Developer Sentenced in Vast Land Swindle Case

Los Angeles developer Marshall Redman was sentenced to jail Monday for leading a massive land swindle that defrauded as many as 2,500 buyers and escaped the reach of local and state authorities for years.

Many of his victims ended up living in makeshift homes on undeveloped land in the High Desert, with no running water or electricity. Redman sold the properties to his mostly Spanish-speaking clients on false promises that utilities and other improvements were coming.

In a deal with prosecutors, Redman pleaded no contest to seven felony charges against him, including grand theft and filing false documents. He was sentenced to one year in County Jail, eight years’ probation and a $10,000 fine.

Redman, 69, is to begin serving his sentence Dec. 21. He originally faced 29 charges in connection with the land fraud.

“He’s never going to go sell a piece of land again in his life,” said his lawyer, Harland Braun.

The Times disclosed the extent of Redman’s fraud--a classic California land scam--as well as the inaction of prosecutors and regulators, despite receiving more than 100 complaints. Pictures accompanying the stories showed children studying by candlelight and a girl washing her hair in a rain barrel.

The county agreed to give the desert residents access to county water only after the stories ran.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area where many victims still live, lashed out at the district attorney’s office for giving too lenient a sentence.

“Marshall Redman’s sentence of one year in prison will actually amount to no time in prison, since the probation report will likely recommend a ‘monitoring’ program rather than prison time,” Antonovich said in a statement. “This slap on the wrist is an affront to people who lost millions of dollars to him.”

Prosecutors, however, defended their efforts.

“For a 69-year-old man with no criminal record, not committing a violent felony, I don’t think he got off lightly,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Wenke said.

Even now, with Redman’s punishment decided, the families he defrauded remain in prisons of his design. They live without electricity or running water while banks and a court-appointed receiver tangle over his ill-gotten fortune.

“People are living in very pioneering conditions,” said Father Philip Edwards, who recites Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which serves the remote corner of Los Angeles County where many Redman victims still live. “I fear the problem, when the dust settles, is that people will have lost their money and won’t have rights to the land.”

Redman’s businesses were placed in receivership as a result of civil litigation filed by Los Angeles city attorneys. But distribution of his assets has been delayed by questionable court administration and legal wrangling.

The first court-appointed receiver, Donald Henry, allegedly misspent $1 million of the frozen fortune and fled to Australia. The current receiver has been unable to compensate Redman’s poverty-stricken victims because he is bogged down in a wrestling match with two banks and a group of trusts seeking access to Redman’s fortune.

Many of the families put up tens of thousands of dollars for their dream of home ownership. Mostly poor immigrants who struggled with English as well as the complexities of home buying, they were led to the Antelope Valley by Redman, who advertised in the Spanish-language media.

He took busloads of people from Los Angeles neighborhoods to the dusty northern outskirts of the county to show them land he promised would one day be developed.

Redman’s swindle flourished for years before the Los Angeles and Kern County lawsuits finally stopped him. Zoning officials for the two jurisdictions cited Redman properties more than 100 times for building and subdivision violations, but none of them had much impact on his land sales business.

Even though consumer watchdogs first heard about his sales tactics in 1989, the county Consumer Affairs Department spent three years gathering complaints before referring the case to prosecutors.

After disclosures in The Times, the county set up several groups to help Redman’s victims.

County officials say that they also have since reformed their monitoring of land sales, and a hotline has been set up at (800) 973-3370.