Why is it a crime for the average citizen to commit fraud when it's ok for banks to do so? Also, why is property in the City of Miami worth less than property in Coral Gables?

Great question right?  Say you or I submitted all kinds of forged and bogus paperwork for a mortgage or worse, what if we submitted said paperwork to a court?  Undoubtedly, our asses would be headed for jail.   

Over the course of our blog we've written about several instances where people simply misstated their incomes who were subsequently arrested and convicted of various frauds, so why should it be any different for banks?  Considering the robo signing epidemic that's plagued the courts recently where foreclosure attorneys representing banks have been fabricating and forging documents to help their foreclosure cases along, shouldn't these attorneys and the banks who they represent have their feet held to the fire for perpetrating these frauds on the court?  Up till now the attorneys and their clients have been able to avoid any repercussions from these frauds by simply dropping the foreclosure cases, isn't that nice?  

Imagine committing a crime then simply backing off midway and having the government not prosecuting you?  I've always been told that even if you didn't go through with the crime, it's simply the intent that's enough to get you prosecuted, so why are these attorneys and their clients being let off the hook for committing the very same type of frauds that many of the people who've been prosecuted for mortgage fraud have committed?  Doesn't seem fair does it?

Now comes a foreclosure defense attorney who isn't satisfied with the status quo, attorney Enrique Nieves III has filed an appeal with the Florida supreme court which will decide if the banks can simply walk away from these nefarious fake robo signed documents without having to deal with the consequences.  From the Daily Business Review article...

At 31, Nieves is assigned to argue a case that may decide the fate of thousands of mortgage foreclosures similar to his case, Roman Pino v. Bank of New York Mellon.
The question before the court seems straightforward: Can banks escape fraud claims in foreclosures by simply dropping their case?
But the ramifications are potentially severe, and with its decision the state's high court will likely decide what consequences lenders will face for the robo-signing scandal and allegedly fraudulent assignment-of-mortgage documents that has affected thousands of cases.
In Nieves' case, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Feb. 3 that BNY Mellon legally avoided a claim that it committed a fraud on the court by voluntarily dismissing a foreclosure action against Pino, a Lake Worth resident. The claim was dismissed after Pino's counsel scheduled depositions and asked for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether BNY Mellon used a fraudulent mortgage assignment.
On appeal is an 8-1 en banc decision saying courts have no authority to rescind voluntary dismissals and that no harm was done. Judge Mark Polen disagreed, saying the allegation of a systemic fraud was the very thing the Supreme Court addressed in its 2010 rule change giving courts greater latitude in sanctioning plaintiffs who make false allegations.
If the Supreme Court agrees with Polen, a host of homeowners may get a chance to seek sanctions from their lenders. Those are the stakes for Nieves.
On July 1, the Supreme Court granted BNY Mellon's motion for extension of time. It has until Aug. 4 to answer Nieves' brief. No date has been set for oral arguments.

Best of luck to Mr. Nieves, we'll have to wait till August to see how this pans out, the outcome of this case could have huge repercussions for homeowners embroiled in this mess.  

The bigger question that's left unanswered is why haven't any of the attorneys and banks that have committed these frauds been prosecuted or at the very least been disciplined by the Bar?  Why haven't any prosecutors summoned up the balls to go ahead and make a case against these guys?  Seems like a slam dunk, open and shut case to me.  Maybe when they're through prosecuting people who misstated their incomes on mortgage applications or lied about where they worked, they'll get around to going after these guys.  

Here's another question to ponder, perhaps a question that can be answered by simply looking at two photos.  Why is property in the City of Miami worth significantly less than property in Coral Gables?  Let's try to answer that question by looking at two photos taken as you go down 37th Avenue which is the border between the two cities, the first photo is on the east side of 37th which is the Gables side...

Here you have nicely manicured landscaping, some palm trees, clean sidewalks, etc.  Now, from the very same position, look across the street to the City of Miami side and you'll find this...

Isn't that sweet?  Check out the three huge billboards on a tiny 8,000 sqft lot.  Funny how eyesores like this have a detrimental effect of property values, isn't it?  Doesn't this look like the visual pollution people from the north east want get away from when they come to sunny Florida for vacation?

