Democratic Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid

Democratic Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell

From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

That precedent that permits only mortgage note holders to foreclose on homes in Cuyahoga County was set in 2009 by the state's appellate court for the 8th District.

In 2009 the Ohio Supreme Court in Wells Fargo Bank vs. Jordan refused to hear an appeal and let stand a decision by the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals that says that foreclosure plaintiffs that no longer own the mortgage note for any reason including because the mortgage company has changed hands via either a buyout or merger lack standing to foreclose and that only the mortgage company that receives the monthly mortgage note or that owns the mortgage note can sue for foreclosure.

"A person lacking any right or interest to protect may not invoke the jurisdiction of the court," the decision of the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals reads in part, a decision binding on Cuyahoga County and impacting county foreclosures.

Former Cuyahoga County Judges Bridget McCafferty and Steven Terry were found guilty by an Akron federal court jury of crimes in office earlier this year. McCaffterty received a 14 month prison sentence and Terry, who is Black, has not yet been sentenced. Both say that they are innocent and will appeal their convictions.

O'Donnell has allegedly said that he can do as he pleases in breaking the law and harassing Blacks subject to foreclosure because he is an influential White male Democrat who allegedly "has county prosecutor Bill Mason and the Cleveland FBI wrapped around his fingers."

University Hts police said that Mason mortgage fraud investigator Michael Jackson will be contacted to further the investigation.

O'Donnell, say activists, is corrupt and hates Black people and thinks he is above the law because he is White, male, and a member of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. To date some 50 party affiliates have pleaded guilty to corruption related charges via an ongoing FBI investigation.

Data show that O'Donnell and other judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, with Reid's help, are deflating foreclosure home sales values by as much as 70 to 80 percent, taking a home for instance that the county auditor's office appraised just last year for property taxes purposes for $120 thousand that sales for $140 thousand and handing these type of reduced homes to friends of the Democratic and Republican parties, or back to the mortgage company at a ridiculous and illegal sale price of $36 thousand. (Note: State law makes it a crime to reduce appraisal values and foreclosed homes must, by law, be appraised like any other residential property in Ohio, though Reid says that he has his own appraisal chart for foreclosed homes like former county sheriff Gerald McFaul, who pleaded guilty to crimes in office after leaving it, did). The mortgage company then sales the $140 thousand house, gains a profit, and still demands that the former homeowner pay the difference of $104 thousand on a $140 thousand home sold for $36,000 for public corruption purposes. Consequently, impoverished communities of Cuyahoga County, such as the predominantly Black major-metropolitan City of Cleveland, are being destroyed with foreclosure fraud, fraud that caused Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to unsuccessfully sue 21 mortgage companies and banks  in federal district court on behalf of the city in 2008, including Wells Fargo Bank.

Cuyahoga County foreclosure magistrates Stephen Bucha and Thomas Vozar both ditched O'Donnell in at least one foreclosure case and would not rule and illegally steal a home via a ghost mortgage company of Chase Mortgage with no jurisdiction to even hear the case because ghost mortgage companies by law have no standing to sue for foreclosure pursuant to Wells Fargo vs. Jordan and other case law, and per The Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. Hence, O'Donnell superceded the power of the two magistrates and illegally sold the home to non-existent Chase Mortgage Company for a 70 percent reduction with Reid's help. He then required that the Black homeowner pay the difference in the actual sale price and what he gave it away for to his White male mortgage company friends, and with interest, of course. Through Reid O'Donnell also threatened the Black homeowner, whose mortgage company that he or she pays the note to has not sued for foreclosure (Chase Home Finance Company), to either get out of the home that he or she still owns with Chase Home Finance Mortgage Company, or be dragged out by Sheriff Reid's deputies, all in an illegal fashion.

Community activists are reviewing the foreclosure fraud issue relative to upcoming protests on behalf of disenfranchised homeowners, both Black and White alike.

Since County Executive Ed FitzGerald has adopted ethics rules for county employees like Reid, who was appointed by FitzGerald and the Cuyahoga County Council, questions have arisen as to why he and the 11-member County Council are permitting the activity to the detriment of the Black community and others.

Journalist and Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman can be reached at 216-932-3114 and

Posted By Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman to