Crisp & Cole appraiser slated for state discipline
| Thursday, Nov 06 2008 03:40 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:39 PM
State regulators want to revoke or suspend the license of Bakersfield real estate appraiser Kirksey J. “Mark” Newton Jr., owner of San Joaquin Appraisals Inc., a complaint served Monday shows.
Newton worked heavily with the now-defunct Crisp & Cole Real Estate agency. His California Avenue office was one of 13 Crisp & Cole-related sites raided by the FBI last fall. No charges have yet been filed in that ongoing federal investigation.
In September 2007, Newton told The Californianhis company had done about 220 appraisals for principals David Crisp and Carl Cole and their mortgage unit, Tower Lending.
The state accusation outlines 10 counts against Newton involving eight properties in Bakersfield. At least five of them were connected to the former Crisp & Cole operation.
Among charges leveled in the 32-page document are allegations Newton agreed to report a predetermined value and that he created “misleading or fraudulent” reports.
The appraisals under scrutiny were done between 2005 and 2007.
Newton called a Californianreporter Thursday morning saying he wanted to discuss the complaint in person. Later in the day, a man left a message saying Newton’s lawyer had since advised him not to comment at this time.
The accusation, from the state Office of Real Estate Appraisers, is being handled by the state Attorney General’s office. No hearing date has been set.
Gillian E. Friedman, the deputy attorney general handling the case, said it is in its “very beginnings.”
If Newton chooses to defend himself, an administrative hearing will be held. Other options include a settlement with regulators.
HIGHLIGHTS
• In October 2006, while working on 10911 Vista Del Rancho Drive for McMillin Mortgage, Newton “accepted an appraisal assignment that was contingent upon the reporting of a predetermined result” or otherwise favored the client, the accusation alleges.
• A July 2005 report on 1902 Heaton St. for Tower Lending — Crisp & Cole’s mortgage arm — “failed to analyze” a transfer the prior year from Crisp, who “gifted” it to himself and Carl and Rebecca Cole, “all as joint tenants,” the accusation says.
Newton’s appraisal also “failed to explain” how he valued the property at $910,000, an 87 percent increase from a $487,500 sale in February 2004.
• An appraisal in July 2006 of 9808 Fitzgerald Drive for Tower Lending “failed to disclose” that the buyer was also the listing agent for the property and that “the buyer received $10,000 from the seller toward the closing costs as well as $37,740 in sales commissions.”
In recent months Crisp had been living at the Fitzgerald Drive house, owned by real estate broker David “Ty” Stewart; it has since gone into default. Stewart was the buyer in 2006, property records show, but is not named in the accusation.
Newton’s son, appraiser Christopher S. Newton, was disciplined earlier this year for work he did as a trainee.
His name is also mentioned in the Nov. 3 accusation, which says the senior Newton supervised his son for the faulty job at 1914 Three Bridges Way done in March 2006 for Tower Lending. Regulators had previously declined to say who the supervising appraiser had been.
Work done by another then-trainee, Michael Wood, is mentioned in three of the ten cases.
