Magistrate Bucha Removed From Foreclosure Cases By Judge O'Donnell After Fraud Investigation By Prosecutor Mason
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason
From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com and Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell has replaced county foreclosure Chief Magistrate Stephen Bucha on cases involving the no longer existing Chase Mortgage Company with subordinate magistrate Tom Vozar following the initiation of a mortgage fraud investigation two weeks ago by county prosecutor Bill Mason, though O'Donnell has not recused himself from the cases since he supervises Bucha and allegedly directed him on the alleged illegal activity.
Magistrates are manually assigned to foreclosure cases by the 34 judges of the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, which is led by Chief Judge Nancy Fuerst, but are under the supervision of the judges, who are ultimately responsible for the case outcomes and the actions of the magistrates, whether legal or illegal.
At issue is the attempt by attorneys for Chase Mortgage Company, which merged and became Chase Home Finance in 2005, foreclosing on homes of Black people when foreclosure rules adopted by the Federal District Court of the Northern District of Ohio in 2007 require that all foreclosure complaints initiated before 2005 by Chase Mortgage Company must be dismissed and refiled by Chase Home Finance, the company that bought Chase Mortgage Company. And upon refiling the mortgage company cannot ask for legal fees. This holds true for any other foreclosures where during the litigation the mortgage company changes hands.
In 2009 the Ohio Supreme Court in Wells Fargo Bank vs. Jordan refused to hear an appeal and let stand a decision by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that says that foreclosure plaintiffs that no longer own the mortgage for any reason including because the mortgage company has changed hands via either a buyout or merger lack standing to foreclose and that Ohio trial court judges thus lack jurisdiction to proceed and must dismiss the cases, a decision that O'Donnell obviously seeks to unethically ignore to help rich and corrupt mortgage companies.
"A person lacking any right or interest to protect may not invoke the jurisdiction of the court," the decision Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals reads in part, a decision binding on Cuyahoga County and impacting county foreclosures.
Though O'Donnell has replaced Bucha, an indication, some say, of wrong doing, he still refuses to dismiss the foreclosure cases as required by federal court foreclosure rules and Ohio case law where he has no jurisdiction to hear them since Chase Mortgage Company no longer exist, lacks standing to litigate foreclosures because Chase Home Finance and not it owns or holds the mortgage notes, and is essentially dead. That, say activists, is because he is corrupt and hates Black people and thinks he is above the law because he is White, male, and a member of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. To date some 50 party affiliates have pleaded guilty to corruption related charges via an ongoing FBI investigation.
Bucha's office has allegedly advised Black homeowners that the illegal sales would go forward anyway and threatened them to file for bankruptcy or to face O'Donnell's wrath, a wrath that has been protected in spite of the filing of affidavits of prejudice to remove him from cases.
To O'Donnell's aid was former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who was accused of denying sound affidavits of prejudice filed by Blacks and women and sanctioning the illegal activity. He died last April and the seat is now held by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a respected jurist elected to the court in 2002 and to the chief justice seat in Nov.
And Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid is refusing interior home appraisals for foreclosures as required by state law, coupled with deflating home values in Cuyahoga County on foreclosure sales by more than 60 percent allegedly so that mortgage companies and politically connected people can by them back at reduced prices and then slap the former homeowners with the bill.
In one case a home that the Cuyahoga County Recorder's offices appraised for some $120 thousand just last year is up for sale for some $36 thousand per Reid, and with the sanctioning of Bucha, O'Donnell and county mortgage fraud investigator Tim Lea, who is accused of backing off of mortgage fraud investigations for corrupt Whites involved with the activity and urging Black homeowners to settle to their detriment rather than fight, a conflict of interest, some say.
And one homeowner alleges that she was told that unless she would agree to a loan modification pushed by Lea and Chase Mortgage Company attorneys, Bucha,O'Donnell and others they would allegedly bribe county appraisers to reduce the home value so that the mortgage company or whomever they direct would buy it and benefit at Reid's illegally reduced sale price, a claim supported by the $36 thousand reduction at Reid's direction. Those appraisers, whom O'Donnell approved payment for their illegal activity, are Kevin Kelly, Patrick Walsh and John Lynch, all White men.
Whether Reid, O'Donnell and Bucha are receiving kickbacks for doing in the Black community and others with their foreclosure schemes is not known, though those buying the illegally reduced foreclosures include Cleveland City Council members.
