Service of court papers probed

Las Vegas police are investigating allegations that an unlicensed process serving company submitted false affidavits in justice courts around the valley, potentially disrupting the lives and finances of thousands of civil case defendants.

The company, On Scene Mediations, is alleged to have filed affidavits swearing that it had served defendants with copies of lawsuits, but in many cases the lawsuits were not served, police and court officials said.

That resulted in judgments of default against some defendants because they failed to respond to the lawsuits in a timely manner. Justice Courts handle civil disputes of less than $10,000, usually involving credit card and consumer debt and car repossessions.

On Scene Mediations, run by former Las Vegas police officer Maurice Carroll, did a lot of work for payday loan and debt collection companies, officials said. Authorities are looking at that firm but also might broaden their investigation to cover other process servers.

"Our focus at this time is to see how many victims there are through this company, as well as victims from other companies," Intelligence Lt. Dave Logue said.

Court officials said they don't know how widespread the problem is; Logue estimated thousands of cases could be affected. He said records show that Carroll's company, which was run out of his North Las Vegas home, was doing about $50,000 in business a month, a large volume of work for a company of its kind.

Intelligence detectives raided Carroll's home on July 6, seizing financial and business records.

Detectives are now seeking an arrest warrant for Carroll, 42, who left the police department in 2000 after roughly 10 years of service, on possible charges of perjury and filing false court documents, officials said. Carroll could not be reached for comment.

Most of the cases involving the alleged fraudulent affidavits are in Las Vegas Justice Court, but detectives also have found cases in the North Las Vegas and Henderson justice courts, Logue said.

Las Vegas Justices of the Peace Melissa Saragosa and Diana Sullivan, who dealt primarily with civil cases, asked police to investigate earlier this year after noticing irregularities over a period of months.

"People were showing up in court saying they were never served with papers," Logue said. "Apparently, the companies and the courts were taking (Carroll's) word that they were served properly."

Defendants were able to prove there was no way Carroll's company could have served them with court papers, Saragosa said.

Saragosa said court officials also noticed that some of Carroll's employees reported serving large numbers of defendants on the same day they received the papers from the company's clients. It usually takes more than a day for process servers to find people, she said.

On Scene Mediations has been in operation for several years, but apparently the company has no state or local business licenses. Detectives are concentrating on cases involving the company in the past year, Logue said.

One of those cases involved a $1,061 medical debt a collection agency, Richland Holdings, wanted to collect from Alan Wood and his ex-wife, Janet.

Wood, 60, a longtime Southwest Gas Corp. manager who disputes even owing the $1,061, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he learned Richland Holdings had obtained a default judgment against him only when his pay was to be garnished in June 2009.

"We were totally blind-sided," he said, adding that he and his ex-wife turned to attorney Christopher Reade to help them fight back. The couple presented extensive evidence that they weren't home on the days when a Carroll process server claimed in sworn affidavits that they were served with lawsuit copies, court records show.

"Very simply, this affidavit of service is a sham and a fraud," Alan Wood said in his own affidavit.

In her affidavit, his ex-wife said she was forced to spend "huge attorney's fees having to unwind the fraud in this case."

Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan eventually lifted the default judgment against Wood, who is counter-suing Richland Holdings for allegedly allowing Carroll's company to "abuse the legal process."

Kevin Hansen, an attorney representing Richland Holdings in the case, did not return phone calls.

Wood, who has been interviewed by police, told the Review-Journal that he stepped forward to help expose Carroll's company.

"If they would try to do this to a professional person who has a sound history of being a responsible citizen, then we feel like they were doing this to hundreds and hundreds of other victims who had no power to fight back," he said.

Reade added that he has never seen "a fraud of the scope that is being alleged in this case."

Mechele Ray, executive director of the Nevada Private Investigators License Board, confirmed that Carroll's company is not licensed to operate as a process server. She said her agency investigated a complaint against the company brought by Las Vegas justices of the peace, but she would not discuss the probe.

"We've taken what we feel is the appropriate action at this time," she said.

Independent contractors, such as Carroll, face fines of up to $10,000 if they fail to get a license after a warning from the Private Investigators Board, Ray said.

Among the items police seized from Carroll's home were a shotgun, company payroll records and "paperwork" related to attorney Lizzie Hatcher.

Hatcher, who is not a target of the investigation, did not return phone calls. But in a letter to Las Vegas justices of the peace a week after the raid, Hatcher acknowledged a professional relationship with Carroll. She also said Carroll's mother and grandmother worked for her "years ago."

Hatcher wrote that both she and Carroll were doing work for the payday company Rapid Cash, and that Carroll served roughly 3,000 lawsuits she had filed on that firm's behalf.

Saragosa said both Rapid Cash and Richland Holdings have brought thousands of cases to Justice Court over the past couple of years. .

She said she did not know if On Scene Mediations handled all of those cases, and said officials will have difficulty determining exactly how many cases were tainted.

"That information is not readily available in a searchable format in our case management system," she said. "It would require an hands-on review of every single file, and that would be incredibly costly."

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@review journal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.

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Comments

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1. barbara.pending Jul. 30, 2010 | 9:04 a.m. Report Abuse

   Its funny how you can tell a real debtor from a honest person..geezelouise does it matter if he got served?? If you read each comment you should understand the whole story alittle more.. I guess his EOB wasnt enough so he had to wait for Doctors Bills too oh wait and then letters from Collection agencies oh wait and then they should have delivered the serve with a rose to him on a platter!!

2. geezelouise Jul. 30, 2010 | 8:11 a.m. Report Abuse

   How can they prove they did serve them?

