Crowded Jails Keep Two Convicted Foreclosure Rescue Scam Artists From Doing Hard Time

In Stanislaus County, California, The Modesto Bee reports on the story of Lonni Ashlock and Ronald Buhler, two men who last year pleaded no contest to six felony counts of ripping off troubled and vulnerable homeowners.

• Sentenced in September to a year in the county jail, these con artists have spent no time behind bars. They haven't had to eat jail food or even pick up trash as part of a work crew. To the contrary, they live at home and wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets. The devices don't track their whereabouts -- only whether they are at home. They're supposed to leave only to go to work during a specified window of time, Stanislaus County Sheriff's deputy Royjindar Singh said.

• That stated, Ashlock and Buhler have been spotted in restaurants and movie theaters around town -- wearing their ankle bracelets, of course. That isn't part of the program, Singh said. "They're definitely not allowed to be going to restaurants for dinner, and to movies," he said. It's an honor system, Sheriff Adam Christianson said, and some of them aren't particularly honorable, or they wouldn't be in trouble in the first place. "These are two guys, in my opinion, who deserve to be in custody," the sheriff said. "We don't have the jail space. I'm as upset as anyone about this."

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• Ashlock and Buhler preyed on people about to lose their homes to foreclosure, in some cases praying with them to get them to sign over their deeds for pennies on the dollar. [...] They scammed an 86-year-old woman with dementia, a 66-year-old schizophrenic, a woman with brain lesions and several other disabled people, according to court documents and testimony.

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• They agreed last fall to do a year in jail for the six felony counts rather than face 50 counts and state prison time, if convicted. It already was a light sentence, considering that Bee reporter Garth Stapley found they had acquired at least 142 properties following a similar pattern. Ashlock and Buhler agreed to pay restitution to 19 and 20 families, respectively, and they've been going to court to watch their attorneys hash out how much they'll pay.

For more, see Scam artists avoid jail time, enjoy 'custody'.

Go here for earlier posts on Ashlock & Buhler.

Go here , here , here , and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. whale