Charges in Las Vegas robo-signing scheme dropped

A district judge earlier this week tossed charges against two title officers who faced more than 300 counts on allegations that they falsified documents.

Gary Trafford and Gerri Sheppard, both residents of California, were indicted by a grand jury in 2011 and accused of directing and supervising a robo-signing scheme that resulted in tens of thousands of fraudulent documents being filed with the Clark County recorder’s office between 2005 and 2008.

Judge Carolyn Ellsworth on Monday dismissed the indictment, which was brought by the state attorney general’s office. The indictment included 102 felony counts each of offering false instruments for recording and false certification on certain instruments. The indictment also included 102 counts of notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public, a gross misdemeanor.

Ellsworth’s ruling included that the felony charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the attorney general’s office can bring the case back to the grand jury and ask for another indictment. The gross misdemeanor charges were dismissed with prejudice.

But it’s unclear whether state prosecutors will seek another indictment.

A key witness in the case, Tracy Lawrence, committed suicide days after Trafford and Sheppard were indicted in November 2011.

Trafford’s defense attorney, John Hueston, said he is not concerned about another indictment.

“This is an embarrassment for the attorney general’s office. They should have never brought this case against Mr. Trafford,” Hueston said.

He said prosecutors bullied Lawrence into pleading guilty to a crime he said she didn’t commit. On the day she was to be sentenced, she killed herself by overdosing on pain medication, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said prosecutors will look at the evidence in the case before determining whether to refile charges.

State prosecutors suspected Trafford and Sheppard directed fraudulent notarization and filing of documents that were used to initiate foreclosure on local homeowners.

Authorities alleged that notices of default were prepared locally and that Trafford and Sheppard directed their employees to forge their names on documents, then notarize the signatures they just forged.

The default notices — the first step in the foreclosure process — were forged locally to allow them to be filed at the Clark County recorder’s office on the same day they were prepared, authorities said.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review journal.com or 702-380-1039.