The "proposed" special jury instructions that resulted from a government witness destroying evidence, another point of view on the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case and a company that banks hired to fabricate and forge documents

We left off yesterday discussing cooperating government witness Rene Rodriguez Jr. confessing to the court that he had destroyed evidence after he became a witness in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case. After presumably hearing several of the defense attorneys argue for the dismissal of the case because of the destruction of possibly exculpatory evidence, the defense proposed special jury instructions that outlined the destruction of the evidence and how it may have impacted the credibility of the governments witness. Here are the proposed jury instructions...

plantation cops special jury instruction regarding the destruction of evidence by Rene Rodriguez Jr

Here are the most interesting bits of the instructions...

...both co-defendants separately admitted to this court, under oath that they "would also forge the purchaser's signature on many documents that were initially submitted to the financial institution and mortgage lending companies."

...after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the government, co defendant Rodriguez intentionally destroyed documents that were material and pertinent both to the facts of this case, and to Rodriguez's honest compliance with his promise to the Government to be truthful and complete in his cooperation.

...Rodriguez intentionally tampered with computer equipment...to the extent that the electronic data stored on that computer equipment was destroyed and could not be accessed by the Government or the Defendants.

...this court found after considering the evidence and Rodriguez's testimony, that despite his denials, Rodriguez had indeed intentionally tampered with computer equipment, rendering the information stored on the computers inaccessible to the government and the defense as well. You are also entitled to consider this court's finding that Rodriguez lied under oath...

...you are also entitled to infer...that the electronic information he made inaccessible...were material to the case before you and that they would have established reasonable doubt as to the guilt of each of the defendants.

In other words, there were documents that could have exonerated each and every one of the defendants on trial that have been destroyed and are impossible to retrieve, but rather than dismiss the charges we want you to determine their guilt or innocence without these crucial documents. Am I the only one that doesn't understand this? What am I missing?


Now, let's look to one of our readers that left an interesting comment on our post from last Wednesday regarding the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case..

Anonymous said...

In response to the post which states Gulla/Rodriguez made 3%, thus making more than Guaracino, please keep this in mind: 1. Let's assume they made 3% per loan. On a $300,000 loan thier cut was $9,000. 2. On the same property, Guaracino flips it for a $100,000 profit. 3. It is an 11-to-1 ratio in favor of Guaracino. Please explain how Guaracino is a Patsy in these deals???? Furthermore, check the mortgages which were recorded with the county. It is my understanding NOT one of these were forged by the brokers...these defendants are hardly innocent.April 4, 2011 11:39 AM

This comment brings up an interesting point, if indeed the mortgages were actually executed by the cops that were charged in this case, why was Guaracino making $100,000 profit flipping the homes that weren't his? I'll have to do a little digging before we can properly address this comment.


Now comes the best part. After sitting back over the last couple of years and hearing about people who've been arrested for lying on mortgage documents, forging signatures on loan applications, stealing peoples identities for the commission of mortgage fraud or simply lying about their income, I was simply floored when I came across this story last Sunday on 60 Minutes...



DID YOU GUYS GET THAT? Banks hired companies to fabricate loan documents then have fictitious people sign the documents as fake bank VP's who then had their signatures notarized by notaries who knew that the signatures and documents were FRAUDS! Even worse, the banks then used these documents to further perpetrate the fraud on the borrowers who were in foreclosure and the court system! I have to ask, why have these people gone unpunished? Where is our favorite assclown prosecutor? Why is the government destroying the lives of people involved in street level mortgage frauds when you have massive conspiracies like this going on costing the country billions if not trillions of dollars?

Has the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial officially turned into a circus?

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As each day of testimony unfolds during the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial a seemingly slam dunk case for the government seems to be evolving into a steaming pile of shit.  The newest and most startling revelation is the admission by defendant and cooperating government witness Rene Rodriguez regarding the destruction of his mortgage companies files, we learn about the destruction of the files and computers through this court order...

Plantation cops federal mortgage fraud trial judges order on spoilation of evidence

There are a number of disturbing facts included in this court order, let's break it down...

1. Mr. Rodriguez has been cooperating with the government since April 2009 and plea out in September 2009, a full year before anyone was indicted!
2. Unbeknownst to the prosecution or the government agents handling Mr. Rodriguez, all of Mr. Rodriguez's mortgage company's files and computers are destroyed.
3. The prosecution as of October 25, 2010 stated that they had all the records from Mr. Rodriguez's company (including computers) in it's possession and that they had turned over everything that the defense had been entitled to.
4. Mr. Rodriguez informs the government on January 11, 2011 that he had destroyed his records and computers that contained evidence that was favorable to the defense.

YIKES!  How screwed up is that?  How can the defendants properly defend themselves when there's been exculpatory materials that have been destroyed by a cooperating government witness?  How could the agents handling Mr. Rodriguez let something of this magnitude occur?  Imagine how bad the prosecutors must look right now considering the representations that had made to the court?  Let's see what the judge thinks about this...

The government was, however, grossly negligent and careless in fulfilling its obligations established by statute, rule, order and case law.  The government breached its affirmative duties to produce documents and other pertinent information.

At least the judge understands the gravity of the situation, I have to wonder, what will a jury think?  The judge goes on to ask...

The question is, what is the appropriate sanction.

While the judge thinks the appropriate sanction is a jury instruction informing the jurors that there may have been evidence favorable to the defendants that was destroyed, I beg to differ.  I think the appropriate action for the judge to have taken would have been to end this trial and dismiss the charges against these poor guys then go after the cooperating witnesses that put the government in this untenable position and prosecute them for the actions which in my opinion dealt a lethal blow to the governments case.