|
| |
06/22/08 Who prosecutes
the Prosecutor?
Not only is the former bail
bondsman more concerned about convicts than convictions with little regard for
crime victims, but he's reluctant to go after mortgage fraud in Dallas County.
Thank goodness, the FBI has stepped up to the plate.
I'm going to get back to Cunningham's report, but re-reading Becky Oliver's
July, 2007 report is particularly timely:
| The FBI says mortgage
fraud is harming the U.S. economy. Locally the problem is destroying
neighborhoods and leaving residents fuming.
Yet, we’ve seen little action from the FBI or the Dallas County
District Attorney.
Two years ago, FOX 4 took
you to a north Dallas street where homes suddenly sold at inflated
prices. At the time, residents feared the worst for their
neighborhood and reacted quickly. But they’re still waiting for
someone to be held accountable.
Winterwood Lane is no
longer the tidy north Dallas neighborhood street. Lawns are
overgrown, homes are in disrepair, and pools are stagnant. Neighbors
say the City of Dallas Code Compliance Department visits regularly
and Dallas City Councilwoman Linda Koop says
taxpayers are picking up the tab and the costs are adding up.
When FOX 4 visited
Winterwood Lane two years ago, an investment company had rolled in
to this quiet neighborhood, buying up homes at values much larger
than the listed sales price. In some cases the inflated loan values
were as large as $100,000.00 more than the asking price.
The investors got loans
for the inflated prices, paid off the sellers, and pocketed hundreds
of thousands of dollars. But new owners never
moved in. When suspicious people showed up instead, neighbors
ran their license plate numbers and did background checks on them.
They found convicted felons were involved in the sale of the houses.
...
Eventually the banks foreclosed on the homes when mortgage
payments were not made. The condition of those homes quickly
declined. However, while residents watched their neighborhood go
downhill, they saw their tax appraisals skyrocket.
“It’s been very
difficult,” said Winterwood Lane resident Cynthia Hennig. “It’s been
very frustrating.” She says her tax bill jumped 37 percent over the
last three years. “Where is the sanity?”
... Mortgage broker and Winterwood Lane
resident Alan Baugh lives next to one of the run-down homes. Baugh
and his neighbors sued Eric Farrington,
the convicted felon behind the investment company.
Farrington countersued and both suits were dropped.
Baugh and his neighbors also filed complaints
with the FBI and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office but
they’ve seen no action taken. Baugh is at his wits' end.
“I thought for sure the
fraud was so obvious and that it would come to an end,” Baugh told
FOX 4.
But
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins says he has not yet
prosecuted a mortgage fraud case during in his six months in office.
Watkins says his office has received more than 600 mortgage fraud
cases it is currently investigating, but he has no prosecutors able
to handle them. Watkins says he also needs more funding approved by
County Commissioners to fight the problem.
“We don’t have the
prosecutors that can go forth and prosecute these cases because we
don’t have the resources,” Watkins told FOX 4.
But in neighboring Collin County, there is a
much different story. Assistant District Attorney Chris Milner says
the problem must be taken over by local district attorneys.
... Milner says Collin County has
prosecuted more than a dozen people in recent mortgage fraud cases
and ordered them to pay thousands in restitution. Milner wants to
send a message.
“If you want to
perpetuate mortgage fraud, don’t do it in Collin County,” said
Milner.
FOX 4
asked Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins what message his office is
sending by not prosecuting mortgage fraud cases. Watkins replied,
“…the criminals are running the show.”
...
Dallas D.A. Craig Watkins once owned a title company and was
a licensed mortgage broker. Winterwood Lane residents hope that
experience helps the fight against mortgage fraud in Dallas County.
|
So, the DA and his staff can
shake down local businesses for thousands of dollars in donations to his
Christmas Party door prizes, but he can't be bothered to go after the likes of
Eric Farrington? Apparently, the FBI was being closed mouth about action
they were taking in response to Alan Baugh's complaints because they have just
come down hard on Eric Farrington.
Federal agents arrested eight North Texas men Wednesday in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud operation involving at least 11 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
In a 51-count indictment, the eight men and three other defendants stand accused of profiting by obtaining mortgages based on inflated sales prices.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendants recruited straw buyers to purchase the homes, then let the loans go into foreclosure after making just a few payments.
