Congratulations on your recent election to Florida’s State Legislature.

It appears your request for input on the foreclosure issues our State and Country are experiencing has garnered feedback from a wide range of fellow Floridians. Since you have not responded with even a brief courtesy email acknowledgement to the feedback I sent you on February 1st, 2011 at your law firms’ email account I have decided to post my email to you here.

I respect your service to our country as a U.S. Naval Officer and now as a Representative to the Florida Legislature. As a U.S. Navy retiree with a 20+ year career, I’m certain you value direct, frank communications.

Your email requesting input on this topic suggests either you are uninformed (and therefore an unwitting shill for the banks) or naive of the role criminal bankers are playing in this sordid national foreclosure nightmare. I naturally expect the best of others until I’m disabused of that notion, so I prefer to believe you are simply uninformed. However, remain unmoved to find a truly equitable solution to the dilemma at hand, “Foreclosuregate”, and both your honor and sincerity become clouded. There is too much unnecessary pain being inflicted on our society by foreclosures instigated from abuses perpetrated by rogue corporations for the influential to turn a blind eye and remain aloof.

The request for input you authored was in a number of ways a personal affront to me, so my individual case specifics vis-à-vis your email information request follow.

In your email you state “allowing non-paying owners to occupy a property for extended periods with impunity or even collect rental income from the property should not be goals of the judicial foreclosure system”.

My wife and I have not paid our mortgage for over two years but not because we arbitrarily stopped making payments.

We had a modification we were making payments on when I lost my job and the bank told us to make partial payments – at least 50% – while we reapplied for their ‘foreclosure avoidance program’. We did that and then the bank unilaterally stopped taking the partial payments they asked for while they ‘processed our request’ – which was submitted through a non-profit third party. (So I have records to substantiate their lies and deceit.) In the ensuing months the bank asked for the same documents multiple times, all supposedly never submitted, yet I have proof from the independent, non-profit third party the documents were submitted.

Finally, the fruit of over a year of effort and anguish, (phone calls, letters, emails, marital strife, stress etc) resulted in ‘still no word’ through the independent third party but we did receive communication directly from the lender – we were served with foreclosure papers.

And about two months later we received a modification offer that was HIGHER than the payments when I lost my job. Guess they had been receiving our paperwork all along. (Could that be construed to be coercion – take this offer or, as you can see from our foreclosure action, we take your home? Or could their behavior involve even more serious ethical violations that are actual criminal acts?)

Oh, by this time I had another job and could have been making the payments that were in effect when I had lost my previous job just a few months prior, but I guess personalized loan servicing and negotiation for a mutually beneficial outcome is something from a bygone era.

But then again, why should the bank deal with us in an equitable and honest fashion when they can lie to the court in those foreclosure documents they filed, not be held accountable for their lies (read criminal acts, i.e. perjury, fraud, theft) and probably wind up with another REO property on an expedited basis? I know, because we were the homeowners who weren’t paying their mortgage for ‘an extended period with impunity’.

Sorry, did I forget to mention that those paragons of virtue and moral rectitude had lied to the court in the foreclosure documents they filed?

They said we had stopped paying months earlier than we had (remember a previous modification and partial payments they suggested we make – they ‘forgot’ about those), they also said they had sent a demand letter but they hadn’t, they also said that they lost the mortgage and note – had they really? Another company was now ‘servicing’ our mortgage other than the original lender and we were never informed why. But we were making payments to them. And loan numbers were changed. And the original lender filed the foreclosure action. How did that happen? And in a subsequent affidavit as to amounts due and owing, those pesky payments they ‘forgot’ about were still forgotten. Except that I have my checking account bank statements showing they negotiated the payments they say I didn’t make. And don’t forget about the bank filing for a ‘summary’ before the time period expired that the court had approved for us to file our answer within. Yes, the court violated its’ own order and granted the plaintiffs premature summary request before we filed our answer within the time it granted us. And then had to reverse itself by granting a motion to set aside the default it granted. (And yes, we now have an excellent attorney representing us. Gee, I wonder if all this is necessary. And if so, who bears the preponderance of the liability?)

In your email you also state: “this intervention by the government to protect the economy did not relieve borrowers from the obligation to repay their mortgages”. I agree with you on your assessment of that civil matter but I also certainly hope that you would agree with me that ‘this government intervention’ should never relieve the banks from their responsibility to the jurisdiction of our courts nor the laws enacted by our legislatures. Your ‘Are We Not Men?’ argument is a double-edged sword and should be applied equally in criminal matters involving the banks. What equitable relief does the homeowner have when the bank commits criminal acts?

You also raise the specter of the banks being unfairly disadvantaged and our system of jurisprudence being compromised by convoluted legal machinations exploited by renegade homeowners and legal counsel they’ve retained – “this is a charitable impulse which should not be shouldered by the lenders without their consent through the manipulation of the legal process” Who is more likely and capable of unfairly influencing our courts and legislature to gain personal advantage, the banks, with their lobbies and PAC’s or the common citizen and their legal representatives attempting to assert their constitutional rights to due process?

As for your – “One suggestion might be to allow lenders a more expedited foreclosure where it can be demonstrated that there is no equity in the property, no payments are being made and the bank agrees to waive the right to a deficiency judgment”. One final question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is present to hear it fall, has it still created a sound? I contend yes. Just because there are uncontested foreclosures our judges and courts should not abdicate their rightful responsibilities to the law and the people/society that law was meant to serve. As with the unheard fallen tree, there are consequences that eventually become evident when some one finally discovers the scene.

