Matt Weidner – Fighting With The American People

Posts Tagged ‘matthew weidner’

I don’t have a court reporter at every hearing and I don’t order every court transcript, but sometimes you leave a hearing wondering…..

What? Why? Huh? What Just Happened In There?

The procedural posture of this case is clear…I got the case dismissed. And after you get an adverse ruling you’ve only got ten days to rehear or 30 days to appeal……that’s it. And so I’m really scratching my head about why this Plaintiff want to keep this dead case alive….

But I don’t let it drive me crazy…maybe I’ll let them get a Final Judgment of Foreclosure….on a case where the court lost jurisdiction in November 2011….but just read this transcript…..

And let me know what you think…..

MR. WEIDNER: Yes, sir.
2 THE COURT: It says, The action is dismissed
3 without prejudice. Motion is granted.
4 You’re going to write this on there, then, all
5 right? The Plaintiff –
6 MR. WEIDNER: Are we giving them another shot
7 at it, the fifth?
8 THE COURT: Yes. They are getting ten days.
9 They’re getting ten days to do it. I’m sorry.
10 That’s the rule. You said it’s dismissed without
11 prejudice.
12 MR. WEIDNER: Right. So that just means that
13 they get to refile the case. The action is the
14 case. They failed to comply with the Court’s
15 ruling. The only basis for the Court –
16 THE COURT: This matter wasn’t supposed to be
17 in front of me so I’m letting them do it. Okay?
18 I’m going to let them do the rehearing and then
19 we’ll hear it.
20 MR. WEIDNER: This is — will be the, I’ve
21 lost count of the number of rehearings.

BAC Home Loans v. Farmer, Jr. 050112 Hearing

On Thursday May 10, 2012, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the extraordinary case of Roman Pino v. Bank of New York. Make sure to bookmark here to watch the arguments live, and in advance, click here and here and here and here to read all the briefs before hand

Now to refresh all your memories, Roman Pino was one of those despicable sub human beings who conned a big bank into loaning him a huge sum of money so that he could purchase a big fat mansion that he knew he could never afford and that he knew he never had any intention of paying for.  Tom Ice is the unethical foreclosure defense attorney who conspired with Pino, coming up with all kinds of excuses and technicalities that allowed this very bad person to live in his house for free.

Well, that’s the narrative that comes from the bankster and foreclosure fraud apologists in this war.  The truth is Roman Pino was a terribly unsophisticated hard working American who believed in the con and the promises of the banking industry and was conned into taking out a comparatively small loan with unreasonable terms on a perfectly reasonable home in an ethnic neighborhood.  When Roman got into trouble financially he tried his best to work things out and found himself stiff armed by the very same banking cartel that has been pounding all of America into bloody submission for years now.  Tom Ice is the dedicated foreclosure defense warrior who took this brother in need under his protective wing, showed him and his family the highest values of this calling called the practice of law and promised him that he would protect and defend his family, no matter what it took.

As Pino’s foreclosure case was pending at the trial court level, Ice’s dedicated and passionate legal staff noticed that things were not at all right with the documents the foreclosure mill had submitted to the trial court.  No, not your run of the mill robo signed or forged documents, after all, we all became so desensitized to lies and fraud and forgery in our courtrooms so long ago, that something really blatant would have to stick out in order to make any difference at all.  Now think about that again because that’s what this case is really about:

we all became so desensitized to lies and fraud and forgery in our courtrooms so long ago, that something really blatant would have to stick out in order to make any difference at all.

The documents that were submitted in a court of law were so obviously forged and fraudulent, so corrupted, devoid of truth that the bank was forced to dismiss the case and not proceed.  But Ice remembered that our courts and the lawyers that took an oath to serve the law had an obligation not to ignore lies and fraud and forgery because such things left unchecked will destroy this nation. Ice wanted to pursue the truth, to uphold the Rule of Law, but the trial court refused to allow him to even go down this path.  The trial court affirmatively and, albeit a bit indirectly, stated, “we are not in the business of Truth and the Rule of Law, you will not ask these questions.”  And so Ice, principled lawyer who took an oath and made a promise to his client, appealed the trial court’s refusal to allow him to pursue the Truth and uphold the Rule of Law.

Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals court could have done the correct and the proper thing, they could have stated affirmatively that our nation’s courts are about The Truth and that our courts must uphold the Rule of Law, but they did not.  The appellate court asserted that doing so was too dangerous and so after making the following statement,

“many, many mortgage foreclosures appear tainted with suspect documents”

and

Pino’s requested remedy, if imposed, “may dramatically affect the mortgage foreclosure crisis in this State.”

So the bottom line here is one of Florida’s high appellate courts (and no I don’t mean high like they’ve been smoking weed) first identifies a massive ongoing criminal enterprise that permeates our state’s entire court system (although they dance around this with the euphemisms, “tainted” and “suspect documents”) then rather than just come right out and say, “We’re the courts and we don’t put up with this.”, they just wipe their hands clean of the whole mess and ship the case up to the highest court in this entire ethically-challenged state, the Florida Supreme Court.  Let the Supremes deal with this mess, the Fourth DCA figured, we’re just gonna take a pass on this one.

Now the Damndest thing happened when this case made its way before Florida’s Supreme Court.  Well, actually many Damndest Things happened starting first with the briefs filed by the chief bad boy in this case, Bank of New York.  Their arguments amount to, “ignore all this fraud and forgery and lies”, just keep running away from this crime spree and continue to pretend like it never happened.  Next, the Florida Land Title Insurance Association and the Florida Banker’s Association both filed Amicus or, “Friend of the Court Briefs”.  Now, I’ve written several pieces on these magnificent pieces of work which, taken together assert the proposition that if Florida’s courts take the side of Truth and The Rule of Law, the entire State of Florida will just blow right up into millions of pieces, break off from the rest of the United States and sink immediately into the bottom of the ocean, killing every single citizen in a sort of state-specific rapture.  Not only do they assert that Florida’s courts cannot punish fraud and forgery and lies, the briefs boldly assert the proposition that no one, not even courts should be permitted to even inquire into the details of their industry’s crimes.  Here’s the direct quote:

“Scrutiny of the validity of an assignment of mortgage may be inappropriate under any circumstances.”

Wow.  Yes. My favorite fraudclosure quote of all times.  They wrote that and submitted it to the Florida Supreme Court.  No one, not even the Supreme Court of Florida can examine the forged and fraudulent documents that choke our state’s court system.  Now I faced down this very same argument recently in a trial I lost (now on appeal)where the bank lawyer, faced with a Linda Green assignment and all sorts of other mess essentially said….

Scrutiny of the validity of an assignment of mortgage may be inappropriate under these circumstances.

The trial court bought it and I lost. (more on that here)  I can only shudder to think that will happen to this state if the Supreme Court buys into this same madness.

But here’s the thing, these two groups write these briefs from a detached and academic perspective as if they are merely helpful observers who just happened to be standing on the sidelines while a grotesque  and brutally violent crime spree occurs…..over the course of a decade or so.  But that’s not at all the case.  These two industries, and the members they proudly represent, are key co-conspirators in this crime spree that continues to play out in communities and in courtrooms all across this state….even to this day.  Now they may not actually be pulling the trigger over and over and over again, but they are certainly providing the bullets, and providing the guns, and setting up the victims and then directing the specifics of the attacks.  Over and over and over again. Even to this day.

The title insurance and banking industries are not these innocent parties coming to court trying to serve the interests of The Law I serve, instead, they should be named as co conspirators in a massive criminal indictment.  They both profited enormously while this crime spree called fraudclosure just kept rolling right through this state and now they have the audacity to stand in this state’s highest court and claim innocence and some sort of moral integrity.  It’s mind blowing really, but that’s the state of politics in Florida today….this, the most corrupt state in the nation.

