About Your Contribution to The Collection Plate – Pastor Attacks, Robs Sunday School Teacher

This one is unbelievable. A Pastor, his wife, and daughter attack and rob a Sunday School teacher with a gun.

Holier than Thou with a 9mm.

Ohio pastor and family burst into Sunday school class, beat up teacher — and rob her at gunpoint: police

A Toledo pastor and two family members have been charged with felonies for allegedly beating and robbing a Sunday school teacher at church.

Pastor Anthony Morris and his wife, Zelda Morris, and daughter Kamali Morris were each charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, a first-degree felony, after the incident Sunday at St. Paul’s AME Zion Church, reported the Toledo Blade.

Police said Nickema Turner was teaching at the church when the 49-year-old pastor and his family attacked her, and the 46-year-old wife dumped items from the Maumee woman’s purse and took them.

Turner tried to recover her belongings when Morris drew a gun, pointed the weapon at her and threatened to kills her, police said.

The couple fled the church with their 19-year-old daughter after the attack, police said.

Turner was treated for unspecified injuries at the church.

The pastor and his family remained at large late Monday morning.

 

Nikita Whitlock – Racist Burgulars

I’d suggest Mr Whitlock moved. If your house has been broken into twice in 6 months…Its time to change neighborhoods.

Suspended Giants FB Whitlock: Burglars left swastika, ‘KKK’

Suspended New York Giants fullback Nikita Whitlock said burglars scrawled racist graffiti that included a swastika, the letters “KKK” and the phrase “Go back to Africa” when they broke into his New Jersey home on Tuesday night.

Whitlock told WCBS-TV in New York on Wednesday that jewelry and video game systems were taken and that it was the second incident he and his family have experienced at the apartment.

The Moonachie Police Department is investigating Tuesday’s event.

“It just re-establishes that no matter where you are, no matter who you are, this can happen to you,” said Whitlock, who was suspended 10 games without pay in September for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Whitlock, 25, told WCBS-TV that he and his wife and their two young children were out for a few hours when the burglary took place. Whitlock said the intruders gained access through a small window of their Bergen County residence.

“It’s very disgusting, actually; it’s very disheartening,” Whitlock’s wife, Ashley, said. “You hear about things that do happen, but you never think, ‘Oh, this is going to happen to me.'”

“It’s about to be 2017,” Nikita Whitlock said. “Oppression, violence, racism, hatred, violence, there’s no need for that.”

A representative for Whitlock told ESPN’s Josina Anderson that the player’s previous residence was also burglarized.

Sgt. Richard Behrens told ESPN that the first incident at Whitlock’s current residence, that occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday, was an act of vandalism in which door window was broken.

Whitlock’s 10-game ban was his second-such suspension and was for the same substance that cost him four games in 2014, according to an ESPN source. The second suspension will cost him $204,705 in salary.

Whitlock, a second-year player out of Wake Forest, was already on season-ending injured reserve with a foot injury.

Whitlock was the Giants’ fullback and a key special-teams contributor last season. He also played some as a pass-rushing defensive tackle. Whitlock started five games, had a sack and finished with four special-teams tackles.

 

Grandson of US Representative Danny Davis Shot and KIlled

Condolences to Rep Davis and his family….

WTF can’t these scumbag hardheads murder some Trump supporters aand do something of value for the community?

Grandson of U.S. House member fatally shot in Chicago home invasion

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said his 15-year-old grandson, Jovan Wilson, was shot in and killed in a home invasion, possibly over a pair of gym shoes. The teen was at home when two assailants broke into the home and shot him in the head

The 15-year-old grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis was shot in the head and killed Friday, possibly in a dispute over gym shoes.

Chicago police said Jovan Wilson was in his home in Englewood when two armed assailants forced their way into the home about 6:45 p.m. The teen and the assailants argued, police said. The teen was shot in the head. Davis, a longtime House member who represents Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, was not at the home.

“That dispute escalated and turned physical and one of the offenders pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head,” said Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, adding the incident may have sparked in a dispute over sneakers.

Davis had just returned to the Chicago area from Washington, D.C., when he learned of the shooting. He said a 17-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were behind the home invasion. No arrests have been made.

“Initially it was that he had been shot and then actually the police commander called me and indicated that, there during a home invasion, he had been shot and it didn’t look good,” Davis said.

“Immediately I simply left and came out to the area where it had taken place,” Davis said. “It’s totally disconcerting.”

