Thursday, December 04, 2008

DA investigating claims by widow and others against owner of real estate firm

By GARTH STAPLEY
gstapley@modbee.com

last updated: August 17, 2008 01:09:59 AM

Century 21 Apollo owner Jim Lankford, recently charged with defrauding the heir of a dead woman, also swindled much of another widow's family fortune, she told The Bee.

Prosecutors say they are investigating several complaints about Lankford and invited other potential victims to come forward.

Lankford, 69, said there is no truth to either story and referred inquiries to his civil attorney, Robert Farrace, who refused to answer questions.

Two weeks ago, Lankford, obstetrician Dennise Davis and Century 21 broker Stelios Papadopoulos were charged with forgery, filing a fraudulent document with the county recorder, providing false information to a lender to obtain a mortgage loan and two counts of grand theft. Papadopoulos faces a sixth count of deed-of-trust fraud.

Prosecutors say Lankford arranged for Davis to buy the Modesto home of widow Jewel Young in a deal the lender would not have approved if not deceived. Four years after Young died in 1995, her forged signature appeared on fraudulent documents erasing her $22,400 loan to Davis, notarized by Papadopoulos, and signed and filed by Lankford, prosecutors say.

The three are not in custody. They will be arraigned Aug. 28, said Assistant District Attorney Carol Shipley.

"Of course, everything is unfounded," Lankford said Thursday in a brief telephone conversation. "That's all I have to say."

The Bee was unable to reach Papadopoulos and Davis for comment.

After an Aug. 1 story in The Bee, family members of 87-year-old Trellis Pyle said Lankford gained her confidence upon the death of her husband 13 years ago and sucked away hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next six years.

"I hate him," Pyle said Thursday. "He's a crooked devil. He treated me like a dog."

Pyle's daughter, Rema Robertson of Modesto, said that in 1990 Lankford agreed to pay $1.3 million for the land where Leonard's Used Cars, named for her father, operated at Crows Landing Road and Whitmore Avenue. When Leonard Pyle died five years later, Lankford said he had agreed to the man's secret deathbed request that he take care of Pyle's wife, Robertson said.

Lankford eventually induced Trellis Pyle to will her estate to him, instead of her 70-odd heirs. She also put his name on several property deeds and bank accounts, named him as beneficiary to insurance policies and was duped out of most of the money owed on the original car lot transaction, according to documents from a lawsuit filed in 2002.

Robertson said Lankford made off with more than $800,000 from the car lot property when the case settled out of court three years ago. She contacted a district attorney's investigator, asking about criminal liability, after The Bee's article about Lankford's arrest in the Young matter.

"She still thinks she's a millionaire, in her mind," Robertson said. "I've never had the heart to tell her she's not, because of Mr. Lankford."

No charge of mistreatment

The Modesto attorney who handled Pyle's lawsuit, Stephen Solano, said he urged prosecutors to consider charging Lankford for mistreating his client when he filed Pyle's lawsuit six years ago. But the district attorney's real estate fraud unit, which is handling the case stemming from the Young property, was not established until 2005.

Solano declined to speak more about the case, saying both sides signed a confidentiality agreement.

Lankford said he would answer questions about Pyle "if I had my attorney here." But Farrace, contacted later, cited attorney-client privilege and a personal policy "not to comment on cases concerning clients." Farrace is a former Modesto City Council candidate who lost in 2007 to Dave Lopez.

Five of Lankford's 49 person- ally owned properties in Stanislaus County are in foreclosure, according to RealQuest.com, meaning they eventually could be sold at public auction because the owner is behind on payments to lenders. "Bad times," Lankford said about them.

The house he listed as his residence when he registered to vote, in an exclusive east Modesto neighborhood, is listed on the market with an agent from his office. Though Lankford bought the property three years ago for $995,000, according to documents filed with the Stanislaus County recorder's office, he's asking $599,000 in a short sale, in which a lender might accept less than the amount owed, according to a promotional flier.

DA looking at information

Since The Bee's Aug. 1 story, Shipley said, "We've received a lot of information from a lot of different sources, and we're looking into them to see if in fact there is any crime."

She said "people who believe they've been victims" should contact district attorney investigator Glenn Gulley.

Lankford has no record of disciplinary action, according to the California Department of Real Estate.

Century 21 Apollo's Web site lists 36 agents plus three administrators including Lankford. The site says he opened "this real estate office more than 35 years ago," though an article in The Bee's archive says he joined Papadopoulos in a Century 21 franchise ownership 26 years ago.

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or 578-2390.

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