Erin Cullaro, a former assistant Florida attorney general who was fired last year after moonlighting for a “foreclosure mill,” continues to serve on a state committee that investigates other lawyers for ethical violations.
Some lawyers and consumer advocates question whether such a position of authority with the Florida Bar is appropriate.
“The bar’s self monitoring leaves much to be desired,” said Lisa Epstein, of Foreclosure Hamlet.org, which tracks cases of foreclosure fraud.
Cullaro, who worked for the attorney general’s economic crimes division in Tampa, was fired in April following a formal reprimand by Gov. Rick Scott’s office, which questioned variations of her signature on legal documents.
Boy oh Boy… I think everyone in Florida needs to examine, re-examine exactly what the heck is going down there. All this funny business is beginning to seem like the new norm.
St. Pete Times-
TALLAHASSEE — For a second time, e-mails to and from Florida Gov. Rick Scott have been deleted in possible violation of state law.
Scott’s team acknowledged in August, months after a Times/Herald request for transition records, that dozens of e-mail accounts had been deleted from a private computer server where the documents were stored.
Now, Scott’s office has confirmed e-mails stored on Scott’s iPad were deleted when a Governor’s Office staffer in charge of technology tried to print the documents. Both incidents have been described as accidental.
Missing from this article is how homeowners are being fraudulently foreclosed upon and how this affects title to the homes.
Once again, homeowners continue to get shafted by those in office.
Just because you have money doesn’t mean you made it because you’re smart!See Video Below…
ST. Pete Times-
TALLAHASSEE — The push is on in Florida to cut the courts out of the foreclosure process.
Supporters of the concept — which is used in nearly 30 states — say it will speed foreclosures, get houses back onto the real estate market and boost the economy.
Opponents say it puts property owners at the mercy of banks.
Gov. Rick Scott, House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos all say they are interested in considering legislation to change Florida laws so judges won’t have to referee foreclosures.
Here is never-before-seen footage of Rick Scott during a deposition in an anti-trust lawsuit against his former company Columbia/HCA Health. Scott’s company was fined a record $1.7 billion on charges of Medicare fraud. Despite being a lawyer and being CEO of one of the nation’s largest hospital chains, Scott evades answers to even the most basic questions. If Scott won’t answer questions when under oath, how can we expect him to be honest with us?
The e-mails run the gamut from details on Scott’s new stationery to the hiring of agency heads to meeting a Florida Supreme Court justice.
Tampa Bay-
The e-mail accounts of Rick Scott and most of the governor-elect’s transition team were deleted soon after he took office, potentially erasing public records that state law requires be kept.
Scott’s team acknowledged for the first time this week that the private company providing e-mail service deleted the records as early as mid January, about the time the Times/Herald first sought transition e-mails.
SENATOR ELEANOR SOBEL, REP. DARREN SOTO PROBE DEEPER INTO FIRINGS OF ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS GENERAL Seek details under Florida’s public records laws of relationships between Tallahassee/mortgage service company under investigation
TALLAHASSEE – State Senator Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood) and Representative Darren Soto (D-Orlando) on Thursday launched a probe of their own into the relationships surrounding the abrupt ouster of two top assistant attorneys general investigating widespread mortgage fraud throughout Florida.
“A number of troubling questions have come to our attention involving past and current employees of the Attorney General’s office and at least one mortgage processing company currently under investigation,” the duo wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi in a formal public records request. “In particular, we are especially concerned with the sudden departure to Lender Processing Services of your former special counsel, Joe Jacquot, and the subsequent dismissal of two apparently top notch foreclosure fraud attorneys – June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards – from the Department of Legal Affairs.”
The circumstances surrounding Jacquot’s abrupt decision to leave the attorney general’s office sparked the lawmakers’ interest after it was learned that he had been hired in May as a senior vice president for Lender Processing Services, a company which had been under investigation for its role in questionable foreclosures throughout Florida. Jacquot had been named earlier this year as Bondi’s “special counsel.” Within approximately one week after his hiring by the company, assistant attorneys general Clarkson and Edwards were told of their dismissal and that the firings of the investigators “came from the top.” Both Clarkson and Edwards had been at the forefront of uncovering shady practices involving so-called “foreclosure mills” and were leading the probe into Lenders Processing Services.