Davis said his grandson was a typical teen who loved sports and music.

“He liked basketball. If you listened to him he was a basketball star, but he liked basketball and music. All those kinds of things. He was an avid sports fan, he knew all about, you know, the stats of different players,” he said.

Gun violence has increased in the Chicago area in 2016 to levels not seen since the 1990s. The city has had 643 murders through Nov. 6. That’s a 55 percent increase over the same period last year.

 

Man “Busjacks” Metro Bus in DC

Washington DC’s Metro System converted to fare cards quite a while back. So there is little to no money on a Bus. So why someone would hijack a Bus is a bit of mystery. Looks like the hijacker may have been trying to blow the bus up by driving it over the gas pumps like in the movies.

Crazy people doing crazy things (with guns) everywhere!

Hijacked bus kills pedestrian in D.C.

Authorities say a man attacked a bus driver, stole the bus, then struck and killed a man after the bus jumped a curb at a gas station.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference Tuesday that the man with a weapon attacked the driver. She says passengers fled the bus and the driver hit the emergency button before getting off himself.

Lanier says the man drove off and as the bus pulled into a gas station it went over a curb and hit the man. She says the man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Lanier says the man who stole the bus appeared distraught as officers took him into custody. CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reports the alleged hijacker was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

 

 

Why is BLM Responsible?

One of the favorite attacks on black folks by conservative racists is the false equivalency argument. In this case, 3 black teens beat up and robbed a Marine – so it must be the fault of the BLM Movement.

Ever notice that when the KKK murders some poor black person… Not a single conservative stands up to demand the KKK apologize?

In any case this one just doesn’t smell right. This ex-Marine got his ass kicked for a reason. And his oh-so quick claim that somehow BLM was involved…

May explain why. This altercation supposedly started when the three black teens challenged the Marine about BLM. Kind of hard to believe that that was what started the “conversation”. Especially in that particular part of the city which is majority white. Why would they pick this guy out of the crowd?

As for the robbery aspect, most muggers tend to figure out early on that jumping MMA fighters, football players, and Marines will cause your health plan deductibles to go up – so they tend to go after the defenseless little old ladies, or the stupid lost in their cell phones texting all their “friends” the fact they’ve actually crossed the street successfully with the light.

So there is much more to this.

In the meantime, the DC Police have the teens pictures – so it won’t be long until they are residing in the local hoosegow for the robbery.

Here is the Right-wing racist response –

Marine attacked calls on leaders of Black Lives Matter movement to condemn violence

On Thursday D.C. Police released video of a brutal attack against a decorated Iraq war veteran outside a Northwest McDonald’s.

Thirty-year-old Chris Marquez was attacked by three suspects last Friday night as he left the McDonald’s, which is at 911 E Street NW.

The video shows one of the suspects punch Marquez from behind as he’s walking out of the restaurant. Another suspect is seen kicking him while he’s on the ground, and another is seen robbing him while he’s down.

“I was very angry, I was kind of stunned,” Marquez told ABC7 from his room at the V.A. Medical Center. “It’s kind of weird watching yourself get attacked in such a manner.”

Marquez is being treated for a concussion he suffered in the attack.

Marquez called the attack cowardly since it began while he had his back turned.

The Marine veteran says that while he was at the McDonald’s Friday night, the suspects began taunting him. He says they called him a racist and asked him if “black lives mattered.”

Marquez says he sensed trouble and did not respond to their taunts.

The ensuing attack has received international attention.

“I understand many people — especially seeing that video — are going to be very angry,” Marquez said. “I don’t want anyone to use this as an excuse for more hate or violence or anything of that type.”

Although it’s unclear if the attackers were politically motivated, Marquez called on leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement to condemn violence.

“They need to really speak to the nation, tell people these types of acts of violence will not stand,” Marquez said.

 

Things That Make You go Hmmmmmm…

Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate WJLAsays one of its news cars was broken into while the crew was at a press conference where DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and police chief Cathy Lanier were talking about a Task Force designed to fight robberies.

According to ABC7 News reporter Stephen Tschida, thieves tore through the news vehicle Wednesday morning and a culprit smashed a window out of the car and stole a cache of equipment.

Tschida said the crime happened within view of where the mayor and chief were speaking, approximately 100 feet away.

