SF Weekly - January 23 2013

32.2 MB·English

by  SF Weekly

JANUARY 23–29, 2013 I volUme 32 I NUmbeR 1
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sf OF THE WEEK ibnu Osta ak blaunndc,h b ouft kthides f efodrs d ursueg tsa.x P drioolrlaitrise sto. SFWEEKLY.COM
| ISSAC.ANTHONY “Put those ‘cute’ old trolleys in a museum
Reader points to a reason for jail crowding:
S The increase in the jail population in Lake Muni needs to pare down to keep up: People where they belong.”
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N County is similar to the increase in county keep wondering about the wisdom of
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NT jail populations statewide due to the running different vehicle systems [“Muni SEBRALEAVES, COMMENTING ON “MUNI OVERTIME: MECHANIC EARNED $140K IN OT LAST YEAR, TOO”
CO corrections realignment bill, which has Overtime: Mechanic Earned $140K in OT
sent a significant number of inmates, who Last Year, Too,” Joe Eskenazi, the Snitch,
| otherwise would have gone to state prison, 1/14]. No wonder Muni has so much
S to the county jails [“Lake County News trouble keeping track of the parts and Rid of Your Gun,” Erin Sherbert, the ing about. The song may be cheesy but that
R Sues Sheriff for Retaliation After Printing mechanics’ schedules. Lose the losing Snitch, 1/11]. If someone wants to honor Dr. is what makes One Direction fans love it.
E
TT ‘Unfavorable Articles’,” Albert Samaha, the systems. Pare down to the efficient ones. Martin Luther King Jr. and his good work LARRYSTYLINSON
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L Snitch 1/16]. This issue has nothing to do Put those “cute” old trolleys in a museum then he must give up his guns? The impli-
with Sheriff Francisco Rivero. where they belong. cation is that if someone doesn’t give up his
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SSPONTE SEBRALEAVES guns, and the means to defend himself and
Y his family, then he must hate Dr. King and
T Letters Policy
CI Feds should focus on violent crimes: I love it Argument relating gun ownership to MLK is all of the work he has done for this country.
E [“Feds Intercept 60 Pounds of Ecstasy wrong: This article is bigoted [“Authorities If someone has guns, then he hates racial We welcome letters to the editor via mail,
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FR Bound for San Francisco,” Albert Samaha, Say MLK Day Is the Perfect Time to Get equality. If he has guns then he must hate e-mail, or fax. Letters may be edited for
A black people. It’s a pathetic argument and length and clarity, and must include your
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UC using Dr. King’s tragic assassination to pan- name, address, and daytime phone num-
S Sherbert Named Director of Online News for SF Newspaper Company der like this is most repugnant. ber (for confirmation only). We prefer let-
| As part of the restructuring related to SF Weekly’s sale to the SF Newspaper Company, which MJK0 ters intended for publication to be 250 to
350 words in length.
Y owns the San Francisco Examiner and the Bay Guardian, Online News Editor Erin Sherbert has Some fans like the video because it’s cheesy:
A
D been named director of online news for all three publications. “I am very pleased Erin has This video is amazing and so funny [“One
HT+ agreed to accept this new position,” says Todd Vogt, president of SFNP. “She has helped to Direction’s ‘Kiss You’: A Ski-Slope, Surf- Mail: Letters, SF Weekly
NIG establish SFWeekly.com as one of the leading sources of online news in the Bay Area. We are Party, Nipple-Tweaking Nightmare,” Rae 55 Francisco, Suite 710
looking forward to Erin’s leadership and guidance in expanding the digital presence of the Ex- Alexandra, All Shook Down, 1/11]. The San Francisco, CA 94133
| aminer and Guardian and leveraging the phenomenal local content produced by our incredi- boys are just being themselves and having Fax: [phone]
bly talented editorial teams.” some fun. There is nothing wrong with E-mail: [email protected]
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R that, so I do not see what the writer is talk-
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The poop on City Hall’s “historic toilets.”