3. K.Pin Jul. 29, 2010 | 9:57 p.m. Report Abuse

   Come on people you have to think about it. How are you proving anything. Alan Wood how can you prove that he wasn't served. Alan Wood and everyone else who owes for bad debt are playing the game of "I Never Received Anything". Come on are you serious! Let's believe Alan Wood because he's an "Honest" person with bad debt. If you missed your court date then just call the attorneys and try and work it out. You made the decision to not pay your bill and you made the decision to toss the document so now you have pay the piper and own up to your responsibilities.

4. barbara.pending Jul. 29, 2010 | 9:08 p.m. Report Abuse

   Heres another point since now I'm fired up about how so many can forget the true meaning of the story..How about the patients that receive checks from Blue Cross Blue Shield I know 2 instances they get over 30k in one lump sum so that they can pay the doctor! You think they do?? No they buy a house and they come right out and say we went shopping sorry we needed the money.. Seriously?? Isnt that stealing?? Those are the ones I strongly believe should be behind bars that is theft! In short we know when we have a bill we know we have to pay it. So why not just pay? I understand we all strugle these days but my goodness set up a payment arrangment!!!! Collection agencies dont bite there still are some great companies that will actually work with you! Try it..

5. barbara.pending Jul. 29, 2010 | 8:46 p.m. Report Abuse

   You know it truley amazes me all these comments are directed towards being served or courts or collection agencies. Seriously everyone has a issue with someone else other then the one not paying his/her bill. I work for a Dr.s Office and its amazing truley amazing how promising everyone is when they are sick and need to be treated and promise everything under the stars that they will pay their bill... Months later nothing not even a answer to the phone ringing. Not even 20.00 a month for us having to save him or giving him/her the prescription he needed. Truley amazing to me. None of this would have to happen if everyone was honest enough to pay their bills on time. Oh Let me hear the comments now on the economy .. 14% unemployment how many times can one person hear this?? Let me tell you about it we hire people and they don't want to work they call off after a week. So the unemployment rate has nothing to do with paying bills on time. Why wait to be served?? Truley you know you owe the bill why wait that long?? Oh because you cant get sued for medical bills? I love this story maybe more people will see that you can get sued for not paying your doctor!!!!!!!!

6. steve.kilgore Jul. 29, 2010 | 5:00 p.m. Report Abuse

   An important part of the legal process is that everyone gets proper notification of an impending legal action. If you don’t know that you are being sued, then you don’t show up in court. When you don’t show up in court, the judge has to make a decision, and most of the time, that decision is not going to be in the favor of the absent party. It’s not the courts that are hiring these guys to serve papers; it’s the local businesses and collection companies. Instead of doing it right by using the constable’s office or sheriff’s office, they save a couple of bucks by handing it to an outfit that will often hire a 19 year old kid on a moped who has 50 papers a day to serve. I work in the Henderson Constable’s Office and I have heard hundreds of stories about the bogus service of papers. Some of the time it is just a nuisance; but often, people suffer real legal injury that can take a lot of time and money to straighten out. The law is very specific about what constitutes a proper legal service whether it’s a summons for a court hearing or a notice for overdue rent. If it is not done correctly, then it’s not legal. There are a lot of good resources available in our state and on the internet to help you understand your rights. Just like Mr. Wood in the article, it’s important to be a strong self advocate if you believe that you have been served legal papers improperly.

7. M.S Jul. 29, 2010 | 3:35 p.m. Report Abuse

   I just want to make one thing clear here. Process servers do not work for the courts clark county or the government. They are private companies hired by private parties to serve people. Get It?
   
   Also, Anyone surprised a member of Metro is behind this corrupt practice?

8. Aon Jul. 29, 2010 | 2:48 p.m. Report Abuse

   I know a lady who got "served" with papers. She found them, a week after the scheduled court appearance, under her front door mat.
   
   She couldn't prove that she hadn't properly been served. Wonder if it was the same company.

9. amilegal Jul. 29, 2010 | 2:24 p.m. Report Abuse

   Does anybody actually think about what they're reading anymore?
   ""People were showing up in court saying they were never served with papers," Logue said"....Can someone please explain to me how exactly these people KNEW to show up in court if they were never served?
   Last I checked, service was legal if it was served at the person's residence to a person of legal age.
   Cmon...do you REALLY think that all of these of so innocent, taken advantage of people WHO BORROWED MONEY AND DIDN'T PAY IT BACK, or OBTAINED SERVICES THEY DIDN'T PAY FOR would LIE?! I'm sure they all greet the process servers with open arms and accept their court papers gracefully...right.
   $50,000 in business a month? At $40 a serve?! Somehow I have a REALLY hard time believing that ANY of these companies are running $50,000 in business a month. They'd have to be serving 1250 people per month.
   I have no clue about On Scene...but it is VERY common practice to operate in NV under DBA's...was this even checked before announcing to the world that they are "unlicensed"?
   As to the comments by the County Commissioner candidate...and the judges who are coincidentally up for re-election this year...this stinks of political positioning. How can you, as elected (or want to be elected)public servants pass judgment against someone without ALL the evidence presented?! Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?
   Welcome to the NEW United States of America where you can't voice your opinion, don't have to work, don't have to pay your bills, don't have the right to defend yourself...
   You should fit right in with our current gov't Jeff.

10. Roger Jul. 29, 2010 | 1:11 p.m. Report Abuse

    Perhaps they need to also investigate cases where the party served was not the correct party, but only had the same name. Seriously, if the process server gets paid upon delivery wouldn't it benefit them to serve as many as they can, regardless if it is the correct person or just some unfortunate person with the same name.

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