Why rob a bank?

As we mentioned yesterday, from what's in the public record and the inactivity in the case file, we know that Michael Martinez is out on probation and it's safe to assume that John Romney has cut some sort of a deal as well. It's safe to draw this conclusion since there hasn't been a shred of evidence in the case file to show that he's done anything to defend himself in this criminal case, consider the charges for a moment:

1. ORGANIZED FRAUD/50K+
2. GRAND THEFT 1ST DEG
3. ID/USE FRAUDULENTLY

I'm no lawyer but these sound like some serious charges don't they? Charges that you would be fighting with all your guns right? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mr. Romney's cut a deal, why it isn't reflected in the public record is still a mystery to me. How do I know there had to be some sort of deal cut? If indeed I was in his shoes and was expecting some sort of prison time, would I be worried about what I was going to be doing over the next few years? If I was going to go in for a while would I have done this...


That's right ladies and gents! Mr. Romney has applied with the State of Florida Department of Professional Regulation for a Real Estate Brokers License!!!!


Now, do you think Mr. Romney needs that Brokers license in the slammer? No fcuking way, he's been given a free pass boys and girls! I'm going to bet he's going to get probation at worst. The question that begs to be asked here is "why rob a bank?" After all, if I go into a bank (even without a weapon) try to rob it then get caught, I'm bound to do some time! In the fraud that arose from the fraudulent purchase of the Oak Avenue home, Mr. Romney made AWAY WITH OVER $300,000! I'd really have to think long and hard about committing this kind of crime, after all, I can collect a six figure paycheck and only have to report once a month to a probation officer and maybe pee in a cup? $hit, for $300,000 I'LL TAKE IT!

It's bad enough that our criminal justice system is overloaded and is forced sometimes to cut deals with people who deserve to be behind bars, in this case though perhaps Mr. Romney's timing is in poor taste. In my opinion applying for this license while his criminal case was still pending (even though we now know that he's already cut a deal) is an outright slap in the face of the citizens of Miami Dade County let alone the law enforcement community.

Till next time...

A year later PEEPS!

So where's everyone at a year later? It looks like Michael Martinez (the guy who lent the straw buyer $125,000 then got paid back $135,000 from the seller of the Oak avenue property) cut a deal back in June and is now a free man! COOL! That leaves the man who was at the helm of this mortgage fraud disaster, John Romney and the attorney Delaila Estefano. Judging from what I've seen in the court files, there isn't one single shred of paper in there to suggest that Mr. Romney is defending himself, that could only mean one thing. Regardless, a year after the original arrests there isn't a plea entered yet on his behalf. The rest of the three folders that comprise this case file consist solely of defense paperwork, depositions, motions, etc for the attorney Delaila Estefano. Interesting huh?

A year later, does anyone know where Detective Baluja is? I was told that he spent the day in deposition yesterday, I wonder how that went? I'll have to wait till the transcript makes it into the court file so I can go through it, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT'S THERE! I can only imagine though...

Sorry about not posting yesterday and keeping it short today, I found myself so sick yesterday that I couldn't leave my bed. I feel a little better today but it seems like as everyday that passes I seem to be loosing some more of my immunity...

Tomorrow we'll see what kind of deal Mr. Martinez cut and what Mr. Romney's been up to.

Budget cuts and other craziness...

We're all aware of the county wide budget cuts that are one of the consequences of the overall real estate meltdown. Everywhere you look there's some sort of public service at risk of losing its funding, whether it be a library, emergency service, parks and recreation cut backs, etc. One of the latest victims of the budget cuts seems to be the Miami Dade County Independent Review Panel, the Miami Herald discusses the proposed elimination of the panel here. Remember these guys? When Chief Burgess of the MDPD decided that the Internal Affairs findings in the Blanton Harris traffic accident were not sustainable, Mr. Harris pled his case in front of the IRP who not only found that Detective Baluja acted inappropriately, but also found that the Chief of police acted inappropriately as well. Imagine if the IRP wasn't around, what would have been the consequence? Officer Baluja's misdeeds would have gone unreported and unpunished. It's this mechanism that's gives transparency and accountability to the MDPD and the county's operations. Can you imagine how bad the powers that be would love to get rid of this panel? Without them, they have no one to answer to. Wouldn't that be nice? Imagine, if not for the IRP, we would have never known about Jorge Baluja's history of $hitty police work nor the reprimand that followed.