BY JOE ESKENAZI
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Historic preservation-minded are being replaced with sleek, modern com- that the replacement of a century-old EN
San Franciscans rushing to modes. The new toilets will use 1.25 gallons toilet and installation of its successor mention this ad for 10% off TS

City Hall’s second floor men’s per flush as opposed to 5 to 7 gallons. The would be an exceedingly delicate process;
room this month were hit with urinals will require only 1/8 of a gallon per Sunny Jim Rolph’s throne belongs in 1324 Haight St. @ Central, San Francisco |
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capitalization-happy sign noted that the It turns out, however, there are indeed merely old, they can’t go fast enough. S

“Historic Toilets” within would all be “historic toilets” in City Hall, which date “My office is on the fourth floor, and,
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Oasish extremely inefficient, and the clubhouse is its complexity and anticipated cost. great food
dilapidated,” says Alejandra Chiesa, who is Chiesa says she ran through her own “rather
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The Tenderloin’s overseeing Boedekker’s renovation for the painful” gauntlet in the five years of pursuing
Trust for Public Land as project manager. “Most permits. When Boedekker finally reopens it’ll music from
Boedekker Park facelift
of the people in this area are living in single boast fitness equipment, a new playground and PURPLE HAZE S
looks to improve the F
occupancy units and have very little access to full-size basketball court, community gardens, and W
neighborhood.
green space.” and an energy-efficient clubhouse. But will such E
FORTUNATE YOUTH E
Greeting the new year with bulldozers That the park is now inaccessible due to ren- improvements elevate the area or merely make K
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and the boast of a rare resolution kept, ovation only slightly changes its previous state: it a more scenic corner of the drug trade? Y
the Trust for Public Land’s Parks for Before, it was hard to find an entrance, and “When a park isn’t working, it’s usually TODOS SANTOS PLAZA,
People program has concluded a five-year fight even then people sometimes couldn’t get in. because those are places that tend to have
CONCORD
to overhaul the much-maligned Father Alfred E. “The park is often locked and the San Fran- visibility problems, the facilities are declining
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Boedekker Park in the Tenderloin. The commu- cisco Park & Rec had trouble monitoring it due to and in disrepair. And perhaps for those reasons AN
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nity celebrated its groundbreaking Nov. 11 and its low visibility, ‘underground’ clubhouse, and its it’s not being used by families,” says Jennifer A
JAN 26, 12PM-4PM R
the park is poised to reopen in early 2014. labyrinth of fences,” says Chiesa. Isacoff, director of the Parks for People — Bay 2Y
While Boedekker is within walking distance Boedekker’s renovation is the final chapter of Area program. Moving forward, she says, 3 blocks from Concord BART 3-
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for more than 50,000 people, the needle-strewn, a three-park initiative first launched in 2008 with “Surveillance will be better. With the presence AN
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1-acre park is an underwhelming green space for the S.F. Recreation & Park Department. The trust and extension of youth programming into the A
the Tenderloin, which remains one of San Fran- raised $16.5 million with government grants, park, that’s not going to be a place where TICKETS AT: 2RY
cisco’s most densely populated areas, with the corporation funding, and private donations. Of people want to do illicit activities.” WBF2013.EVENTBRITE.COM 9, 2
largest number of families living below the pov- that, $8.5 million will be spent on Boedekker. But that’s next year. For now, Chiesa’s 0
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erty line. The park itself sits near the unofficial The other two parks — Hayes Valley Play- excited. “We can’t believe it’s finally under-
rain or shine,
open-air drug market known as the Gauntlet. ground and Balboa Park — have already been way. It’s taken a village and it will create a
we’ve got you covered
“The fences are foreboding, the layout completed; Boedekker was slated last due to community.” KATIE TANDY