And while we’re on the subject I’m going to swerve into a monstrously dangerous area here.  An area called campaign fundraising and Florida’s Supreme Court.  Money is indeed the root of all evil. And because money is the root upon which all our state’s political leaders and campaigns are built upon it must therefore be true that our state’s money grubbing political campaigns are in fact evil. Now, it’s bad enough that our elected state officials are not elected anymore, but are in fact auctioned off in a process known as campaign fundraising, but would you like to know what politicians have raised the most money for their campaigns during this election cycle?  Right, you guessed it, Florida’s Supreme Court justices.  And who are some of the biggest supporters and organizers of the fundraising efforts for our state’s highest court? (Hint: It isn’t homeowners and the street fighting foreclosure defense attorneys fighting for justice in this case.)  Right, correct, you guessed it…..the ferociously moneyed banking and foreclosing industries.

From Naked Capitalism:

Florida demonstrates how heavy-hitter law firm miscreants go undisciplined by the bar. One particular egregious example of influence-peddaling involves the foreclosure mill Shapiro & Fishman. The firm has been under investigation by the Florida attorney general’s office (initiated under the last incumbent, Bill McCollum). Shapiro & Fishman is a regular user of mortgage assignments prepared by Lender Processing Services, the employer of the notorious robosigner “Linda Greene” and an avid practicer of “surrogate signing” which is NewSpeak for forgery. Nevada and Missouri have indicted LPS employees. The firm is operating under a consent order from the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC and the OCC.

Naked Capitalism

And, if you want to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole….

A Supreme Court case out of Palm Bay may exemplify the type of high-stakes yet little-known litigation that’s about to inspire a corporate-funded campaign to oust Florida justices.The case stems from code-enforcement liens on a foreclosed home and will decide whether city halls can put themselves ahead of banks for sales proceeds when neighborhood eyesores finally sell.

But tens of millions of dollars hang on the decision for the powerful financial services industry, on one side, versus Florida taxpayers, who often pay to mow and secure neglected properties.Other states, including Iowa and Mississippi, already have seen corporate-sponsored campaigns that toppled justices and cleared seats for business-friendly jurists.

MATT REED

And so a very real question that should be asked as Florida’s Supreme Court ponders the frankly very serious questions presented in the Pino case is whether even our state’s highest court is free from the creeping influence of campaign finance?  The question will not be answered with the Pino case alone and it will not be answered definitively anytime in the near future.  Rather, this question will be pondered by intellectuals and legal scholars and reporters and academics in years to come. One thing is certain however, this questioning will not come from practicing lawyers who suffer the wrath and the persecutions from the establishment and their government for daring to ask such questions.  You see, all of those who have dared to speak up have suffered the whipping and we just know for certain that more whippings will come.

The other side in this battle between Truth and Justice and Lies and Deceit not only moves along unpunished and with no penalty….they in fact profit enormously in this on-going war.  And at the end of the day, it’s not just foreclosure cases and homes that are lost, it’s our entire nation and those values and principles you were deluded into thinking we stood for that are lost.  I hope we will all consider this as the Oral Arguments play out next Thursday.

And as we’re all thinking about this, think for a moment as well about the horrible price attorneys like Tom Ice and Lynn Syzmoniak and June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards and April Charney and Mark Stopa and Chris Forrest and Chip Parker have all had to pay, and continue to pay.  Each in their own way have suffered attacks and serious consequences because they dared to stand up and speak out against this machine and it tyranny.  There are indeed casualties in every war and in this war for The Truth and for the heart and soul of our nation and its laws, these warriors, along with pro se activists like Lisa Epstein, Michael Redman, Nye Lavalle and all the other warriors that have dared to speak up have been smacked down by The System.  And so, this case, this battle is a rallying point for all those who have suffered the sharp point of the Imperial Spear, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Warriors like Tom Ice along with his wife and their dedicated staff. No matter how the court case plays out, the world will always know which side of the battle they all stood.