 

When Things Are So Bad…Even the Morons in Congress Get it

Street Hijacking by nefarious Tow Companies. The problem is endemic in the DC area, and I am sure shared by other cities. So bad in fact – even the do-nothing Congress is taking it on…

Had a friend who owned one of the first Porsche Bi-Turbo Carreras in the US back in the 70’s. A local towing company couldn’t resist the sight of an expensive car, whose owner would pay megabucks to get it back. They hooked it up via the bumper hook and towed it away – doing about $25,000 in damage to the suspension and steering. He sued, and eventually won – which was a driving reason behind conversion to the bed type tow trucks in the area. Through the years, I have seen more than one car damaged or destroyed by the local city tow contractors.

Predatory towing companies are about to get a beat down from Congress

The terrible reign of the parking lot pirates may be about to end.
And you won’t believe which swashbucklers are eager to rescue the nation from the metal jaws of predatory towing companies.

Congress.

Yep. Our normally dysfunctional House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a transportation bill Thursday morning that — among tons of other things — lets local governments go after the tow truck operators who have picked many families’ pockets.

You know which tow truck operators I mean, right? The hated kind.

The ones who snag your car during the three minutes you ran into CVS to pick up a prescription.

The ones who make millions of dollars baiting deserted parking lots and using spotters at all hours of the night to tow you away.

The ones who hold your car hostage for more than $100 in towing and impound fees.

The ones who hooked a car with kids inside in April.

The ones who have towed cars with dogs inside.

The ones who get taken to court and rarely pay more than a $125 fine when a judge finds that they improperly and illegally seized — and damaged — your car.

Yeah, those guys.

They have no mercy, and their victims can be anybody.

Um, everybody, actually.

“Lots of members of Congress were excited about it,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who co-authored the amendment with Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “Getting towed is a very non-partisan experience.”

Van Hollen knows the experience too well.

“I was at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, literally ran in for takeout,” he explained. His car was towed in “less than 90 seconds,” he said.

In his neck of the woods, Montgomery County, that tow will add at least $150 onto whatever errand you were trying to run. Expensive moo shu.

Van Hollen said these kinds of tow guys have turned it “into a science,” with an empty parking lot becoming a “cash cow.” It’s one of the biggest complaints his office gets.

“We didn’t have trouble signing up people,” said Van Hollen, who has been trying to thwart the parking lot pirates for years and may finally be successful with this bill.

Of course, it was Congress that gave the pirates their opening years ago.

A loophole in a 1994 federal law forbade local jurisdictions from doing anything to regulate these guys.

So they saw the opportunity and created a cottage industry of spying on people on empty lots and towing them minutes after they leave their car.

ESPN reporter Britt McHenry had her car towed while she was eating dinner in Clarendon. She was famously caught on video ripping into the cashier when she went to pay them off to get her car back. She was suspended by ESPN for a week.

I was just as angry a couple of years ago when they hooked us after we pulled up near a condo in Clarendon to load a piece of furniture into our minivan.

It was less than 10 minutes, flashers on, sign on the windshield explaining we’re loading and will be right back. It was late at night in front of a dry cleaner that was closed. And it was gone, sparks flying as the undercarriage slammed on the ground and the truck fishtailed away.

Mind you, these aren’t the merciless guys who tow your car parked in a no-parking lane on one of the District’s main streets one minute into rush hour.

Those guys are brutal, but they serve a purpose. One illegally parked car can be like metal cholesterol, clogging up a city’s thoroughfares for blocks and blocks.

The parking lot pirates? A lot less noble.

They lurk in cars and tow your vehicle even if you’re a customer of one business, then walk 200 feet to use the ATM at another. Show them your receipt, they won’t care.

The online complaints about them are outrageous.

One guy was towed exactly one minute after his gym closed. Another was towed because a condo placard was on the left side of the dashboard instead of on the right. And another was towed even though she was parked perfectly legally. And that was just this week.

They’ve been doing this for years.

The late musician Steve Goodman sang about the notorious Chicago towing company with similar tactics back in the 1970s in “Lincoln Park Pirates,” made famous by columnist Mike Royko:

“We plunder the streets of your town

Be it Edsel or Chevy

There’s no car too heavy

And one one can make us shut down.”…

 

 

 

Scamming the Black Poor and Sick – Lead Paint Settlement Scam

Children poisoned by lead paint exposure suffer lifelong difficulties.

For decades, we’ve known that exposure to high levels of lead can damage the nervous system in children, causing problems that range from hearing loss and seizures to unconsciousness and death. More recent research has demonstrated a link between even relatively low levels of exposure and a variety of subtle cognitive problems including learning disabilities and decreased intelligence.