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E SF SketchFeSt Opening night:
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RiffTrax Presents Night of the Shorts IV: SF Sketchfest tribute to
| Childrens Hospital
Riffizens on Patrol
with Lake Bell, Rob Corddry,
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T Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel,
CI with Michael J. nelson, kevin Murphy and Bill corbett of Ken Marino, David Wain and
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Army of Darkness
with Robert glasper, Michael Winslow and the Amy O’neal Dance crew
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Y Welcome to the Dollhouse
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D with peaches christ and
+ 20th Anniversary Reunion
HT heather Matarazzo
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The Thrilling Adventure Hour The Naked Gun
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with Steve Agee, paget Brewster, Jonathan coulton, John DiMaggio, colin hanks,
T John hodgman, gillian Jacobs, keegan-Michael key, Autumn Reeser, John Roderick, and priscilla presley
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A Rider Strong, paul F. tompkins, James Urbaniak, Reggie Watts and more
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Judge John Hodgman LIVE with John Landis
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FI musical guest John Darnielle of the Mountain goats Pootie Tang
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A
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| Kristen Schaal and Friends Wil Wheaton
and paul and Storm
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SI
MU “Conspiracy Theory Live with Jesse Ventura” the nerdist podcast
with chris hardwick
| with James Adomian as Jesse Ventura
celebrity Autobiography
Superego Podcast
with Maria Bamford,
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K with colin hanks, John hodgman, paul F. tompkins and James Urbaniak
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The SF Sketchfest Dozen: Laraine Newman, Maya Rudolph
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Michelle Buteau & Joe Mande
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6
001-016.indd 6 1/18/13 6:05 PM
J
ulie Orr has plenty
of reasons to bounce
a check.
In just a few years,
she’s gone from run-
ning a successful advertising
business to being a single
mom on disability. Hers is
a dilemma of American
life: A leg injury keeps her
from working, but she
can’t afford the surgery
without health insurance.
Yet Orr says her woes
didn’t lead her to write a
bum check at the grocery
store. “Sure, we’ve fallen on tough
times,” says the 54-year-old from
Riverside. “But I’ve never bounced
a check before in my life. I’ve al-
ways been on top of my finances.”
Accidentally overdrawing one’s bank
account isn’t a crime. It is, however, a
hyper-lucrative business, allowing
banks to collect $30 billion a year in
overdraft fees while their customers
frantically swim back to the surface.
Such is the bounty of faulty math.
So Orr was shocked when she
received a letter from the Riverside
District Attorney’s Office accusing
her of fraud.
In May, she wrote a check for $91
at an Albertson’s grocery store. A few
days later, while reviewing her bank
account, she noticed that the check had
bounced. Orr headed back to Albertson’s
to make good on her payment. But she was
told that the store had already placed her in
collections. It was out of the grocer’s hands.
A month later, Orr received a letter from
Prosecutors the district attorney’s office. It inexplicably
accused her of intent to commit fraud, not-
team with ing that she was now eligible for “up to one
year in the county jail.” The only way to avoid
debt collectors criminal charges: participate in the county’s
“voluntary” bad-check restitution program.
“The letter really made me think I’d go to
to terrorize
jail if I didn’t,” she says.
But the DA wanted more than $91 back.
consumers in ways
Though California law restricts the penalty on
bad checks to $25, the letter demanded $333.51,
both highly
which included $175 for a “voluntary” finan-
cial accountability class she’d have to take.
Profitable and
Orr didn’t even consider arguing her inno-
cence. She just wanted the problem solved. So
usually illegal.
she called the phone number on the letter to
make arrangements to pay in cash at the sheriff’s
department. When she was told she could only
send a check to a P.O. box, Orr grew suspicious.
