Timeline of claims and allegations against Jim Lankford

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These are the claims and allegations against Century 21 Apollo owner Jim Lankford in his dealings involving two Modesto widows, pieced together from an arrest warrant affidavit, Stanislaus County Superior Court civil documents, RealQuest.com and Bee research.

Contacted Thursday, Lankford said, "Of course, everything is unfounded."

1990: Lankford buys from Leonard and Trellis Pyle about 7 acres at the northwest corner of Crows Landing Road and Whitmore Avenue, site of the couple's used car lot and other businesses. Lankford agrees to pay $1.3 million, uses his $130,000 commission as a down payment and signs a note saying he owes $1.07 million. A lawsuit does not explain how the remaining $100,000 would be paid.

1993: Lankford arranges the sale of widow Jewel Young's Modesto home as investment property to Dr. Dennise Davis, requiring that Young carry back a $22,400 note that Davis uses for her down payment on a larger loan. The lender would not have agreed had it known about the secret second-mortgage deal, a bank vice president later tells a district attorney's investigator.

1995: Leonard Pyle dies at age 72. Young dies at age 79.

1996: When Davis learns Young is dead, she stops making payments. Young's heir, nephew Steve Harris, wonders why the money stops but he can't find the relevant paperwork.

1997: Lankford persuades Trellis Pyle to add his name to her bank accounts and several properties, including the car lot, office buildings and rental homes. He also persuades Pyle to sell him an investment home for $80,000, takes a $4,800 commission and signs a note promising to pay her $50,000 with interest, but never does.

1998: Lankford persuades Pyle to revoke a will benefiting more than 70 heirs, except for $95,000 for one daughter and her three children. The rest of her estate -- including the unpaid car lot property note, four homes, and checking and savings accounts -- would go to Lankford.

He also induces Pyle to accept $10,000 toward the car lot property note, lowering principal owed to $1.06 million. This allows him to rewrite the note, putting it in second position behind a $297,500 loan he obtains from another lender, secured by the property.

Additionally, Lankford persuades Pyle to add him to deeds on her home and another rental home. He sells the rental home without her consent, allowing the new owner to use the property to obtain a $32,000 loan, after which the new owner deeds the property back to Lankford and Pyle.

Lankford uses Pyle's home to secure two loans to himself totaling $81,000.

1999: Lankford induces Pyle to make him the sole beneficiary of her insurance policies.

Davis sells the rental home bought from Young six years earlier. Someone forges documents to erase the $22,400 loan from Young to Davis; Lankford signs and legally records the paperwork. Lankford's business associate, Stelios Papadopoulos, notarizes the deal but can't find relevant documents he's required by law to keep when an investigator asks nine years later.

2000: Pyle's attorney reverses some of Lankford's actions with the widow, removing him from Pyle's will and the deed to her home.

2001: With interest, Lankford continues to owe Pyle at least $1.5 million for the car lot property. He gets her to accept $500,000, put in a joint bank account with him. He verbally promises to pay her an additional $500,000, but writes "paid in full" on the payment receipt. With that obligation gone, Lankford uses the property as collateral to secure a $975,000 loan. He sells another of Pyle's properties for $60,200. The deal falls through, but Lankford persuades Pyle to instruct that the title company pay him $55,400.

2002: Pyle sues Lankford, claiming elder abuse, fraud and breach of sales contract.

2005: The civil case, having generated 10 volumes of documents, settles out of court. Both sides agree not to disclose terms; Pyle's daughter, Rema Robertson, later says she received $180,000.

2008: Thirteen years after Young died, her nephew discovers Davis' loan documents in storage. Investigators arrest Lankford, Davis and Papadopoulos. A Bee story about the Young-Davis case prompts Pyle, now 87, to share her dealings with Lankford. Prosecutors continue investigating.