Victims of Alleged Land Fraud Ask County Task Force for Help

Dozens of victims of an alleged Antelope Valley land fraud scheme appeared Monday at the first public meeting of a county task force organized to prevent such debacles in the future, but they came less to offer suggestions than to plead for help.

“I want my money, soon as possible,” Jose Vizcarra told the Los Angeles County Land Sales Fraud Task Force. “I don’t want to be fooled no more. I’ve been fooled enough.”

The public meeting was the first of its kind since real estate developer Marshall Redman was charged with fraud and theft in May in connection with a scheme that allegedly targeted 1,500 buyers.

Hundreds of working-class Latinos were left without title to land they worked years to purchase from one of Redman’s three companies. As many as 250 are living in near squalor on the High Desert north of Los Angeles, stranded without utilities or running water.

The task force, which includes several agencies, from the county Department of Building and Safety to the state Department of Consumer Affairs, was formed to find out how Redman allegedly got away with such wide-scale fraud, and how to identify such schemes earlier, said Martin Zimmerman of the county’s chief administrative office.

Despite more than 100 inquiries and complaints to half a dozen government agencies, it took authorities 13 years to file a civil lawsuit to halt the sales, and another two years to charge Redman criminally.

The audience of 100 came to Alhambra for help, and to find out if they would be losing their land, which in many cases was sold over and over again to different buyers.

After being criticized for not making clear the sometimes esoteric, bureaucratic goals of the meeting, officials suggested that those with questions about their individual situations meet personally with officials in another room.

Almost the entire audience headed for the door.

As people lined up, titles, deeds and blueprints in hand, officials told them it was going to be a slow process finding out how much they would lose. But in most cases, they said, land, money or both were in jeopardy.

“If it wasn’t a fraud, there wouldn’t be victims,” John Kelly of the county Department of Public Works told Carlos Mendez and his son, also named Carlos. “Unfortunately, you’re victims.”

Like many, the Mendezes had all the documents with all the official stamps and seals. Redman had helped them with the paperwork, they said.

With the son interpreting for his father, however, Kelly told him the land they hoped to build on one day may have been subdivided into parcels so small they could not be legally developed.

“We were going to invest in property, for the future,” the younger Mendez said. “I guess not.”