Judges Need to Be Heroes

Hello All:
In the wake of millions of foreclosures, neighborhood destruction, county taxes that support vital community services all but eliminated, one has to wonder why Colorado judges continue to support the public trustee in enforcing foreclosures while homeowners are in the process of seeking relief through loan modifications. It's unfortunate that examples are being set by judges every day in Florida, California, and Massachusetts, examples that do not support lender fraud, illegal foreclosures, shoddy paperwork, and plain missing documents, and Colorado judges are ignoring those examples and precedents and slamming the gavel down on struggling homeowners. Today is January 2, 2012. I am still in my home and on my farm of thirty years. I expect any day that the same judge who heard my rule 120 hearing and refused to allow me to explain my situation with Wells Fargo, the same judge who presided over my lawsuit that I filed as a plaintiff and never got into the courtroom, the same judge who is now in charge of my fate, who will rule shortly on a motion for Reconsideration of the original rule 120 hearing, will again side with the lenders against me and I will still be evicted without ever having my day in court. How can this happen? In light of all the recent court rulings in favor of homeowners, in light of all the evidence of outright fraud (in my case a forged Note), and rulings that consistently uphold UCC law and property rights, why are judges still not erring on the side of caution and siding with the homeowner?

There is so much evidence the lenders lied, cheated, and stole from the American people. If you are one of those borrowers (as I was) who never missed a mortgage payment and think you are insulated from this treachery, think again. It does not matter how current you are on your loan, if a lender in Colorado wants your property, they can take it at any time. It's right in your Deed of Trust that you, the borrower signed. My problem is that Colorado laws and Colorado judges favor the lender. Even when the contract is clearly wrong, evidence exists that something is outright disreputable about lenders insisting on litigating against a borrower instead of working out a solution, judges are still taking the easy way out, not doing their homework, and not ruling justly. I was a witness to a homeowner in court one day waiting outside to enter at his appointed time for a Rule 120 hearing. The lender's attorney stepped outside the courtroom and sat down with the homeowner, who did not speak English very well. The attorney introduced herself to the homeowner, and proceeded to get the person to admit he was in default on his mortgage. Once she had that, she went into the courtroom and I watched in complete horror as this person's home was ordered sold at sale in less than 30 seconds. I don't think the homeowner knew what had just happened to him. He was very confused, and had to be told he could leave after the judge ordered the sale of the home. He never testified, he was never asked WHY he was in default, because Colorado doesn't care WHY you are in default. All Colorado cares about is if you are in default, you lose your home. Doesn't matter how many years you paid on time for your mortgage, how much money you spent improving your home, or how many years you kept the taxes current, what matters to Colorado is you are in DEFAULT. Sounds like a pretty good racket to me, average home $180,000 times 20 or 30 a day occurring in any given county, $3,600,000 a day, times even one day a week, $187,200,000 a year in real estate the lender is collecting. I wonder how much the judge gets for siding with the lender? Maybe he gets a free home out of the deal. Maybe he gets retirement funded completely, maybe he gets a lot of stuff we don't even come close to knowing about. Who knows?


Now, judges could be heroes here instead of jerks. Judges can demand proper paperwork in a rule 120 hearing and if the lender fails to provide it, the judge can demand more evidence to prove debt, default, AND judges can PREVENT FORECLOSURES AND KEEP PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES simply by making the lenders accountable for everything they do, including DECEPTIVE PRACTICES like inducing a homeowner into a loan modification, telling them they have to be three months behind to qualify, and using the dual tracking process of foreclosing on the hapless homeowner while they wait for a loan modification. Judges need to be heroes. They need to look beyond the language of the statutes that keep the lender from being accountable, and they need to look at these foreclosures as individual situations where each case is different. If a borrower applied for a loan modification, that should immediately suspend any foreclosure proceedings until a workout can be accomplished. A judge should look into why contracts should be voided, I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me if the lender encouraged a homeowner to be three months behind to do a loan modification and then forecloses, that practice alone should cancel a contract, and the judge should enforce it. Maybe then, lenders would stop stooping to this despicable, deceitful behavior, if they start losing homeowners and homes because of it.


And don't tell me nobody wants to work it out. That is an outright lie the lenders are continuing to promote. Most people do not want to leave their homes. In the words of Buddy Roemer, "lenders need to be held accountable for their actions". When Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer had a recent interview on MSNBC, he stated: our bank did not foreclose on a single homeowner, foreclosure should be the LAST RESORT, not the first one. Maybe judges should listen more to Buddy Roemer, a banker who gets it, and knows what needs to happen to prevent foreclosures.


I look forward in the coming months to being evicted, but I will not stop trying to change Colorado laws that favor lenders and are in violation of basic property rights of hard working homeowners. HSBC and Wells Fargo think they are going to make an example of me, but believe me, the battle has just begun. If they refuse to settle this illegal foreclosure by doing right by me, I will spend the rest of my life not only lobbying to change our laws, but also making it my life's goal to bring big banks down to their knees, and eliminating laws that favor corporations over people.

Wishing all my friends, acquaintances, and most of all, all you people out there working for lenders and are just trying to do your jobs, do your job better, EXPOSE THE FRAUD, BECOME A WHISTLEBLOWER, QUIT YOUR JOB AND DO SOMETHING ELSE, DO ANYTHING YOU CAN TO NOT SUPPORT THOSE LENDERS WHO HAVE BEEN SINGLED OUT BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LAST APRIL AS COMMITTING FRAUD!!! DON'T WORK FOR THESE PEOPLE AND PERPETRATE THE ABUSES AGAINST PEOPLE! If you have a job with a lender identified by the Federal Government as a fraudulent lender, move your loans, refinance your vehicles, your mortgage, with someone local, and do not do business with your employer.  I know, and you know, that someone close to you has been hurt by a lender, the only way to get this to stop is to start from within. If you are reading this, you must know that people are being hurt, ruined, damaged emotionally, have become sick from stress and worry, have committed suicide, have children who are emotionally damaged, all because of the loss of their homes that did not have to happen. There is no justification for a lender going forward with the robbery of someone's home, when they were already compensated for it. It is an attempt to clean up books and nothing more, why does nobody understand this???

In the end, we will all sleep better at night if we can eliminate this insidious and virulent force that is among us. We all know what to do, we just need to keep doing it. God Bless all those who have helped us so far, and those who are continuing in the fight for Justice. May you all have a peaceful, less stressful, prosperous and blessed New Year 2012.


Donna Fasi
Sweetwater Herb Farm


Help Save The Farm-Contribute to

Sweetwater Herb Farm
3856 Sweetwater Road
Gypsum, CO 81637