A former Modesto woman was arrested in Georgia over the weekend on a fugitive warrant upon arriving from Central America, more than two years after posting bail on a real estate fraud charge in Stanislaus County.
Monica Lynne Whitten, 44, fled after her July 2009 arrest on suspicion of fraudulently erasing the mortgage on a Modesto home owned by her mother and stepfather, according to court documents. She had posted $25,000 bail.
Prosecution investigators learned that Whitten had connections in Arizona and Venezuela. But attempts to locate her came up empty until U.S. marshals detected a flight itinerary from Costa Rica to Phoenix via Atlanta, documents say.
FBI agents planned to detain Whitten in Arizona, but Atlanta police beat them to it and booked her into Clayton County Jail, according to an online inmate search.
Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge John Freeland on Saturday signed an order increasing Whitten's bail to $500,000. She waived extradition and should arrive in Modesto in a few days, according to the district attorney's office.
Whitten's initial arrest came after an employee in the county clerk-recorder's office tipped off a fraud investigator to suspicious filings purporting to eliminate a mortgage without knowledge of the lender, documents say.
Such schemes are rife in the valley, often encouraged by online scammers and at some public foreclosure relief seminars, a prosecutor told county supervisors two weeks ago in a briefing on real estate fraud.
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