Lawyer links judge to scheme

In a deposition taken for a trial under way in Las Vegas, an attorney says District Judge Donald Mosley hatched a scheme to help his girlfriend avoid foreclosure on her home.

In a sworn deposition taken in May 2005, Las Vegas attorney James E. Guesman says Mosley in 2001 suggested payroll records could be falsified to make it appear Mosley's girlfriend, Tawanna Crabb, was employed, although she actually had been out of work for months.

Guesman's deposition goes on to say he withdrew as Crabb's bankruptcy lawyer after Mosley suggested that another local attorney could alter employment records to make it appear Crabb worked for the unnamed attorney. Crabb subsequently named Guesman a defendant in her foreclosure-related lawsuit.

His deposition was taken in connection with that lawsuit.

When asked why he stopped representing Crabb, Guesman's deposition states, "The reason I was withdrawing is because I didn't want to commit a felony, bankruptcy fraud."

Guesman's deposition goes on to say Mosley "offered to have an attorney, who I won't name because I didn't talk to that attorney, falsify some employment records so that I could use those as a basis for a wage earner's reorganization, at which time I decided I was getting out of the case."

Mosley said earlier this month that he "would love to discuss" Guesman's allegation, but that he couldn't do so until Judge Jessie Walsh has issued a ruling in Crabb's lawsuit, explaining that it is considered improper for a judge to comment on any aspect of a pending case.

Jean Rosenbluth, a law professor at the University of Southern California, a former federal prosecutor and a former judge, said it's a crime to falsify any court document. Also, if the allegation against Mosley is true, the judge violated judicial ethics, she said.

"You can't falsify documents to a court, and, if a judge had any kind of role in a plan to do that, that is going to be a breach of his ethical responsibilities in that it could be a crime," Rosenbluth said.

However, she said, if the only evidence against Mosley is Guesman's deposition, it would be hard to demonstrate a crime had been committed.

After all, nobody falsified documents or moved forward with any crime, and an unnamed attorney, rather than the judge, would have been the one to actually falsify employment records if the plot had played out, she said.

"Anybody can say what they want under deposition. Other than his (Guesman's) word, there is no way to prove the allegation," Rosenbluth said. "It's very difficult at this time to know what is true. It's impossible, really, because it's just based on what he said."

Guesman could not be reached for comment. Calls to his office were not returned, and he wasn't present when a reporter visited two different addresses listed for him.

Guesman's attorney, William Lewis Wolfbrandt Jr., contacted Guesman, who told him he did not want to comment to the Review-Journal on the Crabb case or the deposition he gave after Crabb sued him.

According to Crabb's complaint, filed in court in March 2002, Crabb worked out a payment plan with her mortgage company, Mortgage Electronic Registration, and Guesman was expected to make regular payments with money given to him by Crabb. Her lawsuit alleges Guesman never made the payments on her behalf before the lender moved ahead with foreclosure proceedings.

The complaint says Guesman kept Crabb's payments and she was unaware the mortgage company proceeded with foreclosure.

Wolfbrandt said he was present when Guesman gave the deposition two years ago, but Wolfbrandt wouldn't comment on the allegation Guesman lodged against Judge Mosley.

Wolfbrandt said Guesman last year paid a "nuisance" settlement to Crabb and that Guesman was dropped as a defendant in Crabb's case.

Crabb also couldn't be reached for comment.

Guesman's deposition says Mosley went to Guesman in late 2000 or early 2001 and asked that he help Crabb file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy after Crabb had received a foreclosure notice for her home on the 3400 block of Wordsworth Street, near Cheyenne Avenue and Rampart Boulevard.

After Guesman withdrew as Crabb's attorney, her bankruptcy case was dismissed and the lender moved ahead with the foreclosure, according to court records and statements made in depositions of Crabb, Mosley and Guesman in the case.

The lawsuit pitted Crabb against her one-time mortgage company, Mortgage Electronic Registration; the foreclosure trustee, Nevada Mortgage Assistance; and Guesman. Although the case is called Tawanna K. Crabb v. Mortgage Electronic Registration et al, Wolfbrandt said Mortgage Electronic, like Guesman, is no longer a defendant.

