Photo By John HoffOn Friday, I ducked into the Marlon Pratt mortgage fraud trial for about 20 minutes, with my son in tow. I'd heard a rumor that Donald Walthall would be taking the stand, and delivering testimony which would pretty much lock the door of Marlon Pratt's prison cell. At about 4 PM, Donald Walthall was indeed on the stand...
Walthall appeared in an impossibly yellow shirt, singing like a canary about how he'd gone ahead and slapped his signature on loan documents when he had not really been the loan officer on those particular loans. Who was the loan officer? Marlon Pratt. According to the testimony, Pratt had been the LOAN OFFICER on loans where he himself was one of the BORROWERS. Talk about your one-stop banking!
The young female juror I call "Polka Dot Girl" elevated her eyebrows and wrote notes at this revelation. On Friday, she was wearing a gray and black striped outfit and seemed quite focused on the testimony.
Donald Walthall testified looking straight ahead at the prosecutor, in a cooperative tone which was mostly meek, though not servile. Walthall did not look toward Marlon Pratt while I observed. Pratt sat with his hand on his chin, wearing a grim look. He wore a conservative gray suit.
According to my 12-year-old son, Alex, some of Pratt's family appeared "nervous." My son saw "foot tapping" and "thumb twiddling" and one woman appeared to be "reading a Bible."
An individual sitting in the front row with the Pratt family bore an incredible resemblance to State Representative Bobby Joe Champion.
At one point, there was testimony about $23,000 which ended up in the hands of an entity called "Pratt Construction." You really have to wonder if "Pratt Construction" has ever put the business end of a hammer to the head of a nail. At one point, a picture of 4122 Bryant Ave. N. was displayed on the screen. At another point, the prosecutor asked Donald Walthall if he'd ever known Marlon's wife, Donna Pratt, to "live in a house this modest." The utterance was objected to by Larry Reed, and successfully. The judge appears to be very even-handed between defense and prosecution, but there is no doubt the testimony being delivered is damning.
Word around the courthouse is the prosecutor, Tom Fabel, is rather "old school" and doesn't rely much on modern devices to put evidence in front of juries. Indeed, a few days ago I saw Fabel presenting a handwritten diagram which actually had a little doodle of a house, like a stick figure man would live inside. However, it should be noted...the diagram was plenty enough to get the job done and certainly had no distracting flashy elements.
Fabel is ably assisted by Kirstin Kanski, who wore a blue suit jacket. Her hair is brown with blonde highlights, cut in a rather casual way. She is tall, pale, calm, apparently in her late 20s.
At one point during an expert's testimony some days ago, a list was projected of the sub prime lenders who were involved with Walthall's company, Universal Mortgage, and it was actually a roll call of the dead. Not a single one of the lenders was still around, each being out of business or in bankruptcy. Here is that morbid, dreary list:
Accredited Home Lenders, Inc.
BNC Mortgage, Inc.
Entrust Mortgage, Inc.
Decision One Mortgage Co.
1st Choice Mortgage
Argent Mortgage Company, LLC
Testimony a few days ago included a witness, Allison Stoehr of Title Nexus in Minnetonka, described as a "legal assistant." A brunette with nicely-permed hair, she appears to be in her early 30s. Another expert was Curtis D. Loewe, whose professional qualifications were so overwhelmingly impressive you had to wonder why he would be required to testify at all. Really, just have him say Marlon Pratt is guilty and let his resume do the convincing.
Loewe has--among a lot of other things--an extensive past career with the attorney general's office and many years of work in regulation. He eventually went to work for Hometown Mortgage, and has been an expert witness in a handful of other trials. Loewe--who doesn't appear at first glance to be as old as he actually must be--is a short, somewhat rotund man with receding hair and a hearing aid. At one point, he was told DO NOT state the names of the defendants in other trials where he has been a witness but, not understanding the question, Loewe blurted out the name "Walthall."
Notably, Larry Reed allowed this moment to pass without objection. Loewe proceeded to give a "history lesson" on the sub prime mortgage mess. These are the moments when "Polka Dot Girl" runs her pen over her lips and appears to be thinking about something much more interesting.
In response to questioning by Defense Attorney Larry Reed, Loewe answered that he currently works on 2 or 3 mortgages a month.
"Two or three a month?" Larry Reed asked, incredulous.
"Market's not as good this year," Loewe answered, which produced laughter in the spectator section but, notably, no laughter among the jurists.
At another point during a break in the proceedings, Larry Reed began to argue with the prosecutor about the order of witnesses. Fabel said the order of the witnesses would depend on how the witnesses responded to subpoenas, and added "you would know more than I would on that." Reed wanted to know WHY he would know more, and Fabel responded, "Because they're YOUR friends." Reed began to sputter out a response when the judge said, "Come into chambers" and both lawyers made a beeline out of the room.
At another point, Prosecutor Brad Johnson was in the room, sitting in the spectator section, fresh off his crushing defeat of Larry Reed in the Larry "Maximum" Maxwell trial.
Reed turned to Johnson and said, "Don't you have a little baby you could be playing with?" Brad answered he would have a chance to "play with her tonight" and asked, "Don't YOU have a little baby?"
"I have no babies," Reed answered.
"You have a granddaughter," Brad answered.
Reed was willing to concede the existence of a granddaughter.
Returning to Friday's proceedings, my son and I left after 20 minutes of testimony by Donald Walthall and went to Pizza Luce near the end of the light rail line, where he had a hot fudge sundae. My son, who is in advanced math classes, has quite a head for numbers and I know this means that, in his life, he may be presented with temptations involving the juggling of figures. Therefore, I thought it was good for my 12-year-old son to see an accused white collar criminal on trial, the family members virtually in a state of mourning, with one of the co-conspirators dressed in canary yellow, singing his birdie song.
Anyway...
Odds of Marlon Pratt beating the rap: 100 to 1.
Odds of Marlon Pratt's family member finishing reading "Extreme Faith" before this long, tedious trial finishes: much, much better than THAT.
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