Children are more sensitive to the harmful effects of lead than adults, because more of the lead they swallow gets into their bloodstream. Children also are at greater risk because they often play on the floor or ground, where lead-contaminated dust or soil is found. And they are much more likely than adults to put this material in their mouths.

This one oddly has a connection to Freddy Gray…

Structured Settlement companies have targeted Baltimore – some of them are crooks.

 

How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks

The letter arrived in April, a mishmash of strange numbers and words. This at first did not alarm Rose. Most letters are that way for her — frustrating puzzles she can’t solve. Rose, who can scarcely read or write, calls herself a “lead kid.” Her childhood home, where lead paint chips blanketed her bedsheets like snowflakes, “affected me really bad,” she says. “In everything I do.”

She says she can’t work a professional job. She can’t live alone. And, she says, she surely couldn’t understand this letter.

So on that April day, the 20-year-old says, she asked her mom to give it a look. Her mother glanced at the words, then back at her daughter. “What does this mean all of your payments were sold to a third party?” her mother recalls saying.

The distraught woman said the letter, written by her insurance company, referred to Rose’s lead checks. The family had settled a lead-paint lawsuit against one Baltimore slumlord in 2007, granting Rose a monthly check of nearly $1,000, with yearly increases. Those payments were guaranteed for 35 years.

“It’s been sold?” Rose asked, memories soon flashing.

She remembered a nice, white man. He had called her one day on the telephone months after she’d squeaked through high school with a “one-point something” grade-point average. His name was Brendan, though she said he never mentioned his last name. He told her she could make some fast money. He told her he worked for a local company named Access Funding. He talked to her as a friend.

Rose, who court records say suffers from “irreversible brain damage,” didn’t have a lot of friends. She didn’t trust many people. Growing up off North Avenue in West Baltimore, she said she’s seen people killed.

But Brendan was different. He bought her a fancy meal at Longhorn Steakhouse, she said, and guaranteed a vacation for the family. He seemed like a gentleman, someone she said she could trust.

One day soon after, a notary arrived at her house and slid her a 12-page “purchase” agreement. Rose was alone. But she wasn’t worried. She said she spoke to a lawyer named Charles E. Smith on the phone about the contract. She felt confident in what it stated. She was selling some checks in the distant future for some quick money, right?

The reality, however, was substantially different. Rose sold everything to Access Funding — 420 monthly lead checks between 2017 and 2052. They amounted to a total of nearly $574,000 and had a present value of roughly $338,000.

In return, Access Funding paid her less than $63,000…

But to critics, Access Funding is part of an industry that profits off the poor and disabled. And Baltimore has become a prime target. It’s here that one teen — diagnosed with “mild mental retardation,” court records show — sold her payments through 2030 in four deals and is now homeless. It’s here that companies blanket certain neighborhoods in advertisements, searching for a potentially lucrative type of inhabitant, whose stories recall the legacy of Freddie Gray.

Before his April death after being severely injured in police custody, before this hollowed-out city plunged into rioting, the life of Freddie Gray was a case study in the effect of lead paint on poor blacks. The lead poisoning Gray suffered as a child may have contributed to his difficulties with learning, truancy and arrests — all of it culminating in a 2008 lead-paint lawsuit and a windfall of cash locked inside a structured settlement. By late 2013, Gray was striking deals with Access Funding…More here…

When my mother was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the scam artists seemed to know to call her. These guys prey on the weak, sick, and uneducated…

Too bad they almost never go to jail.

 

Really Bad week for Congressmen in DC

First we have the Tea Party Republican from Florida buying cocaine…

Federal law enforcement officials released new details this morning of U.S. Rep. Trey Radel’s arrest on charges of buying cocaine in Washington, D.C. earlier this fall.

In a press release put out just moments ago, agents indicate that the FBI and DEA had been watching Radel because they had learned he “would purchase cocaine for his personal use and sometimes share it with others.”

Radel, R-Fort Myers, entered a guilty plea this morning in court.

U.S. Rep. Trey Radel was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor cocaine possession — a charge that authorities say came after he bought a small amount of cocaine in a sting in the nation’s capital last month.

Radel, a 37-year-old first-term Republican from Florida, said at his sentencing in D.C. Superior Court that he plans to enter an inpatient drug treatment program in Naples, Florida. It wasn’t immediately clear how long he would be in treatment.