“That’s when I asked if I was actually talking
to someone in the DA’s office,” she says. “And
they said no, that they were a company being
paid to represent the DA.” >> p8
by denise grollmus
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
feature_0123.indd 7 1/18/13 3:30 PM
Checkmate from p7 Take the Riverside DA’s office. Chief ally overdrawn, even though I made several
m Deputy Vicki Hightower says her program deposits,” Schwarm says in court docu-
o
c In fact, Orr had contacted Corrective is meant to target bad-check writers who ments. Her bank erased most of the fees.
y.
kl Solutions, a private company from San intend to defraud victims, not well-meaning But a few months later, Schwarm re-
e
e Clemente. According to its website, it people who accidentally bounce a check. ceived a letter from the Mendocino County
w
sf handles bad-check cases for 140 district “We understand the concerns people have,” district attorney. She’d been accused of
attorneys nationwide — jurisdictions that Hightower says. “That’s why we review the fraud and was ordered to repay the checks,
oversee 65 million people, from Colorado checks before they go to Corrective Solutions. along with penalties and a “diversion fee.”
|
to Florida, Michigan to Washington. And while the correspondence that goes out “I was in a panic,” Schwarm said in court
s Consider it the privatizing of justice. has our logo, it does say that the program documents. “I had never been in trouble with
t
N Instead of investigating bad-check com- is administered by a third-party vendor.” the law before. ... I assumed that I must be in
E
Nt plaints, prosecutors simply pass them along Yet her words don’t appear to match a lot of trouble if I was getting a letter from
co to Corrective Solutions. The company then the facts on the ground. In order to open the district attorney that I could be arrested.”
uses official DA letterhead to threaten jail a bad-check case in Riverside, merchants Schwarm called the number on the
| time if consumers don’t pay up. Corrective only need to provide the check writer’s letter, assuming she was speaking with
s Solutions also runs the “voluntary” financial- information, along with the promise that someone from the DA’s office. She promised
r accountability classes, and prosecutors get a they tried contacting them at least once. to pay as soon as she could. But with her
E
tt cut of the profits while barely lifting a finger. But Riverside’s own records show that husband out of work and eight mouths to
E
l The entire system runs on a one-size-fits- it is routinely threatening jail time for feed, she just kept falling further behind. A
all presumption of guilt. No one’s bothering people who’ve done nothing criminal. year later, she still hadn’t paid her debts.
| to investigate whether the check-writer Courtesy of Adam Levin During the first 10 months of 2012, Cor- The letters and phone calls kept coming.
y was working a scam or merely suffering Former N.J. Consumer Affairs Commissioner rective Solutions sent out 8,973 letters on Then she was pulled over in a traffic
t
ci from a momentary lapse of mathematics. Adam Levin thinks costly financial Riverside’s behalf. Just 23 of those cases stop with her six kids in the car. Schwarm
EE Orr e-mailed Corrective Solutions, say- responsibility classes are “garbage.” were deemed worthy of prosecution. was sure it had to do with the letters. “I
Fr ing she’d be happy to repay the $91 plus a Florida’s Miami-Dade County is even was terrified. I thought ... my children
a $50 fee, though she wanted to skip the “vol- deal from a mortgage company. more lax. There, merchants’ complaints go were going to see me get handcuffed and
k
uc untary” class, which she couldn’t afford. The exemption essentially allowed com- directly to Corrective Solutions, which then taken away. I was giving my children
s Corrective Solutions didn’t respond — panies like Corrective Solutions, BounceBack, decides which ones merit prosecution. instructions on calling their father to
| but the threatening letters kept coming. and Check Diversion Program to operate “Our office has set the intake criteria for come pick them up when I found out that
“When no one wrote me back, I’d had above the law. They can send out notices checks to be accepted into the program,” I was just being warned for not coming
y it,” Orr says. “I’d tried everything, even on DA letterhead, threaten people with jail says Assistant State Attorney Marie Jo Tous- to a complete stop at an intersection.”
