Detroit DA Bags Pair For Allegedly Using Forged Deed To Hijack Title To Dead Owner's Home; Probe Triggered By Complaint Of Suspicious Ownership Transfer Filed By Local Resident Affiliated With Homeowners' Asoociation

In Detroit, Michigan, The Detroit News reports:

• Fraud charges have been filed against a Wayne County assistant deputy treasurer and another woman after they allegedly conspired to illegally transfer the home of a deceased woman.
  
  Felicia Ann Tyler served as Wayne County Assistant Deputy Treasurer of Land Management in December 2015, when she allegedly worked with defendant Donna White to fraudulently acquire a home for White [...] in Detroit’s Woodward Village Neighborhood, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
  
  The home belonged to Detroiter Edwina White, who died Sept. 7, 2015, and was not related to Donna White, officials said.
  
  It is alleged that a quitclaim deed was recorded for the home on Dec. 18, 2015, a few months after the homeowner’s death. The home then was transferred to Donna White’s possession on Jan. 7, 2016.
  
  The situation was flagged by a woman affiliated with the Woodward Village Neighborhood Association, after she noticed the property was transferred after Edwina White’s death. This woman filed a fraud complaint with the Wayne County Mortgage and Deed Fraud Unit, officials said.
  
  An investigation revealed that Tyler allegedly destroyed one quitclaim deed on Dec. 18, 2015, and then created a new one bearing a fraudulent signature for Edwina White, officials said. She is accused of violating the Michigan Public Notary Act by notarizing the form without Edwina White’s true signature.
  
  Tyler has been charged with one count of notary public violation, which is a four-year felony. She also has been placed administrative leave without pay from her position at the treasurer’s office.
  
  Donna White has been charged with uttering and publishing a document affecting real property, a 14-year felony; forgery of a document affecting real property, a 14-year felony; and filing a fraudulent conveyance, a three-year felony.
  
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  [Wayne County District Attorney Kim] Worthy called on the public to report suspicious activity.
  
  “Fraudulent transfers of property have the potential to erode our neighborhoods,” she said. “It is important to report fraudulent activity occurring in Wayne County to the Register of Deeds’ Fraud Hotline: (313) 224-5869.”

For more, see County worker faces fraud charges in home transfer.