Redman Will Serve Jail Time at Home

Convicted swindler Marshall Redman, who duped 2,500 mostly low-income Latinos into purchasing homes on virtually useless land in the High Desert, began serving his sentence on Monday--but not behind bars. Redman pleaded no contest to grand theft and filing false documents in October, and was sentenced to a year in county jail. But a probation report deemed him eligible for “alternative confinement,” meaning that he will serve his sentence in the comfort of his home.

The 69-year-old former developer will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device, said Deputy Bill Martin, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Typically, Martin said, those ordered to wear such devices are confined to their home or place of work.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area where many of Redman’s victims reside, called the developer’s sentence “a slap on the ankle.”

“This sentence is an affront to people who lost millions of dollars to him,” Antonovich said in a written statement. “The district attorney’s failure to make an example out of Redman’s blatant sale of unusable land to unsuspecting buyers was a sham and a travesty of justice.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, said prosecutors’ hands were tied once Redman was sentenced.

“We don’t determine where he serves his sentence,” Gibbons said. “Once they’re sentenced we have no control.”

Martin, the jail spokesman, said such factors as Redman’s age, lack of prior arrests, and the fact that he was convicted of a nonviolent crime probably contributed to the decision to allow him to serve his time outside jail walls.

C.M. “Bud” Starr, a Kern County prosecutor who sued Redman in civil court in 1994, praised Los Angeles prosecutors for obtaining what he called “a very difficult conviction to get.”

“While I’m sure a lot of people would like to see Marshall Redman go into a mean, ugly jail for a long, long time, at his age, this is a considerable punishment,” Starr said.

Neither Redman nor his lawyer, Harland Braun, were available for comment.

Redman promised his clients a piece of the American Dream, with a house in a clean, safe development far from the sprawl of Los Angeles. But many of his victims found themselves living in makeshift homes without electricity or running water--improvements that were promised but which never materialized.

In a series of articles in 1996, The Times disclosed the extent of Redman’s fraud and the inaction of prosecutors and regulators, despite more than 100 complaints. Photos accompanying the stories showed children studying by candlelight and a girl washing her hair in a rain barrel.

Redman originally faced 29 charges in connection with land fraud. His sentence in October was the result of a plea deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead no contest to seven of the charges against him. He was also fined $10,000.

Many of Redman’s victims, who responded to his ads in Spanish language media, struggled with English and did not fully understand the complex process of buying a home.

The developer took busloads of people from Los Angeles neighborhoods to the site in northeast Los Angeles County, which he promised would one day soon be developed. The scam flourished for years until Redman was sued by Los Angeles and Kern counties in 1994.

Even today, many of Redman’s victims in the Hi Vista development are living in pioneer-like conditions--many are still without electricity and running water--while banks and a court-appointed receiver sort out the developer’s finances.