The plea and sentence were part of a deal that Radel’s attorney struck with federal prosecutors. He could have received a maximum sentence of 180 days imprisonment or a $1,000 fine, or both. Instead, he was placed on one year probation, and if it is “successfully completed,” his guilty plea will be cleared from his record.

Then the brutal case of Congresswoman Grace Meng who was mugged last night on the way home –

Rep. Grace Meng attacked, robbed

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), a freshman lawmaker from the New York City area, was attacked and robbed Tuesday evening in the Eastern Market area.

Meng said she had just said goodnight to a friend she had dinner with in the neighborhood about 8:30 p.m. when she was attacked from behind.

Responding police officers found Meng disoriented at 2nd St. and Independence Avenue SE with bruising and swelling to the back of the left side of her head, and injuries to her left knee, hand and face. Meng was not able to remember where she was robbed or describe her assailant or assailants, according to a D.C. police report.

All Meng could tell police was that she had dinner on 8th Street SE and her black Gucci tote bag was stolen during the attack. Medics evaluated her at the scene then took Meng to George Washington University hospital. The report described her injuries as abrasion, swelling, bruises and unconsciousness.

No arrests have been made in the case, but an “active, open investigation” is underway, according to U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Lt. Kimberly Schneider.

By Wednesday, she was back on Capitol Hill for a series of procedural votes in the afternoon. She missed the first two votes of the day in the 1 p.m. hour, but arrived in time to cast votes all afternoon. As she left the House Chamber Wednesday evening, she told reporters she was “just taking it a little slower today.”

“I’m from New York City and I have not been mugged like that. But the Capitol Police were great, the D.C. Police Department was very helpful,” she said.

 

 

 

Shot the Sheriff… Robbed the Judge!

Dayam! Even Supreme Court Justices get robbed! Notice it’s the “Liberal” Justices getting robbed…

With conservatives it’s the other way around.

Justice Breyer Robbed at Machete-Point

A machete-wielding intruder robbed Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at his Caribbean vacation home last week, theAP reports. Breyer, 73, his wife Joanna, and guests were surprised to see the robber in their house on the island of Nevis at about 9pm last Thursday. The robber snatched about $1,000 in cash and left without hurting anyone. No report of an arrest, but the crime was reported.

In case you’re curious, Breyer reported in his last annual disclosure that the Nevis property is worth $100,000 to $250,000. And he’s not the only Supreme Court justice to fall victim to crime. Young men assaulted Justice David Souter while he jogged on a city street in 2004, giving him minor injuries, and a robber stole Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s purse near her Washington home in 1996. Ginsburg wasn’t hurt in the incident.

 

Guy Fawkes Day in America – Moving Money

So what happens if 100,000 people move their money to small banks?

The fees charged by the big banks have gotten progressively ridiculous, and several of the major banks like Bank of America purposefully manipulated customer accounts to maximize overdraft fees to the tune of $2o billion a year…

Bank executives continue to get massive multi-million dollar bonuses… despite the fact it was American taxpayer money that bailed those very same banks out of a crisis created by the banks themselves.

Wall Street Protests Get Specific: Could ‘Bank Transfer Day’ Pit Americans Against Their Big Banks?

The growing anger directed at U.S. banks (especially the big ones that took federal bailout funds) over recent fee increases coalesced this weekend into a Facebook-driven campaign urging Americans to close their accounts at large banks and move their money to credit unions by Nov. 5.

Though not initiated by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and other cities around the country, the effort has been embraced by the protesters, and their “We are the 99%” mantra is all over the “Bank Transfer Day” Facebook page — making this the first specific action by a political movement that has been criticized as unfocused and incoherent.

Bank Transfer Day was started by a 27-year-old Los Angeles art-gallery owner, Kristen Christian. She says she’s not affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protesters but that many organizers of those demonstrations had reached out to her to express support.

Christian chose Nov. 5 because of its association with 17th century British folk hero Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the House of Lords but was captured on that date in 1605. In an interview with the Village Voice, however, Christian and Occupy Wall Street leaders who discussed the effort to get Americans to move their money from large banks to small institutions emphasized that they weren’t trying to create a collapse of the financial system. ”I’ve been very careful to state that this is not … anarchy,” Christian told the Voice. “It’s shifting the money to a company people respect the practices of. It’s like, if you don’t like Walmart’s practices, shopping at a local grocery store instead.”