I strongly urge you familiarize yourself with the substance supporting the post at 4closure Fraud and its’ attending commentary. If you are an honorable and sincere servant of the people then you do yourself and your constituency a disservice by remaining uninformed on this topic that impacts the very fabric of our society.

Sincerely,

S.R. Graziano, USN (ret.)
February 1, 2011

Another apology for posting incorrect District Number……..the photo is correct -District 91

http://www.crimeshouldntpay.com/

I was also one of the two attorneys that argued a significant case out of Florida’s 5th DCA which explored some of the nasty depths of the whole MERS conflabulation (that’s a word I just made up…sort of a combination of Conflagration and Confabulation). The case was Deutsche Bank v. Taylor, and the analysis and opinion can be found here. The decision is a mess, as is the whole MERS regime, which is properly being attacked in courts all across this country. Our record title recording and ownership systems operated just fine for hundreds of years before the MERs monster recently reared its ugly head but it’s difficult to see just how our record title system will survive this mess caused by a system with fewer than 60 employees and 20,000 certfying officers. (See MERS- Clouding Millions of Titles article here.)

Your email reflects a most disturbing perspective that seems to be shared by legislators and policy makers across this country…”JUST IGNORE ALL THESE PROBLEMS, LET’S RAM THESE FORECLOSURES THROUGH AS FAST AS WE CAN.” But this perspective ignores the 3,000 pound pink gorilla sitting in the middle of the room. (Wearing a wild party hat and smoking a cigar.)

Any discussion about foreclosure reform, especially in the State of Florida, must first begin with recognition that the foreclosure mills that are responsible for the vast majority of foreclosures in Florida are under investigation by the Florida Attorney General. ECONOMIC CRIMES DIVISION. I think every legislative committee meeting where foreclosure reform is discussed should begin with a viewing of this fascinating powerpoint presentation that was released by our Attorney General . It’s got real neat pictures and graphs and it would be a real hoot except it deals with such a profoundly serious issue like a systematic attack on our court system and the destruction of our state’s real property record title system.
I’ve been on both sides of the 702 show cause foreclosure system, but it won’t work in many cases because of the perverse limitations found in the securitization contracts, fannie/freddie requirements and other contractual and legal impediments. Those impediments notwithstanding, it is reckless and irresponsible to suggest that the process should be sped up or procedural or due process protections removed given the extraordinary abuses that are already occurring within the current judicial system. If we are to remain a country of rules and law governed by the Rule of Law, we must not allow the lawlessness in foreclosures to continue and we cannot allow all the prior misconduct to go unaccounted for. At the end of the day, we need a better legal process with more procedural protections, not an expedited process with less protections such as the 702 Show Cause process.

*owning Congress…. “priceless”

NICE! i’m sure he’s not going to turn into a foreclosure warrior overnight but it’d be quite a boon if you could at least get some support out of this, like getting some of people to help with our events and outreach…

Who will you trust in Florida Government? The AG’s office is suspect. The
Florida Banking Lobby is too formidible. Most Floridians cannot afford proper
legal representation. The Courts, although showing some improvement, have
basically ignored the LAW. The Florida Bar whistles past the graveyard and are
in denial. They claim they receive few complaints – because the homeowners are
not at that point yet after just getting alerted to all the fraud the State and
Feds have KNOWN about – for years! The FBI claims there is no proof. The Collins
Center is a dismal disgrace along with pretty much all loan mod/mediation type
“services.” The legislature is owned by the Banking lobbyists and the Banks.

And WHO on your staff really understands all of this? You should come to the
source and talk to the homeowners – as you are rightfully doing.
If the legislators of this State don’t fix the FACT and LAW part (of really what
has become a criminal Ponzi scheme as aided and abetted by government itself,)
than TRUST in Real Property Laws, trust in the courts, and trust in government
will cease. Then you have citizens who will NOT INVEST MONEY in our State, nor
will want to live here, do business here, or support tourism here.

Feel free to visit and join our site. It will depress you. Why have we, as
citizens, had to carry the load for law enforcement, the Bar, the Courts, and
our “leaders?”
http://www.wamuloanfraud.com

WE look forward to meeting you in Tallahassee on March 9th, 2011.

I would personally like to assist your efforts to prove to the citizens of
Florida, that the representative system in Florida is not a scam.

By the way, what my WAMU loan officer did was called MORTGAGE FRAUD – 2nd degree
felony… What the Mill attorneys and certain doc prep firms are doing is called
FORGERY, FILING FALSE DOCUMENTS INTO GOVERNMENT RECORDS, EXTORTION, AB– USE OF
PROCESS, FRAUD ON THE COURTS, and countless others of CRIMINAL VIOLATIONS –
under the laws of Florida and the FLORIDA CONSITUTION and STATUTES.

Yes, we seriously mistrust our governments, because we have seen ZERO out of
most any of you.

Thank you for your concern. I will try to give any “leader” the benefit of the
doubt – until we study the new voting records after our countless attempts to
get your associates to even listen.

Thank you,
Rob Harrington
http://www.wamuloanfraud.com

PS – I am a Criminology major from FSU, any work available for an honest man in
Tallahassee?
I just lost 25 years of an honest life – to the crooks on Wall Street and in
Florida… (who are still free roaming the streets – as wealthy bankers and
attorneys.)

http://wgroup.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fl-representative-responds-to