The Justice Department and the FBI have launched a review of thousands of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve a new trial because of flawed forensic evidence, officials said Tuesday. The undertaking is the largest post-conviction review ever done by the FBI. It will include cases conducted by all FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners since at least 1985 and may reach earlier if records are available, people familiar with the process said. Such FBI examinations have taken place in federal and local cases across the country, often in violent crimes, such as rape, murder and robbery.
It started all of a sudden last night, upon awakening the computer. My PC is right around 3 years old.
I'm pretty sure it's the fan on my video card. I don't play video games anymore [altho I couldn't resist checking out that online Wolfenstein thing and playing that for a while one night] so this one is just the mid to low end of nVidia's "business graphics" line of cards. (So maybe I don't even need the fan?)
May 15, 2012 |
Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy
bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go,
Norman Rousseau shot himself.
This is the story of what happens when an average couple is up against a giant,
wealthy, powerful bank. Unfortunately the result is what the result always is
when people are on their own against the wealthy and powerful: the bank ends up
with all of their money, takes their house to sell and throws them out onto the
street. In this case the bank is Wells Fargo.
The quick version of this terrible story is that Norman and Oriane Rousseau of Newbury
Park, California were
scammed into a predatory mortgage. But they made their payments anyway, always
paying with a cashier’s check in person at the same branch. Then one day the
bank misapplied their payment and said they still owed the money. This started
a long, nasty process that led to the bank evicting the Rousseaus
from their home.
Here’s the shocker: right at the start the Rousseaus
came up with proof that the bank had received the payment and had cashed the
check. But the bank continued to claim it had missed the payment, gave the Rousseaus the runaround, started applying fees, and used it
as an excuse to foreclose on the house anyway.
The Rousseaus fought back, the bank dragged it out
for so long and pulled so many tricks, getting its way every step of the
process, untilthis last Sunday Norman Rousseau finally gave up and shot
himself in despair – two days before the scheduled eviction, Tuesday, May
15.(The Rousseau’s lawyer just said he was able to win a 2-week delay.)
It is a tragic story, but when you dig into the details it becomes much
worse.
See for yourself.The
court case filed by the Rousseausputs on
the record the facts as they state them. The complaint reads as one more story like so many others that we have been hearing about
the abuses by banks and banksters and the tricks they
pulled on people. Never mind the big “National
Mortgage Settlement” – this story shows that the abuses are still going on,
with the same tragic consequences.
The following describes the facts in the lawsuit filed inNorman
Rousseau and Oriane Rousseau vs. Wells Fargo Bankin
the Superior Court of California, County
of Ventura.
In March 2000, Norman and Oriane Rousseau put 30
percent down to buy a house at 580Wilshire Place, Newbury Park, CA. In the following years
they were solicited to refinance their loan. In October 2007 they met with
the loan officer and “stated that they were only interested in obtaining a
conventional 30-year, fixed-rate loan, and explained their desire to have
consistent payments over the life of the loan.”
They were “assured that they could significantly reduce their monthly
payments, by more than $600 per month, with a lower interest refinance loan.”
The bank assured them that the Payment Option ARM was “the new industry
standard” that had “historically low rates that were continuing to decrease”
and in “the worst case scenario [they were] assured that historical data for
the index indicated that changes in interest rate were slight, and if an
increase should occur it would have a negligible effect on their monthly
payments of no more than a few dollars.”
They should “expect to refinance within the next two years to take advantage
of even more favorable interest rates and as the steadily rising housing values
increased the amount their equity in the property.”
There were lots of assurances, smiles, don’t worry, we’re taking care of
you, etc.
In May 2009 the bank claimed the couple had missed their April payment. They
proved they had made a payment in person at the bank, using a cashier’s check
and that the check had been cashed by the bank. The bank then claimed they had
ordered a stop payment on the check, even though a cashier’s check payment
cannot be stopped.
The runaround began. The bank began harassing them for payment, sometimes as
many as six-eight calls per day, sometimes even late at night. On August 3,
2009 the bank claimed the Rousseaus hadn’t paid June
or July’s payments either, demanding $3,406.50. But then on August 8 the bank
assured them they were current on payments. Then the bank again claimed it had
not been paid and that the bank had been trying to contact them without
success, and that they now owed $3,478,25.
The Rousseaus hired a lawyer. From the lawyer the Rousseaus learned that the loan they received was not the
loan they were promised, including, “the 7.2% interest rate for the loan was
actually higher than the 2006 loan and greater than the 6.8% quoted,” had
enormous fees, and the bank had increased the income the Rousseau had stated,
from $76,000 to $136,800.
In other words, the lender had scammed them to get those fees, which was a
widespread practice at the time.
This continues, with the bank scamming, lying, obfuscating, ignoring,
contradicting, even producing signatures it claimed were the Rousseau’s but
were not, every step of the way. And, of course, adding late fees to the amount
it claimed was due.
In September the bank stopped accepting payments at the branch, saying
checks had to be mailed. About the same time the Rousseaus
applied for a loan modification. They were told they were accepted for review
in the loan modification program, were told the “pre-foreclosure” notices were
“routine” and not to worry about them. Their lawyers were handling getting
documents to the bank, the bank kept claiming it never received them,
etc.
On and on this went, with the bank telling them they were in the loan
modification program while demanding money then refusing to accept money and
demanding documents while saying it had received them, and all the while
proceeding with foreclosure notices. Then they were told they were denied their
loan modification, went through a process to reinstate the loan, back and
forth, late fees, loan fees, unspecified additional fees, more fees, then some
fees, then some non-payment fees, and then given ONE HOUR to send payments to
TEXAS and it goes on and on.
Readthe court case the Rousseaus filed.It’s
all there, and is even worse than this summary.
This is a story of what happens when, as Senator Dick Durbinsaid of the Senateduring the effort to pass
legislation to get the banks under control, “Frankly they own the place.”
This last Sunday the bankers claimed one more victim. Norman Rousseau shot
himself at 10 in the morning. Oriane Rousseau doesn’t
even have the money to bury her husband, she is
looking to the VA for help. If you want to help, please contact their attorney,
Chris Gardas:chrisgardas@comcast.net
Trying to be happy is like trying to build a machine for which the only specification is that it should run noiselessly.