Monday, July 12, 2010

How to Bribe a Judge

Assistance With Debt Repayment is Sure to Gain His Favor
Taking out large sums of money in the form of property loans and later paying them back is one method that a judge might employ to conceal the fact that he or she is being enriched from an outside source. When a judge's income is inadequate to serve as the source of loan repayments, it is likely that the funds are coming from somewhere else.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA — Several years ago, all of the county's probate and conservatorship cases were moved to the Redlands Courthouse, and most of these cases were subsequently heard by Judge James M. Welch.

Recent documents obtained by the Sentinel point to suspicious financial activity by Welch, who at one point in time was the presiding judge of San Bernardino County. Welch was featured in an article in the Sentinel on June 12th of this year in a lengthy exposé regarding questionable business practices by Melodie Z. Scott, a professional fiduciary and conservator for the elderly. Scott is President of C.A.R.E., Inc., located at 25 E. State Street in Redlands, right around the corner from the courthouse.

The activities by Scott cited by the Sentinel as questionable involved giving conservatee property to her own family members, overcharges on her clients' accounts, missing monies from clients' accounts, selling conservatee property at bargain basement rates only to have the property jump in value and resold the next year, withholding medical care from conservatees resulting in death, and allegations of possible undue influence on judges.

The documents uncovered relating to Judge Welch reveal that he has mortgaged his primary residence, located in the 300 block of La Colina in Redlands several times in recent years, encumbering it with loans which could not possibly be paid back on a judge's salary in the brief turn-around time indicated by the reconveyances (repayment of loans). The document numbers and the size of the loans follow:

In 1998, Welch and his wife, Ginny, took out a loan for $217,200 on their La Colina residence, which was fully paid back in March of 2003. The reconveyance document number attached to this transaction is 2003-0173087.

In February of 2003, James and Ginny Welch took out another loan on their residence, this time for $234,000. This was fully paid back by June 10, 2004, as listed in document number 2004-0410928.

Another loan was taken out by the Welches on May 17, 2004, as listed in document number 2004-0353533. This loan was for $358,965.71.

Messages were left with Welch's secretary, inquiring as to where the money was going and how he was paying these loans back. The possibility that Welch was taking out loans and investing the money, then paying back the loans with the proceeds was considered and discarded. For the last seven years, Welch has reported to the Fair Political Practices Commission on his form 700 financial disclosure statements that he has no investments.

A query was also left with Judge Welch's secretary as to three property transactions recorded in neighboring Riverside County, attributed to a James Michael Welch, Trustee.

Judge Welch has declined to comment. Presiding judge Jim McGuire issued a terse letter on August 12th, 2009, in response to an inquiry from the Sentinel about the Welch loans and Riverside County transactions. McGuire stated:

Please be advised that I have received and reviewed your letter of August 11, 2009. Please be further advised that I am an administrative presiding judge and, therefore, my review jurisdiction is limited. Nothing contained in your letter is of a nature over which I would have review jurisdiction. Any request for review or investigation by me is, therefore, denied.

There has been no confirmation or denial from the court as to whether Welch's exodus from his probate assignment in Redlands had any bearing on the recent media scrutiny given his actions as a judge or his apparent bias towards cases involving Melodie Scott, who recently launched a legal protest concerning the denial of her fiduciary license by the California Professional Fiduciary Bureau.

This practice of judges taking out large loans appears to be widespread and crosses county boundaries. Information gathered on Commissioner John McCoy and Judge Sharon Waters (both of Riverside County) has recently been turned over to a Riverside County district attorney investigator, Jeff Chebahtah. While Chebahtah has acknowledged receipt of the information on the Waters and McCoy loans, he has at press time refused to assign a complaint/case file number. The practice of accepting evidence and refusing to assign a tracking number has been previously explored by this reporter in an article entitled: "How the California Justice System covers up crimes against the elderly: A method to the madness" and appears to be deployed when either the matter is too trivial for the district attorney to take seriously or when there is a political agenda to keep the report out of the system and thus not to investigate at all.