One of the defendants is Eric Farrington, 55, of Irving, a real estate investor, motivational speaker and convicted felon. He could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Farrington is also the former husband of Sheila Farrington Hill, who is now married to former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill. In a separate case, Mr. Hill and Ms. Farrington Hill are facing charges in an alleged bribery conspiracy involving kickbacks from developers. A trial in that case is set for next year.
In the mortgage fraud case announced Wednesday, the defendants include a real estate appraiser, a mortgage broker and several of Mr. Farrington's business associates.
The charges against Mr. Farrington include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 600 years in prison, a $13.75 million fine and restitution, although the actual sentence would be expected to be substantially lower.
... One defendant, James Edward Jones, denied to reporters at the federal courthouse that he had participated in the alleged scheme and said he would cooperate with prosecutors.
"There's a lot of things I didn't know," he said. "There's a lot of things they didn't tell us."
... Mr. Farrington was the subject of a 2005 article in The Dallas Morning News that detailed allegations of mortgage fraud against him.
At that time, several North Dallas people accused him in lawsuits of being the "mastermind and kingpin" of a real estate scam that used inflated appraisals and straw buyers to obtain large home loans that would go unpaid.
Mr. Farrington said that his deals were legal and that some people in the neighborhood did not want black people to buy or rent nearby homes.
The federal indictment, returned by a grand jury on May 21 and unsealed this week, described a scheme in which Mr. Farrington's group would seek to obtain hefty mortgages with the help of straw buyers, only to let the loan go unpaid. The operation lasted from early 2002 to late 2006, prosecutors said.
Mr. Farrington was president of Prestige Capital Corp., which did business as Farrington Mortgage Group, Farco Construction and EFC Investments LLC.
A motivational speaker who gives wealth-building seminars, he was also the principal of Eric Farrington Seminars Inc.
The defendants aimed "to create excess or surplus loan proceeds, by arbitrarily inflating the purchase price of the property substantially in excess of fair market value or to create bogus outstanding liens on the property to be discharged with loan proceeds," the indictment alleged.
"Another object of the conspiracy was for the defendants and co-conspirators to allow the loan to go into foreclosure after some payments were made," the document said.
The indictment named 11 homes that were allegedly the subject of this activity – nine in Dallas, one in Irving and one in Allen.
In one case from 2003, according to the indictment, Mr. Farrington and two associates recruited a straw buyer to purchase a home near the corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane for $630,000.
It's unclear what the home's market value was at the time, but the Dallas Central Appraisal District had it on the books at less than $400,000.
Mr. Farrington served 15 months in federal prison in the 1990s for conspiring to file dozens of false tax returns that netted him and another man more than $100,000, according to public records. He filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
|
When in doubt, play the race
card. It may work with local yokels, but apparently the FBI is not afraid
of Mr. Farrington. With his own personal "expertise" in the title
business, you would think the DA would have an inside track on sniffing out
mortgage fraud.
A few years ago, a former homeowner in my neighborhood told me about a scam he
had stumbled onto involving the house next door to his. The sellers told
him some guys were buying their
house for a high appraisal, and the sellers and the "guys" were going to split
the overage. The house had been on the market for some time because it was
in an undesirable part of our neighborhood. The sellers knew it was a
scam. Sure enough, the new occupants could not have legitimately qualified
for the high price of the home, never made a payment (or any effort to upkeep
the house) and eventually were forced to move after the mortgage company
foreclosed.
A large percentage of the current foreclosure crisis relates to mortgages that
should have never been made. Many were outright frauds like what
Farrington and his associates are accused of perpetrating. Many of the
foreclosures are because lending institutions were forced by federal mandate to
meet quotas based on ethnicity and income in their loans. Banks could lose
their charter if they failed to show a certain amount of their mortgages were to
people who otherwise would be considered unacceptable or risky at best.
Becky Oliver was way ahead of the curve last year with her report on our DA's
refusal to go after mortgage fraud. The guy really hates to prosecute
criminals.
Now, Bennett Cunningham adds more fuel to the fire of questions regarding our
non-prosecuting DA:
|
How did the top prosecutor for Dallas County and his wife end up
crossing paths with a career criminal indicted for theft and
forgery? CBS 11 Investigator Bennett Cunningham discovered how it
happened and why the Texas Attorney General is now investigating the
case.