So here we are, tomorrow makes it one year from the date that David Ovalle wrote about the Barrera mortgage fraud arrests in the Herald. Where is everyone involved a year later? It seem's like a year is plenty of time to bring a convictions in the case, isn't it? I know at least one member of the Barrera mess is going to be under the gun tomorrow, let me give him some words of advice:

1. Eat well tonight, we would hate to have to see you suffer with a bout of diarrhea.
2. Sleep well, we don't want you waking up late and missing your appointment.
3. Leave home early enough in the morning so as to take into account any potential traffic delays.
4. Check your tire pressures, we would hate to think you might get a flat on the way in.
5. Make sure you have enough fuel, maybe even carry a gallon of gas in the trunk just in case.
6. Make sure you have jumper cables, in case your battery is dead in the morning.
7. Make sure you have all your last minute undercover work out of the way before your appointment.
8. Bring a dictionary so those big words don't get in your way.
   

In a nutshell buddy, we would hate to see you miss your appointment tomorrow...

An anniversary of sorts and some vocabulary words YO!

We passed a chilling milestone this past weekend, for those who didn't notice, I'm talking about October 3. October 3, 2008 was a pretty $hitty day if you were race car driver Helio Castroneves, his sister Katiucia Castroneves or his attorney Allan Miller who were charged with six counts of tax evasion by the feds. I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw Helio being paraded in hand cuffs and leg shackles, incredible! Luckily for Helio and crew they went to trial and on April 18, 2009 were acquitted, shortly thereafter Helio went on to win the Indy 500. Good on him. Oct 3, was a pretty $hitty for a couple of other Dade county residents and a local attorney, it was the day that the arrests in the Bernardo Barrera case were made. Nothing like that nasty ass police trick where they haul your ass to jail on a Friday hoping that you won't be able to make bail then causing you to sit your ass down in jail till Monday! Classy move on the part of the state YO! Naturally I wasn't aware of the Barrera case last Oct 3, I only became aware of it when the Miami Herald article came out on Tuesday October 7. I wonder what October 7, 2009 has in store for us? I'll do an update on Wednesday and see where everyone in the case is a full year later.

On to some words and phrases that I think are going to be relevant to our story, for today boys and girls, we have three words or phrases, they are:

1. Belief Perseverance
2. Confirmation Bias
3. Nemesis

Let's start with the term Belief Perseverance;

"the tendency to cling to ones initial belief even after receiving new information that contradicts or dis-confirms the basis of that belief."

Fair enough, we've all been guilty of that at some point or another. In the context of our story, I'll have to admit we're guilty of Belief Perseverance, based on our initial experiences and impressions of Detective Jorge Baluja we here at the Straw Buyer are convinced he's a sub standard cop who at least in this case ran a piss poor investigation. Now, lets say some new information on a later case came to light that showed that contrary to our beliefs, Detective Baluja was a fantastic cop (YEAH RIGHT!), since we are predisposed to believe that he is a $hitty cop, no matter how much fantastic police work was brought before us, no matter how many stray cats he pulls out of trees, no matter how many who done it's he solves, we would be hard pressed to change our minds about Detective Baluja. In a nutshell, once our minds are made up, we're not going to change it! Here's a perfect example, no matter how many times you watch this video, some people will never believe that it's not someones ass that's being poked!

Moving on, let's now look at the term Confirmation Bias;

"an irrational tendency to search for, interpret or remember information in a way that confirms preconceptions or working hypotheses."

