on give me another history.This case it's taking so long only because God it's giving time to Ileana Martinez De Castro to be sorry from what she have done.

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