Melony Michaels, An Unstoppable Force For Justice, Awaits Word Of A Decision In The Endless Civil Case Spawned By Mortgage Fraud At 1564 Hillside Avenue North...

 

MN DOC mug shots, therefore public domain, of

Larry D. Maxwell, Jerome L. KingRussell, and Tynessia

Snoddy, blog post by John Hoff

It's The Trees That Suffer Most  

Seven thick legal documents are linked here, as follows...

1.) Plaintiff's Reply Memo, 2.) Affidavit, 3.) Another Affidavit, 4.) Objection by Triad, 5.) AIG opposition to motion to amend, 6.) Benjamin R. Kwan Affidavit, 7.) Declaration of Kathryn Torre. 

Pictured above, three of the individuals involved in the mortgage fraud at 1564 Hillside Ave. N. who went to prison: Larry Darnell Maxwell, ("Maximum Maxwell") Jerome Lance KingRussell ("The Imposter Foster") and Tynessia Snoddy. (Snoddy went to prison for a different fraud, but formally admitted involvement in the fraud at 1564 Hillside Ave. N.) 

The Wheels Of Justice Grind Slowly 

The documents linked above tell a tale of justice delayed, denied and (so far) always just-out-of-reach for the victims of an identity theft and mortgage fraud at 1564 Hillside Avenue North...

Melony Michaels and John Foster hold a hefty but so far elusive monetary judgment in excess of $800,000. A company called Triad, which stepped right into the shoes of defendant First USA Title, is trying to argue "We're not the same as First USA. Those are some other guys. We're not them. See? My piggy face has lipstick all over it, and that OTHER pig had no lipstick at all!" 

And of course the insurance company keeps trying to argue, "Due to various technicalities, our position is we owe nothing. By technicalities we mean, of course, it was necessary to say 'Mother, may I?' when this matter was reported to us, and Simon says THAT didn't happen." 

It has been said the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. This case, it seems, has been ground down to the molecular level of justice. These victims wait and wait, and appeal and appeal, with a seemingly inexhaustible reserve of fortitude. 

Because That's Where The Credit's At  

When somebody picked up John Foster's file and thought, "This would be a great identity to steal," that person didn't realize why that was such a bad idea besides the whole idea "crime doesn't pay." A bank robber named Willie Sutton once said he robbed banks because "that's where the money's at." Applying this same criminal logic to identity theft, it would seem like a good idea to steal an identity with a stellar credit rating...like the identity of John Foster, a guy who obsessed about paying his bills on time the way gym rats obsess about the circumference of their biceps. 

But think about it. Why did John Foster have such a good credit rating? It was because he was almost existentially obsessed with making sure every penny went right where it should go. And if pennies were missing or out of place, that had to be accounted for even if it meant hours, days, weeks of tying up loose ends. 

Plus, John Foster's wife Melony Michaels shares Foster's obsession with fiscal accountability and Michaels is, well,  a force of nature. Melony Michaels can read people. 

No, that's not saying enough. Sometimes, Melony Michaels can look right into somebody's soul. Michaels should have been a police detective, but she went down a different path in life. But in life the path you SHOULD have taken has a way of popping up in front of you and saying, "Remember me? The path you should have taken?" 

Though not a trained police detective, Michaels was forced to put together her husband's criminal case: the case of how a pleasant and low-key delivery driver with stellar credit had his identity stolen by the individuals pictured above, and other little fish who got away. The case put together by Michaels was solid enough that real police detectives said, "We will take it from here." 

And they did. And people went to prison. And a whole web of mortgage fraud was revealed. 

The moral of the story? If you're going to steal somebody's identity, ask yourself if it's somebody who will hunt you to the ends of the earth in person or by proxy just to obsessively account for every last missing penny. 

A Force For Good In The Hood? 

If that judgment ever becomes collectible (and a guy can be hopeful on Easter, right?) I believe the Fosters will do something good with that hard-earned blood money. What form doing good will take, precisely, remains to be seen but North Minneapolis is still a place where every rock turned over seems to have a creepy crawly living underneath, connected to a slimy web of other creepy crawlies. Just pick a spot and start digging. 

If Melony Michaels could achieve this much with a freelance criminal investigation she didn't want to undertake, an investigation that was unexpectedly forced upon her family...

Then just imagine what Michaels could pull off when she's HAVING FUN. I hope I am not giving John Foster short shrift, here, but when the topic of the investigation comes up Mr. Foster (a man of few words) just kind of shakes his head and points to his wife as though to say: 

It was her. She did it. She cracked the case. I just went to work to try to keep the bills paid and Melony hunted down the criminals who stole my identity. 

And so everybody sits in wait-and-see mode. We wait to see what the courts will decide and whether there will be victory for John Foster and Melony Micheals...

Or another appeal.

Or even victory followed by yet another appeal! 

I get a feeling this court case will easily outlast this blog, which retires in June. And, well, I'm alright with that...but it sure would be nice to wrap up this epic tale with a big red bow and then attend a victory party with cake and Foster's beer where a check for more than $800,000 is passed around to be touched, held to the light, held aloft for cell phone selfies, even held to the nose and sniffed...

When the wheels of justice "grind exceedingly fine," what does the residue smell like? I would like to hold that check to my face for a moment, inhale deeply, and find out. 

(ADDENDUM, June 15, 2015: This blog post previously characterized John and Melony's quest as less than hopeful. In light of the recent court decision, which didn't go the way John and Melony had hoped, I have--in a rather contrarian way--decided their quest is more hopeful than not, mostly because they won't give up and are on the side of the angels. Therefore once parenthetical comment--the part about the blog post being written on Easter--has been revised)