a
+D calling the district attorney’s office di- time, and rake in upward of $200 in fines saint. “This criteria ensures that only checks By that point, she was so deep in debt
ht rectly. No one could help me. I just don’t per person. And it’s all perfectly legal. which have violated our Florida statutes are that she filed for bankruptcy. Only after
g
Ni see how this is right, or even legal.” “While the rest of us are playing by eligible for this pre-arrest diversion program.” she consulted an attorney did she discover
the rules, they aren’t,” Schiffman says. Again, the records say otherwise. Of the that it wasn’t the DA sending her all those
| Debtors’ prisons were outlawed in 1833, Consumer advocates and legal experts 1,863 cases opened by Corrective Solutions, letters. It was an Arkansas company called
when America decided it was coun- were horrified. “You don’t hand out guns and only 106 were actually filed in criminal court. District Attorney Technical Services. “The
t
r terproductive to imprison people for badges to just anyone,” says Adam Levin, the “There is no question that defrauding real district attorney had not investigated
a
being broke. In truth, most people avoid their former director of the New Jersey Division someone is a crime,” says Kara Dansky, an me or considered filing charges against me.”
| bills simply because they can’t pay them, not of Consumer Affairs. “And this is effectively ACLU lawyer. “But in these circumstances, Meanwhile, the letters kept coming,
because they’re on the make. creating a gun-and-badge situation for there is no evidence that’s what happened. threatening her with arrest. She eventually
lM “There was a [federal] study done in 1974 people who frankly not only don’t deserve People could have written a check on ac- became part of a class-action lawsuit filed
Fi about why people didn’t pay their debts,” says it, but have a long history of abusing it.” cident, with no intent to defraud. But the by Arons against the company’s owner,
| Bob Hobbs, deputy director of the National Paul Arons, a Washington state consumer- DA isn’t investigating that. ... Instead, debt- Henry Craighead.
Consumer Law Center. “And the number of The suit claimed that District Attorney
at people who could but didn’t pay their debts The enTire sysTem runs on a Technical Services illegally disguised itself
E was 0.4 percent. ... The most typical reasons as a government entity in order to extort
were they lost their jobs, got divorced. Some one-size-fiTs-all presumpTion of penalties and fees. In 2011, a federal court
|
overspent, but were encouraged to. Others awarded 36,000 victims nearly $750,000
c got cheated, and so on and so forth. Some guilT. no one’s boThering in damages.
si
u people had even died. It’s not right, but it’s To invesTigaTe wheTher The check- But it was too late. That same year, Craig-
M
life. And it’s the cost of doing business.” head declared bankruptcy himself and
| Congress passed the Fair Debt Col- wriTer was working a scam or only paid $160,000. He’s now retired and
lection Practices Act in 1978, barring living comfortably in Oregon, says Arons.
merely suffering from a momenTary
collections agencies from threatening “That’s what they do,” Arons says.
y jail time and deceiving consumers. lapse of maThemaTics. “Whenever we win one of these cases, they
l
k “We have members that collect on behalf of declare bankruptcy in order to avoid paying
e the government, from federal student loans out damages. It’s absolutely maddening.”
e
W to meter fines,” says Mark Schiffman of the rights lawyer, agrees. What’s startling, he collection companies are using the auspices The same thing had happened a year
F Association of Credit and Collection Profes- says, isn’t the shady tactics of companies of the DA’s office to threaten someone earlier, when Arons won a similar suit
S
sionals, the industry’s largest trade associa- like Corrective Solutions; it’s the fact that with jail when there is no investigation.” against American Corrective Counseling
tion. “We can’t put the logo of a government district attorneys, charged with protecting Services. A federal court ruled that, despite
agency on our letterhead. We can’t say we’re the public good, are abetting the deception. Corrective Solutions had good reason to the company’s claims of immunity, it had
from the Department of Education. We have “Check collectors have a long history buy immunity from Congress. At the misrepresented itself, made false threats of
3
01 to say that we’re ‘ABC,’ a company working of running scams like pretending they’ll time, the industry was losing one class- prosecution and charged exorbitant penalties.