Huh? It's actually a lot easier to understand than you think, this is when people disproportionally look for and favor information that confirms their faulty theories or beliefs. Perhaps Sir Francis Bacon says it better than I can:

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion, draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects or despises, or else by some distinction sets aside or rejects.

Ok, going back to the example Detective Baluja, no matter what kind of evidence we find, if we were guilty of confirmation bias, we would only see what would prove his incompetence as a investigator and completely neglect anything good that the facts would show. Interesting! Both Belief Perseverance and Confirmation Bias are two common types of cognitive bias that most everyone is guilty of, it's happened to me plenty of times. It's this kind of behavior that gave birth to the term "hard headed". Does anyone remember back in the Blanton Harris traffic accident investigation when Detective Baluja exhibited a textbook example of Confirmation Bias? No matter how many witnesses told him otherwise, no matter what the physical evidence told him, Detective Baluja was convinced that Mr. Harris was at fault for the accident and nothing would change his mind. Perfect example of confirmation bias.

Who cares about some sort of psychological mumbo jumbo that we're all guilty of? It's no big deal for normal folk, but what if you were a cop that was wrongly convinced of someones guilt? Imagine the consequences if a cop whose got the power to destroy your life incorrectly assumes that you're guilty of a crime? If indeed he's guilty of the cognitive biases that we've discussed, no matter what kind of evidence is in front of him, no matter what kind of witness testimony he's got, he's going to mold it and change it to suit his needs. Dangerous stuff friends! Unfortunately these psychological biases in law enforcement are the ones that can lead to misconduct.

Moving on to our last vocabulary word, Nemesis. For nemesis, I'm going to go outside the conventional definition offered by Websters dictionary, I prefer this one:

Nemesis-A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.

Isn't that fantastic? You never know who that "appropriate agent" is going to be, maybe a cop, perhaps a prosecutor or maybe some jerk with a blog...

Big day coming up Jorge!

The week in review.

Here we go:

1. What happens when a dirty attorney gets busted committing mortgage fraud?
2. Should we just forget everything we've learned so far?
3. Holy smokes! Who are all these people reading our blog!?
4. Fifteen more mortgage fraud cases.

Until next time!

Some new names...

I've spent the day at the courthouse going through the case files for the fifteen names that one of our readers sent us, as I mentioned before the reader who keeps sending me this information would make my life a lot easier if they could enclose some information with the names rather than making me search myself! There is a ton of information to digest here, I'll be up all weekend just trying to trim it all down to something that we'll all be able to stomach. I tell you though, spending all this time at the courthouse, going through all these legal documents, understanding the charges, etc, sort of reminds me of this self educated lawyer...




We got a big week coming up, one of the members of the Barrera case is going to perform for us next week. Stay tuned.

Some stats and miscellaneous thoughts...

When we started our story a few months back, I really only had a handful of people as my target audience, 4 maybe 5 at most, anything beyond that would have been unimaginable. Early on when I set up the blog, I also set up a Google Analytics account to be able to track whats going on with the site. Unfortunately for me the setup process confounded me and I gave up after trying for two days to get the damn thing to work. Little did I know that nothing was showing up when I first set up the blog since there was no content and therefore no views! A few days ago on September 24, I was looking at another blog that had a mention of Google Analytics, so I decided to log on and see if I could get the Straw Buyer analytics account working, when I logged on I nearly $hit my pants! From August 24 to September 24 we had ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED THIRTY TWO individual views! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? That's right, 1832 unique visitors to the site! Just who the hell did we catch checking our blog?

Amazing. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've received another email from a reader that likes to torture me, in this email I was given a list of 15 people that I can only assume in one way shape or form have been arrested for something related to mortgage fraud. I didn't have a chance to make it down to the courthouse yesterday to find out what was behind these names, but I'll do my best to do so today.

We mentioned something about the witching hour coming near the other day, did anyone understand what I was saying? I can't answer that riddle until next week, in the mean time, I wonder if there are any new investigations by the task force into the several million dollars of fraud and theft that we outlined here on the blog that went on in the grove? Somehow I doubt it!