A little over a year ago, I discussed the fact that Nevada was one of the first states to pursue criminal actions against robosigners. Those people indicted were employees of LPS, the document processing and technology services company. I am not sympathetic to perjurers and believe that they ought to have the book thrown at them. Unfortunately, since Nevada is Nevada, the state can't seem to avoid screwing up its good intentions with potential misconduct by the forces of truth, justice, and the American way. According to Housing Wire, the original prosecutor in the case failed to disclose the fact that he "had a 'serious, undisclosed, disabling conflict of interest' -- he'd
received a Notice of Default on his primary residence in September 2011,
identifying LPS as the document processor."
It gets worse. The prosecutor, John Kelleher, claims that his boss, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Masto, was involved in a Nixon-like cover-up.
Kelleher's own mortgage default and engagement with LPS personally were never disclosed to the court, the filing claims. The court filing also argues that Masto's office was aware of the conflict and sought to cover it up both before and after removing him from the case in March of 2012. Kelleher resigned from the AG's office in April.
Kelleher has maintained in a separate media report that he was the target of a private "deal" cut by Masto's office during the multi-state robosigning settlement, a claim Masto has denied
It's tough to seize the moral high ground when you're slip-sliding downhill on a river of mud of your own making. That doesn't mean that state prosecutors shouldn't go after perjurers. It does mean, however, that the prosecutors who lead that charge ought to be at least nominally less corrupt than the people they're prosecuting.