2
9, on behalf of the Department of Education.” have people arrested, or that they are with action lawsuit after another. Once again, Arons’s clients were unable
2y Yet Congress created a loophole in 2006, government agencies,” says Arons. “I was In 2004, Kristy Schwarm was a stay- to collect on their victory. American Cor-
ar granting what amounts to immunity from shocked to find out that prosecutors were at-home mother of five in Ukiah, with rective also declared bankruptcy, saying it
u
n deception charges for collection agencies actually authorizing check collectors to another child on the way. Over the couldn’t repay investors — despite having
a
-J working on behalf of law enforcement. do this in district attorneys’ names.” course of one week, Schwarm wrote a collected $47 million in fees over the
3
2 Corrective Solutions paid handsomely Congress did include a small caveat in check to Walmart for $69.26 and one to previous four years.
y
r for the bill. Between 2003 and 2006, the the 2006 bill that was supposed to protect FoodMaxx for $83.41, and made an ATM A few months later it was back in busi-
a
nu company spent more than $660,000 on citizens. “The prosecutor must determine withdrawal, according to court records. ness, re-formed as Corrective Solutions
a
J lobbying. It also slathered donations on that probable cause exists to charge a The ATM withdrawal overdrew her and “free and clear” of all liability,
key senators like Connecticut Demo- person with a crime before the program account, racking up seven rejected checks according to court records.
crat Christopher Dodd, who would later sends the letter,” Levin says. Prosecu- and 21 overdraft fees totaling $560. “It had a Today it’s the biggest bad-check
leave office after accepting a sweetheart tors, however, are blowing this off. snowball effect, leaving the account continu- collector of them all.
8
feature_0123.indd 8 1/18/13 3:32 PM
9
Mike Wilhelms is president and you can substantially increase the number
CEO of Corrective Solutions. His of checks in your bad check program.” sfwsfw
LinkedIn profile boasts a photo of The site offers examples from places like NOW ee
ee
a fresh-faced surfer boy in charge of over Palm Beach County, Florida, which switched kk
lyly
200 employees. Los Angeles, San Ber- to BounceBack in 2006 after “merchants .c.c
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nardino, Riverside, and Orange counties and other victims were complaining that OPEN! mm
are his biggest customers, all within driv- they felt intimidated by the people admin-
ing distance of his palm-tree-lined head- istering the program. Check writers com-
quarters in San Clemente, where it’s clear plained of strong-arm collection tactics.” | |
that business Since then, Palm Beach has “passed the CC
Oo
is booming. $1.5 million mark.” Nn
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Consumer-rights lawyers estimate BounceBack won’t discuss its business GRAND OPENING TICKET PRICES: ONLY $5 FOR ADULTS ENen
the company sends out around 2 million practices, believing it’s been unfairly vilified $3 FOR SENIORS AND CHILDREN TS ts
letters annually. (The company did not by the media. “The press usually doesn’t
respond to repeated interview requests.) take anything that we say seriously, so we’ve SF’S MOST COMPREHENSIVE | |
The Corrective Solutions website does begun to decline to make comments,” says
HISTORY TOUR LL
its best to imply that it’s an arm of law company Vice President Gale Krieg. ETet
Tt
enforcement. A slide show gently fades Still, prosecutors eagerly rise to the GOLD RUSH Ee
Rr
in and out with statements about “hold- industry’s defense. BARBARY COAST Ss

ing offenders accountable for their ac- “They’re not just some debt-collection PAN PACIFIC EXPO
tions.” An interactive map shows its company,” Louis Alvarez, head of the Los SHIRLEY TEMPLE BLACK | |
ANTIQUE SLOT MACHINES
140 contracts with DAs nationwide. Angeles DA’s check program, says of Cor- HIPPIE GENERATION Ss
Uu
Nowhere does it say that most of rective Solutions. “What they are doing is SCOTTY MORRIS’ SF PHOTOS CC
Kk
these “offenders” have never been inves- trying to help us recoup money for victims.” SF LEGENDS HALL OF FAME Aa
tigated or formally charged with a crime. The real victims, at least in Alvarez’s WALT DISNEY FAMILY MUSEUM FR Fr
MISSION DOLORES Ee
The site boasts dozens of quotes from mind, aren’t math-challenged consumers, 1906 EARTHQUAKE E Ce C
ALCATRAZ JAIL CELLS ITit
EMPEROR NORTON Y y
“This is effecTively creaTing LGBT LEGENDS
VINTAGE RADIOS | |
a gun-and-badge siTuaTion for people AND MORE!