Robert Wayne
Mitchell, 51, is in jail. According to state records, he's been in
and out of prison for theft. But this time, the charges are much
more sophisticated.
Back in 2005, Dallas County
records show a woman named Ella Mae Walker deeded her Dallas home on
Bonnie View Road to Mr. Mitchell. The CBS 11 Investigators showed
Mitchell the warranty deed with his name and her signature on it.
When we asked Mitchell how he had come to own that house, he
replied, "I don't want to particularly answer."
Mitchell might not want to answer
because, unless you can bring back the dead, there is a problem with
the deal. The day Mrs. Walker signed the warranty deed she'd been
dead for more than six months. Mitchell says he met a lady who he
thought was Walker and he thought it was legitimate land deal.
Even though Ella Mae Walker was
dead, not only did Mitchell supposedly see her, but the dead woman's
signature was authenticated by a licensed notary, Markeya Mitchell.
[No relation.] Markeya Mitchell says the notary is a forgery and
it's not her signature on the documents.
Records show Markeya Mitchell
notarized several other deeds for Robert Mitchell. In April, Mr.
Mitchell was indicted on several counts of theft and forgery for
those other land deals. Mitchell says he doesn't know the notary and
as for the money that changed hands, he says "what money?" Robert
Mitchell also refused to say if he was representing anyone in these
deals.
Normally it would seem the details
were wrapped up; not quite. The story then takes an unexpected
twist. Land records show Mr. Mitchell sold Ella Mae Walker's
property to the Good Street Missionary Baptist Church, just adjacent
to her house.
According to a
letter from the Dallas District Attorney's Office, District Attorney
Craig Watkins not only owns the title company that reviewed the
title on the Walker deal, but that the DA did some legal work for
the title company while he was serving as the county's top
prosecutor.
Texas statute prohibits the
practice of law by a state prosecutor.
Also, the notary on this
part of the deal was Tanya Watkins, the DA's wife. Now both are
potential witnesses in any case that may be brought against Mr.
Mitchell.
When questioned,
District Attorney Watkins said he never saw the letter his staff
sent to the Texas Attorney General's office referring the Walker
case for prosecution because of a potential conflict of interest.
Watkins also denied doing any legal work for the title company.
In Texas deeds are not scrutinized
when filed and Watkins wife, Tanya, says title companies don't do
background checks on individuals.
Read the correspondance
concerning a possible Dallas County District
Attorney's Office conflict of interest
in the Robert Wayne Mitchell case.
|
When does this end? What
excuse will our DA come up with next for his serious ethics breaches? Even
The Dallas Managed News
is tired of his act and lame excuses:
I'm tired of what his refusal
to prosecute is doing to my neighborhood. DPD officers arrest burglars who
are plaguing my neighborhood and likely yours, too. They can barely get
the thieves arrested and booked before the DA's office releases them on plea
bargains. The DPD see the same thieves over and over.
Can't wait to see what the Attorney General has to say about DA Watkins'
conflicts of interest in the Mitchell/Walker matter described by Cunningham.
I'm even more anxious to see if any action is taken against the DA for his
double dipping (maintaining a private practice while serving as County District
Attorney).
Has anyone noticed a pattern to the DA's excuses when questioned about letters
under his name? He claimed never to have seen the shake down letters for
Christmas presents. Cunningham reports:
When questioned, District
Attorney Watkins said he never saw the letter his staff sent to the Texas
Attorney General's office referring the Walker case for prosecution because of a
potential conflict of interest. Watkins also denied doing any legal work for the
title company. DA
Watkins does not appear to be a hands on administrator. If his staff is
operating carte blanche without his supervision or authority, something is very
wrong in that office arrangement.
Who's guarding the
hen house since our DA clearly appears to be too busy to run his office, much
less look out for law abiding citizens?
Who's guarding the hen house since our DA apparently is breaking state law by
doing legal work for his wife's title company?
|
Paul Adrian, Becky Oliver and Bennett Cunningham have
been doing some serious squawking, but it's going to be left up to us
chickens to demand action to force our non-prosecuting DA to straighten
up and fly right. If that's possible. |
|
 |
sb
Editor's comment: We are going to
miss Paul Adrian. He's off to academia.
| |
|