But Jacquot is not the only connection the company shares with Tallahassee. Yet another Lender Processing Services senior vice president previously worked as general counsel and outside general counsel for the governor’s former health care company, Solantic.
The public records request seeks information specifically related to all communications, including Blackberry transmissions such as PINs and text messages involving top attorneys within the Attorney General’s office and the company, including documents relating to an “introductory meeting” held in March. It also seeks additional details on Provest, a Tampa-based mortgage servicing company also investigated by Edwards and Clarkson.
“Given the powerful ties, the high stakes, and the thousands of Florida homeowners on the line, many of whom I represent, the dismissal of June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, and the ties between Tallahassee and these companies are critical,” said Senator Sobel. “The troubling questions surrounding these firings not only beg closer scrutiny, but deserve substantiated answers.”
“This supplemental information request is a sincere attempt to help determine what happened in regards to these dismissals,” added Rep. Soto. “The public deserves a thorough explanation.”
The move by Senator Sobel and Rep. Soto follows their request this week to U.S. Senator Bill Nelson and the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the firings. Last month, Rep. Soto also sought under Florida’s public records laws documentation substantiating claims by Bondi’s office that both Edwards and Clarkson were terminated due to “poor performance.”
A copy of the latest Sobel/Soto public records request is attached.
Jack Luzzo is replacing Marina Garcia-Wood in Family in July, with Luzzo to be replaced by Vic Tobin’s successor. A Senior Judge covers Luzzo’s division until the appointment is made some months from now. We’re hearing it’s Joel Lazarus.
It’s getting interesting …
Excerpt from the email:
Judge Marina Garcia-Wood has graciously offered to take over the foreclosure division in July. Recognizing the disruption that could occur in placing all of the pending foreclosure cases back into division, and after consulting with Judge Tuter, we have decided to maintain a separate foreclosure division. This will be done despite the lack of additional resources such as that appropriates through this fiscal year ending June 30th.
If you’re a foreclosure defense lawyer doing work in Broward County, there are lots of reasons to think Chief Judge Victor Tobin doesn’t side with homeowners. In his tenure at the top of the county’s legal system, he has instituted rules that make it tougher on homeowners to fight foreclosures and resisted changes that would protect them from cases being rushed through the system.
Broward County Chief Judge Victor Tobin is resigning from the bench to work for the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, a South Florida firm that recently paid $2 million to settle a state investigation into its foreclosure practices.
Tobin, 64, announced late Tuesday in a four sentence e-mail to staff at the 17th Circuit Court that his last day will be June 30.
The news shocked foreclosure defense attorneys who said it is unusual for a judge with three years remaining in his term to leave the bench, and questioned the move to a so-called “foreclosure mill.”
According to JAABlog, Broward County Judge Victor Tobin wrote in an email notifying all judges, Gov. Scott that effective June 30, 2011 he will be resigning as Circuit Judge and that effective July 1, 2011 he will return to private practice with the Law Offices ofMarshall C. Watson.
If you recall last October, the Miami Herald published an article about the rocket docket called “Florida judges face avalanche”, where they quote Judge Tobin as saying, “Batter up,” as he finished signing one stack of uncontested foreclosure cases and eyed the next.
What is very puzzling here is exactly when and how discussions came about of possibly working together with a law firm who is under such scrutiny? Inquiring minds do want to know…how this all took place.
The attorney general’s office has fired Erin Cullaro, an assistant Florida attorney general reprimanded last year for moonlighting for a “foreclosure mill.”
The termination follows a second reprimand in March from Gov. Rick Scott’s office, which questioned variations of her signature on legal documents.
The signature that was used to notarize affidavits of “reasonable attorney fees” is not the same signature she was commissioned to use, according to a letter from Scott’s office.
The Honorable Charles T. Canady
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Florida
500 South Duval Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1925
Dear Chief Justice Canady:
On March 22,2011, our office approved a temporary loan of $14,000,000 and requested additional information prior to approving any additional loan amounts. The information provided by your office, and the cost containment measures implemented, show that the remaining loan amount needed to cover the projected deficit through May has been reduced from $28,483,326 to $19,487,027. The Executive Office of the Governor hereby approves an additional loan, not to exceed $19,487,027, from available trust fund balances within the State Treasury to the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund.
Pursuant to section 215.18, Florida Statutes, transfers should only be made as needed to cover deficiencies, and the loan must be repaid as soon as practical, but not later than June 30, 2011.
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