Nn
IGig
who frankly noT only don’T LOCATED ON THE 4TH FLOOR OF OUR Hh
SF WELCOME CENTER SUTTER T+t+
deserve iT, buT have a long hisTory 449 POWELL @ SUTTER WELL DAYDay
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94012 O
of abusing iT.” 415-986-6896 POST P
SFHISTORYMUSEUM.COM UNION | |
–AdAm Levin, former director, OPEN DAILY 9AM - 5PM SQUARE Aa
new Jersey division of consumer AffAirs Rr
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pleased prosecutors, who sing praises of but merchants who lose more than $120 | |
reduced caseloads and crime rates. Contra billion annually to bad checks, accord- Sir Windsorbach Presents
Costa District Attorney Robert Kochly offers ing to the Federal Reserve. He argues that An Original Musical by Nicholas Weinbach FILFiL
the most telling endorsement, noting he’s Corrective Solutions is simply helping his Directed by Nick Dickson M m
grateful for “more revenue to my office.” overburdened and underfunded office get
District attorneys don’t pay a cent for restitution — while “rehabilitating” check | |
Corrective Solutions’ services. Instead, the writers who are likely guilty of fraud. Ee
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company pays them to run their bad-check “We do get people who made a mis- T t
programs. All a prosecutor must do is hand take, but a good majority of the students
over official letterhead, along with a list of who take our class say that they just pro- | |
bad-check writers and a bit of “case criteria.” crastinated and didn’t intend to pay until Mm
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Between 2005 and 2008, Los Ange- they saw the mail from the DA’s office.” Ss
ICiC
les County raked in more than $1 mil- Yet once again, internal records dis-
lion. Miami-Dade made over $375,000. pel any notion of rampant criminality. In
||
When asked whether Miami-Dade’s 2011, Correction Solutions sent out 33,202
program was little more than a mon- letters on behalf of L.A. County. Fewer
eymaking scheme, Toussaint balks. than 1 percent of those cases were actu- SS
FF
“Diverting such cases out of the criminal ally recommended for prosecution. W W
justice system gives an individual with no “They’ve prosecuted more glue-sniffers
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prior record an opportunity to avoid hav- than bad-check writers in a lot of these Ee
Kk
ing a criminal record,” she says. “It makes counties,” Arons says. “This is not an Ll
Yy
the victim receiver of the worthless check overwhelming problem. The feds keep
whole, and it is done with no cost to the tax- stats on this, and only one in every 200
paying citizens of our community. Pretrial checks doesn’t clear. And of those, about
diversion programs also allow the courts to half clear on redeposit, so we’re talking
JJ
focus on other types of criminal activity.” about 0.5 percent of all checks written.” Made in China ANan
But while prosecutors claim they It’s hard to fault prosecutors for ridding UAua
Rr
cpuarssoee mclooisallede scto,t si eooxnmp aeag ncedon mcthipeesam nto i—e ds fe aoccrrt etuhaasele lsy o le htrheaqevmuei nsreeo lwivnehvsee osrfet i agn anetuairois ntahsne, ca men.d aFn mrpaouoswdt cephrr oatorsg ehecasun tdolres “If Ayo puo dstomn’at ns’es ej oiut rante fiy risnts, iLdeO aO mKu CsiLc OboSxE.R!” 23-J 23-JYAya
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purpose of generating more money. them, admits Scott Burns, executive director Uu
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Take BounceBack, the industry’s second- of the National District Attorneys Association. Fri & Sat at 8pm • Feb 1-23, 2013 RYry
largest player. It owns Check Connection, “The real issue is that prosecutors’ offices 29 29
and makes no bones that generating fees are, almost across the board, underfunded, Bindlestiff Studio , 20, 20
is mission one. while suffering hiring freezes and, in some 185 6th Street, San Francisco 1313
“Is your program suffering from dimin- offices, up to 30 percent cuts in person-
ishing checks?” asks the company’s web- nel,” he says. “The only logical thing is to For ticket information, please visit madeinchinamusical.wordpress.com
site. “Visit Check Connection to learn how prioritize those cases and those >> p10 99
00135771.indd 1 1/18/13 6:18 PM
001-016.indd 9 1/18/13 6:27 PM
10
Checkmate from p9
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cc issues that are the most important.”
