The notary who signed 25,000+ documents in a massive
robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday. Tracy Lawrence was due in court in yesterday and failed to show up. Fly On The Wall had posted:
"Lawrence had earlier admitted to notarizing “tens of thousands of fraudulent documents” as part of a wider foreclosure fraud scheme involving employees of Lender Processing Services (LPS)."Though the cause of death has not been released, we do not believe the coroner has a box to check for "connection-turned-whistle-blower homicide".
MSNBC says:
"Lawrence came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.
Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public.The full indictment is here
Of course the cause of death is either natural or suicide, definitely not homicide, definitely not....really...ok maybe.
From StopForeclosureFraud:
The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing. When her attorney did not hear from her for more than an hour, Sr. Deputy Attorney General Robert Giunta asked for a bench warrant to be issued for Lawrence. The judge denied the request.
Police were sent to Lawrence's house to check on her after her lawyer expressed concern for her client's well-being. They found her body inside her home.
Metro Homicide Detectives are working currently the case. It is unclear if her death was due to natural causes, or if it was a suicide.
Detectives said this afternoon that they have ruled out homicide as a cause of death.
Last Monday, Lawrence pled guilty to only one criminal charge of notary fraud.
Lawrence came forward earlier this month and admitted that she had notarized around 25,000 fraudulent documents as part of a foreclosure fraud scheme.
Title officers Gary Trafford and Geraldine Sheppard of California are allegedly behind the fraud that involved forging signatures on tens of thousands of notices of default between 2005 and 2008. The two were indicted on more than 600 charges in a 439-page indictment filed on November 16.
The Nevada Attorney General is negotiating the terms of surrender for the pair. Both are expected to surrender sometime in December.
