Central Florida Clerk Of Court Responds To Foreclosure Mill's Cease & Desist Letter Demanding Removal Of 759-Page Forensic Examination From County Website: 'Take A Hike!'

In Osceola County, Florida, the Osceola News-Gazette reports:

• Among the criticisms that Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez has received for various policies and personnel moves since taking office in 2013, backing down from a legal challenge isn’t one of them.
  
  Ramirez has refused to remove a 759-page forensic examination of property records and mortgage files his auditors claim are fraudulent — and have led to foreclosures that cost local residents their homes — from his office’s website, osceolaclerk.com. The website includes a notice about what constitutes mortgage fraud according to state statute.
  
  This comes after receiving a cease and desist letter from a Tampa law firm whose clients, various lenders, are named in the report.
  
  On Sept. 25, Ramirez received the notice from the Gilbert Garcia Group in Tampa, which claims the report, which was published on Dec. 29. 2014, includes “perceived defamatory statements.”
  
  “The report itself contains serious, untrue, and highly defamatory accusations towards Gilbert Garcia Group,” its managing partner, Michelle Garcia Gilbert, wrote to Ramirez. “Some contain malicious falsehood. By serving as host for the website that publishes the report, the defamatory comments are published to people throughout the state of Florida and beyond its borders, posing a serious threat to the professional reputation of Gilbert Garcia Group. The Osceola Clerk of Court website is continuing to perpetuate information and statements contained within the report which directly questions the reputation of the firm.”
  
  The letter also states the report is libelous and questions the due diligence in verifying Ramirez’s claims of mortgage fraud, and demanded he remove the report and disclaimer from the website and issue the firm an apology. Garcia gave Ramirez 10 days to comply before taking legal actions. As of Tuesday, he had not heard back from Ramirez’s office.
  
  Ramirez sent a return letter on Oct. 1 to the Gilbert Garcia Group, shared with the News-Gazette, noting his legal grounds for publishing the report and that it would continue to appear on the clerk’s website.
  
  “It’s outrageous they’re asking me to remove the report and disclaimer, considering they’re one of the offices that have engaged in producing fraudulent documents,” he said. “We have the legal grounds to keep it up. I have gotten the approval of our Sheriff’s Office and the state attorney to do so. And it’s within my scope of authority as the clerk to do this.”
  
  Just as the law firm had done, Ramirez sent a copy of his letter to the County Attorney’s office and the Board of Osceola County Commissioners. County Attorney Andrew Mai said this week his office it was not involved in the matter.
  
  Ramirez noted Congressman Alan Grayson’s support of his office’s efforts and the forensic exam. He shared a letter Grayson penned to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
  
  “I urge you to view Mr. Ramirez’s report and direct your department to pursue all available legal remedies against any and all persons found to have engaged in the fraud covered by Mr. Ramirez’s examination,” Grayson wrote to Lynch.
  
  Ramirez originally sent the local findings to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, which has yet to return any findings of criminal activity against any banks or lenders. “I think it would be proper for the Attorney General’s office to step in,” he said.

For more, see Clerk defies cease and desist regarding mortgage probe.