The worst part of all this is that if the people running our beloved city have their way, the entire city is going to look like this mess and considering how the city commission is in the billboard industry's pocket, I guess we're fcuked! 

Keeping the inconvenient truths from the jury in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial.

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Throughout the course of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case the defendants have contended that the lead investigator from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Dennis Roadruck has been intimidating, threatening and coercing witnesses to get them to say what he needed.  That kind of behavior from a cop is hardly in keeping with the "we who labor here seek only the truth" signs that we discussed yesterday.  It's always been our opinion when witness testimony is obtained using threats and coercion, the testimony is worthless.  This is no different than torturing an innocent person until they finally break and say whatever you want them to in order to stop the torture or as we discussed months ago, MDPD Detective Jorge Baluja scaring a key witness in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case shitless till she lied and told him exactly what he wanted to hear in order to put his case together.

So here comes FDLE special agent Dennis Roadruck who the defendants accuse of intimidating, threatening and coercing witnesses, shouldn't the jury sitting in judgement of the defendants know that the case was possibly put together with statements and witness testimony that was obtained through these illicit means by the investigator?  Also, what if the investigator has a history of such behavior?  In the Barrera mortgage fraud case we were able to dig up proof that the lead detective, Jorge Baluja, couldn't tell his ass from his elbow (check this article), if the case had ended up going to trial, don't you think the jury would have been entitled to hear about the detective's history of screwing up cases?  I certainly do.  So if there existed some sort of proof of Agent Roadruck threatening and intimidating people, wouldn't it be relevant to his credibility and the credibility of the witness statements that he's produced as result of his interviews throughout his investigation?  Of course it would be relevant, take a look at these statements chronicling special agent Roadruck's history of domestic violence...

Dennis Roadruck domestic violence reports

The report documents several instances of assault, battery, stalking, false imprisonment, kidnapping, etc by Agent Roadruck against his estranged wife.  Considering the accusations made in that report, does it seem far fetched that special agent Roadruck may have crossed the line when interviewing witnesses in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case?  Of course not.  If this is the way you deal with your own family, how can you be expected to deal with total strangers that you're interviewing in a criminal investigation?  Surely the jury should know about this kind of a pattern of behavior by the man who built this case, right?  I don't think anyone with a modicum of common sense could argue that Mr. Roadruck's history of domestic violence isn't relative to his behavior in the Plantation Cop's mortgage fraud case, that is anyone other than the prosecutors prosecuting the case...

Government's Motion in Limine to exclude Dennis Roadruck previous history of domestic violence

According to that motion, the prosecutors don't want the jury to know about Mr. Roadruck's history, they go so far as to say that the claims of domestic violence are "unproved allegations".  Unproven allegations?  Mr. Roadruck's ex wife states she has tape recordings of threats from her husband as well as other police reports documenting the abuse, yet according to the prosecutors the allegations "carry a high and unfair level of prejudice to agent Roadruck and the government"!  NO SHIT!  Of course they do, the prove a long history of what the defendants are alleging, that the investigator who built the case has a history of threatening and intimidating people to get what he wants.  

How couldn't this be important for the jury to hear?!  What happened to that quest to "seek the truth"?  I guess that quest is solely limited to the truths that help the prosecution while anything that helps the defense needs to kept from the jury, truth and justice be damned.

Attorney Louis J. Jepeway Jr. wants to remove those stupid signs from the courtrooms in Miami Dade County. Speaking of signs, another massive LED billboard pops up just across the street from the criminal courthouse.

Anyone who's been inside a courtroom in Miami Dade county has seen those signs affixed to the wall just behind the judges head...

After seeing first hand how the criminal justice system works, one can only conclude that this is total bullshit.  From what I've seen the sign and it's definition of "truth" means different things to different people.  In the eyes of the prosecutors the sign must read...

We who labor here seek a conviction by any means necessary no matter how much excuplatory evidence we have to hide or how much coerced witness testimony and fabricated evidence we need to provide the court.

Think about that for a moment, how many criminal trials have we heard of lately where the judge decides that critical evidence which would exonerate the defendants for one reason or another isn't admissible?  Take our Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial for instance, there are tons of documents that exonerate the defendants, plenty of facts regarding the people who investigated the case that expose their ulterior motives for bringing about the case, prior abusive behavior by the investigators who are accused of coercing witnesses, polygraphs and audio recordings exonerating the victims, etc yet the judge has decided that none of these things need to go before the jury.  So what happened to seeking only the truth?

