Hearing over appraiser's license begins
| Monday, Jan 11 2010 06:55 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jan 11 2010 07:05 PM
Images
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Kirksey J. "Mark" Newton Jr., owner of San Joaquin Appraisals, goes before the State Office of Real Estate Appraisers Monday in Bakersfield.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Kirksey J. "Mark" Newton Jr., left, owner of San Joaquin Appraisals, goes before the State Office of Real Estate Appraisers during his hearing in January. Defense attorney Ernest Price is at right.
A hearing before an administrative law judge to decide whether appraiser Kirksey J. "Mark" Newton Jr. should lose his appraiser's license kicked off Monday with the defense questioning the motives of men who told authorities that Newton's appraisal work was at best incompetent, and possibly fraudulent.
Defense attorney Ernest Price described appraisers Gary Crabtree and his son-in-law, James Henderson, as competitors who tried to taint Newton's name to get more work.
"These competitors didn't give up in just reporting to (state regulators) but also contacted the FBI, industry leaders and news media," Price said in opening arguments.
The state Office of Real Estate Appraisers is scrutinizing appraisals done on seven Bakersfield properties by Newton or subordinates working under his supervision at his company, San Joaquin Appraisals.
Those properties were "cherry picked by competitors," Price argued, and "not representative of Mr. Newton's life work."
But the prosecution argued that Newton had time and time again issued inflated or otherwise inaccurate valuations as part of a real estate scam.
"It was an integral part of a real estate fraud that continued from 2005 to 2007," said California Deputy Attorney General Gillian E. Friedman.
Friedman noted that Newton had worked regularly for Crisp, Cole & Associates, a defunct real estate firm whose principals have lost their real estate licenses. David Crisp and his partner, Carl Cole, were buying homes they claimed were principal residences when really they were flipping them for profit, Friedman said.
Both Henderson and Crabtree testified that the properties in question were valued incorrectly, and that comparable sales that would have pointed to a different price were repeatedly ignored.
Outside the hearing, Crabtree said, "I am an equal opportunity snitch," adding that he reported what he thought were problem appraisals wherever he found them.
Newton did not testify Monday and declined a request for an interview.
The hearing is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today. An investigator with the Office of Real Estate Appraisers and a former subordinate of Newton's are among those scheduled to testify.
