Criminals as mortgage brokers

Cary Spivak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that hundreds of loan brokers in Wisconsin have criminal records, including ex-drug dealers, armed robbers and a killer. In his latest installment of the ongoing “Easy Money” series, Spivak mined state and court records to find that many of these license holders have gone on to defraud home buyers and sellers.

In the latest developments from the The Columbus Dispatch series "Test of Convictions," a Columbus man was declared innocent and freed from prison after serving 25 years. He is the second inmate to be tested and released as part of the ongoing investigation of inmate DNA testing. Ohio lawmakers are introducing a bill with sweeping reforms to prevent wrongful convictions and make more inmates eligible for state-funded DNA testing.

A Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.) investigation into filing practices in Monroe County state courts revealed that documents critical to the outcome of countless civil lawsuits have never been made public because they were never filed with the court as required by state rules. The investigation prompted the New York State Office of Court Administration to pledge to issue a new directive to ensure compliance. The OCA claims it will issue the directive to all administrative judges across the state outside of New York City this week in response to the newspaper's report.

"In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone," according to a report by Brian Ross, Richard Esposito and Asa Eslocker of abcnew.com.  Critics of the U.S government's response to the problem claim the federal government is too consumed with al Qaeda and other international terrorist threats to address domestic crime issues.  Kidnappings and other violence related to Mexican drug cartels have been on the rise in the border states of the Southwest.

Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News report that a former police informant in Philadelphia claims that he and a narcotics officer lied about information used to convict alleged drug dealers. The informant, Ventura Martinez, said he fabricated information to earn money, fight the Philadelphia drug trade and to honor his close relationship with narcotics officer Jeffrey Cujdik. According to the article, this admission could potentially affect hundreds of drug cases.

Over 200 U.S. citizens have been killed in Mexico since 2004, according to a report by Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle. "More U.S. citizens suffered unnatural deaths in Mexico than in any other foreign country — excluding military killed in combat zones — from 2004 to 2007, State Department statistics show."  Mexican Congressman Juan Francisco Rivera Bedoya said in an interview with the Chronicle that he believes the people killed were involved in illegal activities or traveling into unsafe areas. The murderers are rarely caught.  The national arrest rate for homicides is 20 percent according to data from the Citizens’ Safety Institute in Mexico City.

A report by Thomas Peele and Bob Butler of The Chauncey Bailey Project states that a delayed raid of Your Black Muslim Bakery likely cost Bailey his life.  Sources have asserted that the raid was delayed for two days due to the vacation schedules of two senior SWAT commanders. "Officers familiar with the raid’s planning and execution say Bailey’s killing could have been prevented if not for the delay. While police did not know Bailey was being targeted, they strongly suspected bakery members had begun a killing spree that had resulted in two July 2007 deaths and described the need for the raid as paramount."

A series in The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the North Carolina probation system. The report reveals that, since 2000, 580 people have killed in North Carolina while under probation officer supervision. Outdated computer systems make it difficult to track new offenses by probationers. Problems, such as growing staff vacancies, have received little attention until two high-profile murders were linked to individuals on probation.

In final installment of the The Miami Herald's Borrowers Betrayed series, reporters Jack Dolan, Matthew Haggman and Rob Barry show the anatomy of a massive mortgage fraud network in Florida that generated $550 million in loans during the housing boom years, and the failure of state regulators to stop one of its lead brokers.