SENTENCING DATE MOVED AGAIN!

It is confirmed that the sentencing date has been moved to April 16th.

The reason given was the defense attorney requested the postponement.

Sentencing Date

March 10, 2009 ~ 9:30 a.m.

U.S Court House ~ 300 South Fourth St. Mpls

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone Peace and Closure in 2009!

TJ Waconia Pays Their Bills?

This is how Jon helped us out if he could? By sending bad checks.

Jon is that your signature or did someone force you to send out bad checks? I assume that is not your fault either?

Keep the rent they did.

Happy Halloween?

"My Dad said Mr. Helgason and Mr. Balko did this to our neighborhood. Do you think they might have candy in their neighborhood?"

Sentencing

According to the US District Probation Office- District of Minnesota, no sentencing date has been set. They did say that it could be sometime in December, but that was not definite.

Abandoned Houses Invite Crime in Minneapolis

As a crime prevention specialist for the Minneapolis Police Department, Tim Hammett knows firsthand the toll that the mortgage foreclosure crisis has taken on the city's North Side. Sometimes it even follows him home.

One day not long ago, Hammett pulled up in front of his house to find a woman ripping the aluminum siding off the empty house across the street, which, like hundreds of North Minneapolis properties, was in foreclosure.

The troubles have been greatly aggravated by an unusual amount of mortgage fraud, says Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Dixon. In one of the most notorious cases, a suburban real estate company, T.J. Waconia, bought numerous houses throughout North Minneapolis, using fraudulent appraisals, federal officials say. The firm's founders pleaded guilty to mail fraud this year, and 141 of its houses were placed in the hands of a court-appointed administrator.
Those houses now sit empty, contributing to the huge glut of abandoned properties and compounding the crime problem.

If not sealed up adequately, many of these vacant properties get taken over by gangs, who use them for drug-dealing and prostitution, says Sgt. Richard Jackson of the Minneapolis Police Problem Properties Unit.

"It brings a lot of the criminal element into the area," Jackson says. "People have to travel in just to get their dope, or they have to travel here to get their prostitution."

In many cases, vandals strip the houses of built-in furniture, appliances and copper piping. At least three vacant North Minneapolis houses have exploded in flames because thieves took the pipes but neglected to shut off the gas, Jackson says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91400652