L.A. firefighter, ex-girlfriend plead not guilty in scam

A Los Angeles city firefighter and part-time real estate broker pleaded not guilty today to charges that he and his former girlfriend orchestrated a real estate scam in Hacienda Heights.

Brent Lamont Mathews, 43, is charged with six counts of forgery, three counts of attempting to file a false or forged document and two counts of grand theft. His girlfriend at the time, Joi Rochelle Smith, 33, also pleaded not guilty today to the same charges, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Mathews allegedly put his name on the title of a Hacienda Heights property without the owner's knowledge or consent through a series of forgeries and false filings, prosecutors said.

Mathews allegedly then went on to defraud two investors last year after recruiting them as partners to "flip" the house, the district attorney's office said.

The two victims lost $146,000 in the deal, prosecutors said. Smith, a notary public, notarized key documents used in the scam, prosecutors allege.

If convicted, Mathews and Smith could each be sentenced to 11 years in state prison.

—Robert J. Lopez

Comments

[HOMERUN]

Hopefully the sentence is 22 years in prison...tough on crime must send a messgage to all public employees ...you try to defraud any person (s) and/or jury you will pay for your crimes...
The sentence for this fireman should be loud and clear and a long sentence behind bars...You don't mess with any citizen (s) !

[baloney2]

This firefighter had entirely too much time on his hands.
Wasn't he out fighting the fires around LA?

[Ann]

You are innocent until proven guilty. Let's see what happens in court.

[Dixianne Hawks]

Three weeks before my dad died of Alzhiemers, his wife had him sign a deed to her giving her the property in Long Beach. She had a notary who was the wife of the attorney who created a trust for her, when my dad could not even tell who was in the room with him. Yet the prosecutors there said that was fine and not a crime after all she was his wife and thought that the property should be hers and it didn't matter what he thought when he was ok. He had made it plenty clear that he wanted the property to go to his son. When we found that our mother's name was still on the title, we tried to stop the stepmother from selling it. She sued us, she had an attorney who lied to the court, the judge did not care to look into the title. So they got not only that property, but they got my house that I built while raising two sons, by myself, stick by stick, too. For daring to say that she didn't own it all. I would say that this is a big problem and routine or done all the time, her attorney, different from the one above, and her realter, knew exactly what to do, and the judges all went along to steal this house. A lot of people decided that crime is the way to go way more than just these, everyone who could have turned things around, apparantly got paid something to not do the right thing.