Democracy At Work! Just wait until the political establishment really gets to work engineering their campaigns against these people.  Election fraud is serious, systemic and undeniable.   Our elected officials are not elected, they are auctioned, then votes are stolen and shifted around behind our backs, just google “Beckstrom v. Vogel” but read what HuffPost has to say:

Solutions to the ongoing foreclosure crisis are virtually absent from the national political debate, but in Florida, one of the states hardest-hit by the housing crunch, several homeowners who have seen crisis firsthand are running for local office on anti-Wall Street platforms.

Lisa Epstein, a foreclosure victim-turned-activist, has launched a bid to unseat the local Palm Beach County Clerk in Florida, running on the slogan “a wave of change.”

She is joined by at least two other anti-foreclosure fraud activists in Florida making runs for county clerk positions, the office in charge of property records. (A fourth dropped out after launching a campaign.)

Epstein will have the backing of one of the state’s most popular progressive figures, former Rep. Alan Grayson (D), injecting an unusual amount of energy into a race that is often sleepy and frequently uncontested.

It started at Occupy Palm Beach. Epstein and a friend, Lynn Szymoniak, were briefing the occupiers on robosigning and other methods of foreclosure fraud and discussing ways for them to fight back.

HUFFINGTON POST

So let’s say you uncovered evidence of a massive conspiracy to play fast and loose with evidence that was being submitted in Federal bankruptcy court.  Little stuff, like you know forging signatures, not complying with notary laws, swearing under oath to evidence that was not present.  Little things like that.

When such things are presented, in thousands upon thousands of cases, for years, do such patterns and practice damage the integrity of the Federal court process?  I know, I know, I know, you’re thinking, “MEW, whoodlie, doodlie, whatcha gonna do?”  Hire teams of lawyers billing at $600 an hour, produce binder after binder and dance in a most refined and polished way.  After hours and hours of argument and years of beating down anyone who dares to challenge the processes of the banks and institutions, you pull a massive game of distraction and get the whole world to believe, and in fact get the Federal Court to believe,

“MEW, whoodlie, doodlie, whatcha gonna do?”

Huh? Fraud on the court?  What? Hey, look over there, Did you see that bird?

This is an impossibly long transcript of a hearing held in a Federal Bankruptcy proceeding.  It took me quite a while to get through it….doing so just made me queasy.  The thing that really just boggles my mind is how, through crafty lawyering, and mountains of paper and pounding, pounding, pounding, you can start to see alchemy and sorcery and black magic being put to work right in the middle of a court proceeding.

The truth is simple.  It’s easy, my brain doesn’t hurt with the truth.  But lies become so complicated.  And when the lies become so big and monstrous, I suppose in this country now, we just walk away from such things.

To give you some idea just how hard fighting these battles is, I want to share with you a case against the banks that has been raging on since 2004…..Here are some excerpts from a recent court ruling:

The evidence shows that two law firms handled all or substantially all of the bankruptcy cases in this district from 1996 – 2008 for Wells Fargo – the Brice Vander Linden firm and the McCalla Raymer firm. The Brice Vander Linden firm has admitted it filed “presigned” affidavits and has provided a list of many of them. Those affidavits are included in plaintiff‟s list of 631 affidavits. The affidavits it handled also included affidavits that exhibited most if not all of the other infirmities listed. The McCalla Raymer firm does not admit to filing any presigned affidavits. However, all of the other infirmities appeared in its affidavits.

The Brice Vander Linden firm commenced its representation of Wells Fargo no later than 1996. From 1996-2003, it used (at least part of the time) presigned affidavits from Wells Fargo representatives which it filed in conjunction with relief from stay motions. These presigned affidavits were provided by Wells Fargo and were sanctioned by Wells Fargo‟s own Guidelines dated May 27, 20032 which authorized the procedure. It is not clear how long the presigned affidavit process was used except that Hillary Bonial, the lawyer from Brice in charge of bankruptcy operations, knows it ended on April 15, 2003 when the Brice Vander Linden firm sent an email to Wells Fargo stating that the firm was terminating the procedure. The Brice firm itself terminated the process, at least in part, because a bankruptcy judge in California called the process into question. Another Brice client, Mitsubishi, had been providing presigned signature pages to Brice and an affidavit with a presigned signature page was discovered to have been filed in Judge Klein‟s court. Wells Fargo never told Brice Vander Linden to stop using the procedure. After terminating the policy, the Brice firm provided full affidavits to Wells Fargo by email, using what it called the “corrected execution” procedure. Wells Fargo employees were responsible for reviewing, signing and notarizing the affidavits and returning them by overnight mail to the Brice firm. The Brice firm did not attach any documents that an affidavit stated were attached unless it determined it was not a document available on Wells Fargo‟s computer system. If a document came from a third party, some evidence indicated that the Brice firm forwarded it to Wells Fargo.