Parenthetically, both McCoy and Waters were recently and consecutively removed from an active case in Riverside Superior Court, following a protest lodged that the loans smacked of pay-offs or bribes.

In San Bernardino County, Judge Steven Mapes ascended to the bench in 2007 and currently sits on Barstow court, following his tenure as an deputy district attorney in San Bernardino. Mapes has also been involved in the loan program, apparently going back to 1998, when he took out a loan on his home on Patricia Drive for over $155,000. He subsequently took out further loans on his property, including loans for $100,000 in 2001 and 2002, another loan for $307,500, also in 2001, one for $88,500 in 2002 and a loan in 2004 which was in excess of the value of the house, recorded at the tax assessor's office as $427,528. This loan was taken out for a resounding $493,000.

More recently, in 2006, he again borrowed money against his property. Since 2001, Judge Steven Mapes has received seven different reconveyances on his loans.

Judge Mapes did not return calls from the Sentinel inquiring as to who was paying back these loans.

Crossposting of this story is for educational purposes under public domain and we in no way mean to infringe upon copyright laws.

From: Janet Phelan, "Judges Involved in Multiple Property Reconveyances," The San Bernardino County Sentinel, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, September 11, 2009. Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist. She can be contacted at janetclairephelan@yahoo.com. Reprinted in accordance with the "fair use" provision of Title 17 U.S.C. § 107 for a non-profit educational purpose.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If someone is compiling a list of corrupt conservators, please add Rondi Jo Opheim & Kanta Jindal from the Santa Clara County, California. Public Guardian's office.

Anonymous said...

Members I have yet to see any name of any judge or attorney who is surported by a court appointed guardian, nor have I seen the name of any health care prison posted. It is my opinion that the following are part of the corruption.Carla Jone Northern Arizona Fiduciaries - Judge Davis Mackey- Shiloh Assisted Living - Patricia Mueller Court Investigator- Lynn Curtis Adult Protective Agency - Attorney John Mull - Attorney Steven Dagilis and Attorney Hans Clugston. The above name people Prescott, Arizona As members we should post the names of those involve for it may help others avoid them in the future. At least they will be warned that the above are not RIGHT -MORAL- ETHICAL- LEGAL-

Anonymous said...

Guardianships are more
often than not all about the money and not at all about the person. Sadly,
in most cases the courts refer to the incompetent person as simply "the
ward" and not by their name which is an effort to dehumanize them. It's more
justifiable to steal from a thing than a person. I've made a point
throughout my ordeal involving my mother and the courts to always correct
the attorneys and even the Magistrate each time they referred to my mother
as "the ward" by stating that "her name is Mrs. Hankins and she is still
alive and still a person and I would request that you refer to her by her
name, just as you do with everyone else involved in this matter, instead of
as the ward". It usually worked for the duration of the hearing that we
would be at at the time but by the next hearing I'd have to correct them
all once again. Why should attorneys and judges get to justify the way that
they are stealing from these people by stripping them of their complete
identity, including their names, by turning them into a thing instead of
allowing them the dignity of remaining a person?

I have always lived my life by the golden rule and I believe that should be
the case for those involved in guardianships as well. Is the way they are
treating these people the way that they would want to be treated if they
were unfortunate enough to be stricken with a disease or injured in a manner
that robbed them of their competence? I think not.

Anonymous said...

I wish it was just a issue about money then I could go on with my life. This is about what my sister and I believe in a country were freedom was never at stake about the greed for MONEY. Now because of what happen to my sister as a American I look at freedom in a much different light. Today I've spent on writting more in my book concerning this issue of court appointed guardians. I have a transcript of the court proceedings and this is the first time in 2 years that I've read them. I am in shock to read that my sister asked the Judge to appoint me 5 different time as guardian and even her stooge court appointed lawyer asked the Judge.
Its all about MONEY not the constitutional rights granted to all americans.