To perpetuate the alleged fraud lawyers for Chase Mortgage Company, namely Bricker and Eckler and Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss, are falsifying notices of foreclosure sale to Bucha, O'Donnell and Reid and leaving off the name of Chase Mortgage Company because they know it no longer exist, and this is after the mortgage company lawyers file a second suit before Cuyahoga Judge Carolyn Friedland with Chase Home Finance as the plaintiff.
According to case dockets, Friedland goes along with it but dismissed the second suit in a particular case filed by Chase Home Finance while an original suit filed by Chase Mortgage Company against the same homeowner was pending before O'Donnell after grassroots activists complained, and after Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts Gerald Fuerst allegedly harassed the homeowner with numerous summons of the illegal second suit, and deputy sheriffs from Reid's office were allegedly sent to harass her at her home to deliver them.
And even after Friedland dismissed the suits, Fuerst is accused of still harassing the homeowners with continual summons. He even went so far as to put on case dockets the date of the required response, though no such response was required since Friedland had dismissed the cases after being exposed.
And though Chase Mortgage Company does not exist anymore Reid is still scheduling foreclosure sales to hurt Black homeowners, saying they must contact O'Donnell to stop it. And he is doing so even without the interior inspections required by state law, and after his chief deputy leaves telephone messages to the homeowners saying that Mason's office said an interior appraisal is required by state law prior to any foreclosure sale.
O'Donnell staff attorney Alexa Beeler referred questions to the foreclosure department.
Mason's office did not respond to a request for comment on the mortgage fraud investigation.
Bricker and Eckler was hired by county officials to investigate potential malfeasance of county employees, a questionable gesture since its attorneys are simultaneously participating in potential mortgage fraud against Black homeowners without county officials saying a single word.
Since County Executive Ed Fitzgerald has adopted ethics rules for county employees like Reid and Fuerst, who are not elected but appointed by Fitzgerald and the Cuyahoga County Council, questions have arisen as to why he and the 11-member county council are permitting the activity to the detriment of the Black community and others.
Fitzgerald campaigned on honest county reform, a campaign that some say has fallen on death ears where Black and other homeowners are concerned, and are seemingly at risk for ongoing mortgage and foreclosure fraud.
Fitzgerald did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason
From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com and Cleveland Urban News.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell has replaced county foreclosure Chief Magistrate Stephen Bucha on cases involving the no longer existing Chase Mortgage Company with subordinate magistrate Tom Vozar following the initiation of a mortgage fraud investigation two weeks ago by county prosecutor Bill Mason, though O'Donnell has not recused himself from the cases since he supervises Bucha and allegedly directed him on the alleged illegal activity.
Magistrates are manually assigned to foreclosure cases by the 34 judges of the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, which is led by Chief Judge Nancy Fuerst, but are under the supervision of the judges, who are ultimately responsible for the case outcomes and the actions of the magistrates, whether legal or illegal.
At issue is the attempt by attorneys for Chase Mortgage Company, which merged and became Chase Home Finance in 2005, foreclosing on homes of Black people when foreclosure rules adopted by the Federal District Court of the Northern District of Ohio in 2007 require that all foreclosure complaints initiated before 2005 by Chase Mortgage Company must be dismissed and refiled by Chase Home Finance, the company that bought Chase Mortgage Company. And upon refiling the mortgage company cannot ask for legal fees. This holds true for any other foreclosures where during the litigation the mortgage company changes hands.
In 2009 the Ohio Supreme Court in Wells Fargo Bank vs. Jordan refused to hear an appeal and let stand a decision by the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that says that foreclosure plaintiffs that no longer own the mortgage for any reason including because the mortgage company has changed hands via either a buyout or merger lack standing to foreclose and that Ohio trial court judges thus lack jurisdiction to proceed and must dismiss the cases, a decision that O'Donnell obviously seeks to unethically ignore to help rich and corrupt mortgage companies.
"A person lacking any right or interest to protect may not invoke the jurisdiction of the court," the decision Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals reads in part, a decision binding on Cuyahoga County and impacting county foreclosures.
Though O'Donnell has replaced Bucha, an indication, some say, of wrong doing, he still refuses to dismiss the foreclosure cases as required by federal court foreclosure rules and Ohio case law where he has no jurisdiction to hear them since Chase Mortgage Company no longer exist, lacks standing to litigate foreclosures because Chase Home Finance and not it owns or holds the mortgage notes, and is essentially dead. That, say activists, is because he is corrupt and hates Black people and thinks he is above the law because he is White, male, and a member of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. To date some 50 party affiliates have pleaded guilty to corruption related charges via an ongoing FBI investigation.