The trial was temporarily suspended in January so attorneys could prepare final arguments, and Walsh could consider those arguments before ruling.

The case was expected to resume March 14, but that hearing was postponed to March 28. That second hearing, at which a final decision was possible, was postponed until April 11 and then put off again until April 18, according to court administrators.

In Guesman's deposition, he explains that it was important to show bankruptcy court officials that Crabb was employed. Having a job would show that she was trying to get out of debt and was receiving revenue to make future payments.

Even a minimum-wage job would have helped Crabb qualify for protection from debtors that Chapter 13 bankruptcy would have given her, according to Guesman's deposition.

However, following several hospital visits to treat a gastrointestinal disorder in the summer of 2000, Crabb refused to take any job that wouldn't pay her wages comparable to the $50,000 annually she was paid at a "broadcasting" job she had in earlier years, according to Guesman's deposition.

When asked why Crabb didn't get a job, Guesman in his deposition states, "My opinion is that she had visions of grandeur. She had earned, I think, in the area of $50,000 at a job she'd had prior to getting in this financial difficulty, and she wasn't willing to look at any job other than one that would pay in that bracket. And I don't think she had the qualifications to -- at least didn't seem to have qualification to get a job in that bracket. ... I was encouraging her just go out and get a minimum wage job and we could do the reorganization (for the bankruptcy), and she just didn't do that."

Crabb eventually filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which doesn't offer the same level of protection from debtors as the Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection that Crabb had wanted.

A Chapter 7 filing usually leads to liquidation of a person's assets. A Chapter 13 filing, called the "wage earner" bankruptcy, is available to individuals who promise to repay as many debtors as possible from available income.

Crabb's most recent job, according to her own deposition taken in January 2004, had been more than a year before as a paid worker on Mosley's 2002 election campaign.

The first required campaign report for that election, which Mosley submitted to election officials before the September 2002 primary, states Crabb had received $13,000 up to that point.

The second report, turned in just before the general election in November 2002, says Crabb received a $4,000 loan from the campaign for the two-month period of September and October 2002. It's not clear whether the loan was ever paid back.

The third campaign report, filed in January 2003 after the election, says Crabb received $2,000 a month for her work on the campaign.

Crabb's former 1,347-square-foot home, which has been owned by Mortgage Electronic Registration since November 2001, sits on a small lot in a gated community, according to county property records.

Crabb in February 1998 bought the home for about $116,000, according to county property records. For the current year, the two-story, three-bedroom house was assigned a taxable value of $240,957.

Mosley, in a deposition taken in January 2004 for the Crabb lawsuit, stated that he proposed to Crabb that she file for bankruptcy, but that she didn't embrace the proposal and that they never intended to follow through with an actual bankruptcy case.

The lender wasn't cooperating with Crabb at that time, and Mosley wanted Crabb to file for bankruptcy simply to get the lender's attention and prompt the lender to work out a payment plan for Crabb's home, according to Mosley's deposition in the case.

Mosley's deposition states, "It was never anyone's intention to avoid this debt or to have it set aside in any way. In fact, I don't know where you're from, but T.K. (Tawanna Kay Crabb) and I are from Oklahoma, and back there people didn't declare bankruptcy."

Also, in his deposition, Mosley explains that he gave Crabb $22,823 to make a partial payment and prevent the foreclosure, but he states that he can't recall where he got the money that he gave to Crabb.

When asked whether he received the money in the form of a loan from the Clark County Credit Union, Mosley states, "I didn't obtain that through the credit union. And I can't recall who -- I went to some lending agency. I don't recall where it was, but the money is in the credit union now. That's where it was kept."

Mosley's deposition goes on to state, "I can't tell you offhand where I got the money. Someone referred me somewhere."

The judge's deposition also states Mosley wanted to help Crabb contend with her lenders, but the fact he is a judge prevented him from doing more for her.

According to his deposition, "It wasn't for lack of interest certainly, and I was somewhat torn at this time because she was in tears often times over this thing. And as a lawyer, as you can imagine, if your girlfriend or wife is in trouble, you want to go down there and take care of things. As a judge, if I do anything like that, it's considered overreaching, and it's a serious ethical situation. So I have to keep an arm's length from all of this."