Employees signed numerous affidavits every day. One employee described receiving and handling 80-100 affidavits before lunch each day. She averaged about 2 ½ – 3 minutes per affidavit for collating, stapling, checking content and signing. One employee admitted she didn‟t read any of the affidavits she signed. Others testified they read the financial information. When confronted with affidavits with wrong names, wrong job titles, missing or incorrect attachments, they expressed surprise. If the affidavit stated that the debtors‟ bankruptcy schedules indicated a property value of a certain amount, the employees testified that they did not verify that fact because they had no access to PACER.

Many affidavits had mortgage and note attachments which appeared to be attached after the preparation and signing of the affidavit. Many affidavits had Lost Note affidavits attached that said a copy of the mortgage and note were attached. Other affidavits stated that the Mortgage and Note were attached to the motion for relief from stay but were not.
The employees signing affidavits testified in numerous instances that the date of their signing of the affidavit was not filled in by them. Notary employees also often testified that they did not fill in the dates on their notarizations. Someone else had done it. Employees signing affidavits did not always sign the affidavits in front of a notary. The affidavits were placed in a file folder and delivered to the notary by the affiant or another employee

Wells Fargo employees, high and low, and its attorneys testified that they saw nothing wrong with their affidavit preparation, signature and notarization procedures. If the financial data in the affidavit was correct, they testified that the affidavit was okay. Their focus was solely on the financial data. The rest was “technicalities.”

But in the end, the real relief sought by the warriors for truth and integrity and the rule of law was denied.  The machine prevails, yet again.

brannanOrder

WELLSFARGOBRANNAN

We’ve all been sold out….again….

It’s been a little less than three months since President Barack Obama announced the creation of a new task force to investigate the mortgage and banking industries that wrecked the economy, but some liberal activists are already declaring the effort a “sham.”

“The promises of the President have led to little or no concrete action,” wrote Mike Gecan and Arnie Graf of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News earlier this week. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman should “distance himself from this cynical arrangement,” they said.

HuffingtonPost

I have been begging for years now for persons in positions of power to wake up and realize that foreclosure is a threat to our national security.  At some point in time, the American People are going to wake up, and express the simmering rage and anger in very, very destructive ways.  It is a dangerous miscalculation to think Americans are going to continue to sit aside and watch their paychecks be sliced away, given to the banks.  And just wait until they realize their lifetime’s wealth, the retirement accounts and investments they think they have were long ago robbed and pilfered by the banks. There will be an anger and a rage that our existing laws and civilian police cannot contain.

I have real concerns for the members of the United States Military and First Responders who suffer the same things other Americans suffer….but do so while bullets are flying at them.  I repeat my commitment that no active duty soldier should face this alone and will consult with any member for free.  I’ve represented many and provided great referrals for others.  We must all stand together and do whatever it takes to show our soldiers a debt of gratitude for their service…..please contact me if I can serve.

But now read this most disturbing story from Bloomberg:

The housing finance setbacks that confronted Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing at least 16 civilians in Afghanistan, are one part of his story that many U.S. troops would recognize.

Bales and his wife owned a home in Washington state she was trying to sell for less than its mortgage and another that sits empty with a “Do Not Occupy” sign from the city on the door. At one point, the couple owed more than $500,000 on the homes.

For soldiers who have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such financial pain may compound battlefield trauma, said Matthew Weidner, a Florida lawyer whose clients include service members facing foreclosure on their homes.

BLOOMBERG