Bucha's office has allegedly advised Black homeowners that the illegal sales would go forward anyway and threatened them to file for bankruptcy or to face O'Donnell's wrath, a wrath that has been protected in spite of the filing of affidavits of prejudice to remove him from cases.
To O'Donnell's aid was former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who was accused of denying sound affidavits of prejudice filed by Blacks and women and sanctioning the illegal activity. He died last April and the seat is now held by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a respected jurist elected to the court in 2002 and to the chief justice seat in Nov.
And Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid is refusing interior home appraisals for foreclosures as required by state law, coupled with deflating home values in Cuyahoga County on foreclosure sales by more than 60 percent allegedly so that mortgage companies and politically connected people can by them back at reduced prices and then slap the former homeowners with the bill.
In one case a home that the Cuyahoga County Recorder's offices appraised for some $120 thousand just last year is up for sale for some $36 thousand per Reid, and with the sanctioning of Bucha, O'Donnell and county mortgage fraud investigator Tim Lea, who is accused of backing off of mortgage fraud investigations for corrupt Whites involved with the activity and urging Black homeowners to settle to their detriment rather than fight, a conflict of interest, some say.
And one homeowner alleges that she was told that unless she would agree to a loan modification pushed by Lea and Chase Mortgage Company attorneys, Bucha,O'Donnell and others they would allegedly bribe county appraisers to reduce the home value so that the mortgage company or whomever they direct would buy it and benefit at Reid's illegally reduced sale price, a claim supported by the $36 thousand reduction at Reid's direction. Those appraisers, whom O'Donnell approved payment for their illegal activity, are Kevin Kelly, Patrick Walsh and John Lynch, all White men.
Whether Reid, O'Donnell and Bucha are receiving kickbacks for doing in the Black community and others with their foreclosure schemes is not known, though those buying the illegally reduced foreclosures include Cleveland City Council members.
To perpetuate the alleged fraud lawyers for Chase Mortgage Company, namely Bricker and Eckler and Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss, are falsifying notices of foreclosure sale to Bucha, O'Donnell and Reid and leaving off the name of Chase Mortgage Company because they know it no longer exist, and this is after the mortgage company lawyers file a second suit before Cuyahoga Judge Carolyn Friedland with Chase Home Finance as the plaintiff.
According to case dockets, Friedland goes along with it but dismissed the second suit in a particular case filed by Chase Home Finance while an original suit filed by Chase Mortgage Company against the same homeowner was pending before O'Donnell after grassroots activists complained, and after Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts Gerald Fuerst allegedly harassed the homeowner with numerous summons of the illegal second suit, and deputy sheriffs from Reid's office were allegedly sent to harass her at her home to deliver them.
And even after Friedland dismissed the suits, Fuerst is accused of still harassing the homeowners with continual summons. He even went so far as to put on case dockets the date of the required response, though no such response was required since Friedland had dismissed the cases after being exposed.
And though Chase Mortgage Company does not exist anymore Reid is still scheduling foreclosure sales to hurt Black homeowners, saying they must contact O'Donnell to stop it. And he is doing so even without the interior inspections required by state law, and after his chief deputy leaves telephone messages to the homeowners saying that Mason's office said an interior appraisal is required by state law prior to any foreclosure sale.
O'Donnell staff attorney Alexa Beeler referred questions to the foreclosure department.
Mason's office did not respond to a request for comment on the mortgage fraud investigation.
Bricker and Eckler was hired by county officials to investigate potential malfeasance of county employees, a questionable gesture since its attorneys are simultaneously participating in potential mortgage fraud against Black homeowners without county officials saying a single word.
Since County Executive Ed Fitzgerald has adopted ethics rules for county employees like Reid and Fuerst, who are not elected but appointed by Fitzgerald and the Cuyahoga County Council, questions have arisen as to why he and the 11-member county council are permitting the activity to the detriment of the Black community and others.
Fitzgerald campaigned on honest county reform, a campaign that some say has fallen on death ears where Black and other homeowners are concerned, and are seemingly at risk for ongoing mortgage and foreclosure fraud.
Fitzgerald did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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