Mickey Haller 4 - The Fifth Witness

do have to talk in ways that are universally understandable. From stockbrokers to soccer moms, there are twelve minds on the jury and they’ve all been marinated in different life experiences. You have to tell them all the same story. And you only get one chance. That’s the trick. Twelve minds, one story. It’s got to be a story that speaks to each of them.
    Once I established the financial and legal issues my client was facing, I moved on to how the game was played by WestLand and its representative, ALOFT.
    “So when you were given the file on this matter, what was the first thing you did?”
    “Well, you had told me to make a practice of checking all the dates and details. You said to make sure with every case that the petitioner actually has standing, meaning that we needed to make sure that the institution making the claim of foreclosure actually had standing to make such a claim.”
    “But wouldn’t that have been obvious in this case since the Trammels had been making mortgage payments to WestLand for almost four years before their financial difficulties changed things?”
    “Not necessarily, because what we were finding was that the mortgage business exploded in the middle of the decade. So many mortgages were made and then repackaged and resold that in many instances the conveyances were never completed. It didn’t really matter in this case who the Trammels made their mortgage payments to. What mattered was what entity legitimately held the mortgage.”
    “Okay, so what did you find when you checked dates and details on the Trammel foreclosure?”
    Freeman objected again on relevance and she was again overruled. I didn’t need to ask Aronson the question again.
    “When I reviewed the dates and details I found discrepancies and indications of fraud.”
    “Can you describe these indications?”
    “Yes. There was irrefutable evidence that conveyance documents were forged, giving WestLand false standing to seek the foreclosure.”
    “Do you have those documents, Ms. Aronson?”
    “Yes, I do and we are able to display them in our PowerPoint presentation.”
    “Please do.”
    Aronson opened a laptop on the shelf in front of her and started the program. The document in question appeared on the overhead screens and I sought further explanation from Aronson.
    “What are we looking at here, Ms. Aronson?”
    “If I could explain, six years ago Lisa and Jeff Trammel bought their house, obtaining a mortgage through a broker called CityPro Home Loans. CityPro then grouped their mortgage in a portfolio with fifty-nine other mortgages of similar value. The entire portfolio was bought by WestLand. It was up to WestLand at that point to make sure the mortgage for each of those properties was properly conveyed through legal documentation to the bank. But that never happened. The assignment of mortgage in the case of the Trammel home was not done.”
    “How do you know that? Isn’t this the conveyance right here in front of us?”
    I stepped out from behind the lectern and gestured toward the overhead screens.
    Aronson continued. “This document purports to be the assignment of mortgage but if you go to the last page…”
    She hit the down arrow button on her computer and flipped through the document to the final page. It was the signing page, with the signatures of an officer of the bank and a notary as well as the notary’s required state seal.
    “Two things here,” Aronson said. “According to the notarization you see that the document was purportedly signed on March sixth, two thousand seven. This would have been shortly after WestLand bought the mortgage portfolio from CityPro. The signing officer listed here is Michelle Monet. We have so far been unable to find a Michelle Monet who is or was an employee of WestLand National in any capacity at any bank branch or location. The second issue is if you look at the notary seal the expiration date is clearly seen here as two thousand fourteen.”
    She stopped there, just as we had rehearsed, as if the fraud involving the notary seal was obvious to all. I held a long moment as if waiting for more.
    “Okay, what’s wrong with the expiration being two thousand fourteen?”
    “In the state of California notary licenses are awarded for five years. This would mean that this notary’s seal was issued in two thousand nine, yet the date being notarized on this document is March sixth, two thousand seven. This notary seal had not been issued in two