Legal Staff Profile
Su Casa Es Mi Casa - Not! By Donna McGill Tammie Lou Kapusta has brought the weight of at least 400,000 homes in Florida onto her shoulders. The former David J. Stern Law Firm paralegal has given depositions and testified as to the true crisis the mortgage sector is still in. The difference in what Kapusta says and what her previous employer says are miles apart. She has reiterated her goal of being honest in her testimony; and indeed, she has a lot to lose, so one can only imagine the importance of the truth in her eyes.
Florida has long since led the march in foreclosures in this country; in fact, Florida saw more than 400,000 foreclosures in 2010 alone. That’s remarkable, considering the accusations now flying. In a deposition that’s been published in multiple places online, Kapusta has taken the high road and agreed to spill it all - including her own role in the foreclosure disaster. Among other things, her testimony includes accusations of forged documents, notary stamps that were passed around her office and putting social security numbers with the wrong documents in order to satisfy a judge. She says assignments were completed after judgments were entered, which is absolutely incredible. Home mortgages and their accuracies are as vital as marriage and birth records. She says she and many coworkers forged signatures in an effort to speed the process of foreclosure proceedings and that the ‘’teams’’ would pass around various notary stamps. If one part of the lawsuit lacked a signature or stamp, they would simply pull a signature page from another part of the package, run a copy and then include it where the documentation was lacking in the initial place. It’s important to keep in mind David J. Stern, known as the ‘’king’’ of Florida foreclosures, earned millions last year; so many millions, in fact, he purchased close to $60 million in real estate. This prompted him to consider naming one of his yachts ‘’Su Casa Es Mi Casa’’, which translates to ‘’Your House
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is My House’’. Tacky, to be sure. Eventually, he abandoned that idea and chose ‘’Misunderstood’’ to christen his boat. Rather ironic in hindsight. Very little is misunderstood after Kapusta’s deposition. Stern filed a whopping 70,380 foreclosure proceedings in 2009 alone! His firm is also facing accusations that legal documents - including those with confidential information - were regularly outsourced to other countries. When Kapusta finally drew the line and said, ‘’Enough’’, she was fired. She was employed with Stern’s firm for just more than a year when she was discharged in July, 2009. Her role as a senior paralegal included, according to her testimony, ‘’responsible for my team from initiation to sale’’. When asked to clarify, she said, ‘’I had Aurora Loan Services, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mack…’’ She testified to having twelve thousand files and ‘’twelve girls’’ to help her with the paperwork. She also claimed one of the office managers, Cheryl Samons, would routinely sign legal documents in lieu of the actual lender’s representative signing them. If this is true, the woman forged signatures on legal documents that were filed in Florida courtrooms and resulted in many families being left homeless. Her legal nightmare is yet to even begin. For now, the investigations continue, but one thing is for sure, there will be lawyers across the country closely monitoring these events, not only in Florida, but other states where the waters are only beginning to muddy.
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