Now criminal defense attorney Louis J. Jepeway Jr. is doing his best to get these signs removed from the courtrooms.  From the Herald article...

But one lawyer in a triple murder case wants the venerated sign taken down — because the truth is, jurors during a trial aren’t always allowed to see the whole truth, meaning all the evidence collected by police.

“Truthful evidence may be excluded” by a judge before trial, attorney Louis Jepeway Jr. wrote in a recently filed motion, asking Circuit Judge Nushin G. Sayfie to remove the sign. “The sign invites the jurors to speculate when they sense that there is evidence that has not been introduced.”

Mr. Jepeway's request is rather unusual, but the sign is hypocrisy at it's best.

According to Miami-Dade’s courts historian, the sign was introduced in the late 1940s by Circuit Judge George S. Holt, a philosopher of sorts who once wrote his fellow jurists should “carry this saying etched in their hearts” in their “fervent quest for justice for their fellow man.”

What a pile of shit.  Anyone whose sat through a trial or hearing watching a prosecutor lie his ass off must surely question this "fervent quest for justice for their fellow man" bullshit.  That's hardly how I felt when I heard Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski intentionally lie to the judge presiding over the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case.  Good luck Mr. Jepeway, it's only a sign but it's the first thing you see when you walk into that courtroom giving you a false hope of "justice" being served.


On another note, while visiting the criminal courthouse last week, we witnessed the finishing touches being put on another one of the new monstrous LED billboards that was just installed on the south east corner of the 12th ave and the 836 expressway, essentially just across the road from the criminal courthouse...

This one's going to work wonders for the neighborhood.  It's not going to be long before there's one of these massive signs on every corner in our wonderful city.

It's time for a VACATION! Not for us, but at least it is for the judge presiding over the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial.

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I was perplexed over the nearly three week court recess we discovered yesterday right in the middle of the ongoing Plantation cops mortgage fraud case.  How could you take three weeks off during a federal criminal trial?  I did a little digging and found that the break was due to Judge James Cohn's vacation schedule.  I'm not exactly sure how the trial got scheduled in such a way that it could have potentially conflicted with the judges vacation, regardless, I think this is a fantastic opportunity for the defendants.  Take into account that they've been going at it for over 25 days now, right in the thick of things the defense attorneys get a breather, time to reevaluate their strategies and regroup.  In my opinion, this is a huge advantage.

With that said, I'm signing off early today, in the mean time, take a look over at Investigation Miami and see how a few local bloggers are bringing down City of Miami mayor Tomas Regalado's house of cards.

Been ripped off by loan modifaction attorneys? No worries, the Florida Bar's got your back! Also, a quick update on the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial.

Ever since the real estate and mortgage meltdown we've been inundated with ads for lawyers that are going to help you the poor consumer get relief from those evil banks that gave you all kinds of money that you now can't pay back.  Their m.o. was all to enticing, don't pay your mortgage, instead send me a few hundred bucks a month and I'll keep you in your house until the bank buckles over, screams for mercy and gives you your house back with a monthly payment that you can afford.  Sounds great but does anyone know one these deals that actually worked out?  All I've ever heard of was lawyers taking peoples money and not doing shit, sort of like what attorney Rashmi Airan-Pace of Miami is accused of doing.  From yesterdays Daily Business Review article... 

Stacy Peppers, a West Palm Beach insurance agent, got a cold call in 2009 from a company promising to secure her a loan modification. With her husband recently laid off, Peppers was having trouble paying the mortgage on her Pompano Beach house and was turned down for a mortgage modification when she called her lender.

So far so good...

But Peppers said she heard nothing from her lawyer, Rashmi Airan-Pace, and could get no calls returned for months. So she started requesting a refund.



"I was getting aggravated," she said. "I kept asking for my money back and heard nothing back."

Uh oh...

Finally, Peppers called her lender, Chase, and was dumbfounded by what she heard. She was told no one had ever called on her behalf and the bank had never heard of the Airan-Pace law firm.

WHOOPS!  It gets worse...

Peppers is one of a half dozen clients who complained to The Florida Bar about the Airan-Pace firm and its principal, Rashmi Airan-Pace.
 
But clients from around the country began complaining to The Bar and on such websites as ripoffreport.com with similar tales about Airan-Pace — they hired her firm to help negotiate a mortgage modification with their lender but nothing was done. They also complain that when they asked for refunds, they got no answer or were rebuffed.

So we've got an untold number of people who claim that attorney Airan-Pace has taken their money and not done anything in return, here's another example...

One such client was Christopher Delany. The former New York mortgage broker said he once had 90 employees but got in trouble when the housing market downshifted. The father of four hired Airan-Pace for help forestall the foreclosure on his Kendall home. He paid her $2,000 and offered to do some marketing work for her.
"I asked her for assistance with dialogue with the bank and to prolong the foreclosure," he said. "I said, 'Can you do that?' She said, "Yes, yes, yes.'"

But Delany said he could not get Airan-Pace on the phone after that and got no relief from foreclosure proceedings. He demanded a refund from Airan-Pace and finally threatened in a letter to "become William Shakespeare" and start writing letters to The Florida Bar turning Airan-Pace in. Her father responded in a strongly worded letter that he did not appreciate the threat and would sue for defamation.

Could it get any worse than this?  Considering the magnitude of the accusations against her and rumors of an FBI investigation into her involvement with some questionable real estate transactions, what kind of punishment do you think the Florida Bar gave her?  Disbarment for sure right?  In case you're interested you can read the Bar's disciplinary action against Airan-Pace here, in a nutshell she got suspended for 45 days and ordered to pay a few of her clients back a portion of the money that they had given for their loan modifications. 

Big fucking deal, who knows how much money these people took in and how many people got stuck in situations like this... 

Delany said he feels particularly bad for a neighbor he recommended to Airan-Pace whose house was sold at auction. "She took his money, and she didn't do anything," he said. "For every one person complaining, there are probably 100 people she screwed over. These law firms are becoming processing mills."

I'm sure the people that forked over their hard earned money with hopes of saving their homes only to get nothing in return are ecstatic to know that this attorney has to take a 45 day vacation as punishment. 

Now, onto the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial.  I've been backed up and haven't been able to spend time going through the recent events regarding this trial, I looked up the docket and was shocked to find this (as always, click on the image to enlarge)... 

The court's in recess till July 18th?  How does the court take a nearly three week break during the middle of a trial?  Anyone have any insight as to WTF that's about?
 
Lastly, considering the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial and the recent comparisons of this trial to the O.J. Simpson trial, I thought this is an appropriate warning for our readers...

While everyone is bitching and moaning abot the LED billboards and murals along side I-95, somehow this one got overlooked.

Local media has been abuzz lately because of the grotesque LED billboards and murals that seem to be popping up everywhere alongside our major highways, yet despite all the noise as of late and the fact that the Federal Highway Administration had deemed these signs illegal, somehow this one slipped through the cracks.  The sign is located on the east side of Le Jeunne road just south of Flagler St.  I only noticed it because the police had blocked the road one morning to allow the trucks to move the sign parts in place, I couldn't believe they were going to put a sign on this location and thought perhaps that it was just going to be temporary storage for the parts, before I knew it this popped up...

The color of the billboards structure was troubling as the only signs I've seen with that silver color metal were LED billboards, but that can't be right can it?  An LED billboard that close to the road less than three stories high with homes and offices all around it?  There's no way anyone would allow something like that to get built, right?  Consider that if you're a tourist leaving the airport heading for the Grove or Coral Gables, you're practically going to run into this sign, no one with a modicum of sense would allow a flashing LED billboard in a location like this, right????  Here's what I found the next day...

Unbelievable, a fucking LED billboard.  I never thought in a million years that I'd see something like this in Miami, disgusting.  I can't wait to see how this sign is going to illuminate the neighborhood at night.  I've never seen an LED billboard of this size this close to the road.  Amazing.

Happy Fourth of July!

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Here's a disturbing fourth of July image for you...

That's Casey Anthony, the central Florida woman that's on trial right now for murdering her daughter.  Even more disturbing, check out this article regarding the attorney whose job it is to save her from the death penalty.  YIKES!

Now, for a less disturbing image courtesy of our friends over at Nikon Miami...

Happy fourth of July!