I’m flabbergasted. How they hell did this man slip through the system?
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said he is only ordering evictions to resume because county prosecutors told him that he was legally bound to carry out foreclosure eviction orders signed by a judge.
“For the people who have been involved with this and think now that because the (Cook County) State’s Attorney’s office has ordered me to go ahead with the evictions that everything’s fine . . . No, we are going to be looking at you for criminal violations,” Dart said. “You may have got through one storm now, the other one is coming.”
Dart singled out Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and GMAC/Ally Financial last month for problems with eviction notices. He said Friday that investigators continue to find problems with bank employees signing off on foreclosure documents they haven’t read, although he did not single out individual companies.
“When we asked a month ago . . . send me an affidavit to say that everything was done legally, not one organization, law firm handling these cases, not one of them sent in one document,” Dart said. “Not one, and they had over a month to do it.”…
I suppose I should point out that this is what EVERY Sherrif’s office in the US should be doing. We know fraud is widespread, they should not just serve.
And I’ll note that this may well boomerang back on corrupt and/or lazy judges. Investigations are bound to turn up that they didn’t do their jobs.
fuyura
Actually, this is the _second_ time he’s halted foreclosures. In October 2008, he stopped for some time, largely (IIRC) because foreclosures were targeting renters who were basically innocent bystanders. This time he’s been told (by the Cook County State’s Attorney) that if a judge signs it, it’s legal and he has to enforce it. He is apparently allowing students at Loyola University law school to examine the documents for irregularities.
I’m astonished too.
Troy
He said out of 400 cases, only twenty were legitimate.
That’s absolutely astounding.
anon2525
Noted previously, but it bears repeating.
Simply: There cannot be “robo-signing”* without “robo-lawyering” (for the banks for a fee), “robo-judging”, and “robo-evictions.”
*Orwell alert: “Call it ‘robo-signing’ in media reports. Otherwise, people might catch on that what’s happening is forgery and perjury.”
anon2525
Fixed HTML: Noted previously…
chicago dyke
ah, life in The Kingdom. i’m reminded of the (possibly apocryphal) story of the time King D the Second met with a newly appoint Shrub, about some matter of a new/improved airport project that would’ve involved fed money. D supposedly told the Chimp something along the lines of “this is my town. i’m King here, and your word and your goons are powerless here. fuck off.” i like to believe it true.
but more generally? i expect a lot of this sort of confrontation to come in the future. sheriffs (and even judges, as little as most voters know them) still have to answer to the middle class home owners who make up the majority of local voters who decided local elections. believe me when i say that in my ‘burb? if the sheriff here were to evict all the underwater/fraudulently foreclosed folks here? no, he wouldn’t survive thru the next election.
still, we’re not quite at the point where individual groups of neighbors pull a ‘grapes of wrath’ moment and show up at foreclosed properties with guns and torches and dare the banksters reps to try to kick people out of their homes. but that day? right around the corner, coming it is.
Carolyn Kay
I love Tom Dart. I wish he hadn’t decided not to run for mayor.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Formerly T-Bear
Over at The Automatic Earth there is a video that should go viral:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPdZmPB36U&feature=player_embedded
from: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tent-cities-homelessness-and-soul-crushing-despair-the-legacy-of-decades-of-government-debt-and-mismanagement-of-the-economy
If these sherifs are what the US is about, …
Phil Perspective
Carolyn:
He would have crushed Rahm. Oh well!!
Carolyn Kay
I hope SOMEbody will crush Rahm, Phil.
Have you seen the ads he’s already running? A bunch of mealy-mouthed mish mash of supposed feel-good phrases.
I can’t believe that corporatist jerk could be our next mayor.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com