 

Arizona Nevada Sue Bank of America For Fraud

Seems that Bank of America has been defrauding customers (what else is new?) in a whole new way. The current scam involves getting delinquent customers to continue to pay with promises that their payments will forestall foreclosure…

And then foreclosing anyway.

B of A even did “Press Releases” –

Bank of America Helps 125,000 Homeowners With “Making Home Affordable” Loan Modifications

Starting November 1st, Bank of America’s will have surpassed its goal of providing 125,000 trial loan modifications through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).  These modifications, part of the Making Home Affordable Program, aim to resolve loan issues by offering an incentive for banks to accept modifications to a loans terms, rather than simply foreclosing on the home.

This is the same bank which for years ran the scam of cascading customer checking accounts to maximize the overdraft penalties, and who set up a late payment structure on their credit cards which taxed consumers $35 a month regardless of when they made the payment.

So it really isn’t a surprise that this is what they really did…

Two States Sue Bank of America Over Mortgages

The attorneys general of Arizona and Nevada on Friday filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, accusing it of engaging in “widespread fraud” by misleading customers with “false promises” about their eligibility for modifications on their home mortgages.

In withering complaints filed in state courts in both states, the attorneys general accused Bank of America of assuring customers that they would not be foreclosed upon while they were seeking loan modifications, only to proceed with foreclosures anyway; of falsely telling customers that they must be in default to obtain a modification; of promising that the modifications would be made permanent if they completed a trial period, only to renege on the deal; and of conjuring up bogus reasons for denying modifications.

“Bank of America’s callous disregard for providing timely, correct information to people in their time of need is truly egregious,” Catherine Cortez Masto, the attorney general of Nevada said in a statement.

Many Nevada homeowners continued “to make mortgage payments they could not afford, running through their savings, their retirement funds or their children’s education funds.”

The lawsuit comes as top prosecutors nationwide are investigating whether the paperwork that banks used to support foreclosure cases often was egregiously sloppy, sometimes relying on robo-signers — employees who signed hundreds of documents a day — to sign sworn court documents.

Tom Miller, Iowa’s attorney general who is heading the multistate investigation into foreclosure fraud allegations, said the two states’ lawsuits would not dilute his inquiry. “It is clear that attorneys general in Arizona and Nevada believe that it is in their two states’ best interests to pursue coordinated civil cases against Bank of America,” he said in a statement.

A Bank of America spokesman, Dan Frahm, said bank officials were disappointed that the lawsuits were filed “at this time,” given the bank’s cooperation with the multistate investigation.

Mr. Frahm disputed the allegations in the lawsuit, saying the bank was committed to making sure no property was foreclosed until the customer had a chance to modify the loan or, if ineligible for a modification, to pursue another solution.

He said the attorneys general didn’t acknowledge the many improvements the bank had made, like providing a single point of contact for customers who have started the modification process and increasing staff to support “homeownership retention initiatives.”

Arizona and Nevada are among the states hardest hit by the housing downturn, and the state attorneys general said their lawsuits were prompted by hundreds of complaints by consumers who sought modifications of their mortgages.

The complaints in the lawsuit in many ways echoed problems encountered by homeowners nationwide who have tried with little luck to obtain mortgage modifications from banks, often through a federal program set up for that purpose. Thousands of homeowners complain that banks repeatedly lose their documents, fail to return calls or foreclose when a homeowner believes he or she is still negotiating a modification.

Indeed, according to the lawsuits, Bank of America’s efforts were the most anemic of the big banks and were not confined to the Western states but rather “reflect a pervasive nationwide pattern and practice of conduct.” The lawsuit noted that Bank of America ranked last in “virtually every homeowner experience metric” monitored in a monthly report on the federal home loan modification program.

Ms. Masto of Nevada said her office’s findings were confirmed by interviews with consumers, former employees, third parties and documents. Former employees said that Bank of America’s modification staff was “chaotic, understaffed and not oriented to customers,” according to a news release. One former employee said, “The main purpose of the training is to teach us how to get customers off the phone in less than 10 minutes.”

Another employee said, “When checking on a borrower’s status, I often found that the modification request had not been dealt with or was so old that the request had become inactive. Yet, I was instructed to inform borrowers that they were ‘active and in status.’ One time I complained to a supervisor that I felt I always was lying to borrowers.”

 

 

Security Guards?

WTF are these clowns “securing”?