y.y.
klkl But by ridding themselves of a headache,
ee
ee they’re creating a new one for consum-
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sfsf B R EW ers, who are presumed guilty without
S investigation or chance of appeal.
That’s the basic sentiment of Ed Griffith,
||
spokesman for the Miami-Dade Office
S s of the State Attorney. He believes that if
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NN a check writer ignores contact by a mer-
EE
NTNt chant, that’s proof enough of a crime. “Your
COco failure to make good on that check is an
issue of intent. The opportunity to make
| | good and not take advantage of that op-
S s BENEFIT portunity speaks to your attitude.”
Rr Griffith argues that even innocent mistakes Photo by Will Rice
EE
TTtt merit sentencing to financial accountability Hirth, the check would have cleared. Instead, Carole Hirth thought she was being
EE
Ll class. “Even if someone says that their child the Safeway-owned chain sent her a letter. threatened with fraud charges by Cook
overdrew their account, we believe putting “I had been back from the hospital for County. Instead, it was debt collection
| |
them in a diversion program is the right move.” just four days when I checked the mail agency Corrective Solutions.
Y y Yet some believe the classes are just a ruse and thought, ‘Oh, my God,’” she says.
Tt
CIci to generate fees. “Their financial responsibil- Hirth went straight to Dominick’s, ing both parties back to negotiations.
E E ity class is nothing more than learning how to wrote a new check and paid a $35 bounce “The litigation has been hard,” says Bob
EE
FRFr balance a checkbook,” says Adam Levin, New fee. She considered the problem fixed. Hobbs, deputy director of the National Con-
A a Jersey’s former consumer-affairs commis- But four months later, she received a let- sumer Law Center. “Either these companies
Kk
UCuc sioner. “It’s garbage. If people aren’t passing ter from the Cook County state’s attorney. It declare bankruptcy, or they just drag these
Ss a bad check with intent, they shouldn’t be said that she’d been accused of deceptive things on forever and no one gets paid.”
| | going to a class. And if they are, they shouldn’t practices and that she faced up to a year
be going to a class; they should be going to in jail and a $2,500 fine. The only way to As the case languishes in court, advo-
Y y jail. Don’t tax overburdened consumers avoid this fate was to pay $649.86, which cates hope Congress will finally close
Aa
+D+D with a course that is effectively worthless.” included penalties and a diversion course. the 2006 loophole.
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Hh Dansky agrees. “There are far better “I already paid them,” Hirth says. “I They received a glimmer of hope in Octo-
Gg
NINi ways of dealing with the problem. If the contacted [the grocery store’s] ethics de- ber, when President Obama’s new Consumer
cases are truly baseless, then the prosecu- partment and said this was just wrong. I Financial Protection Bureau announced that
| | tors shouldn’t be involved, period. Mer- spend enough money there. I told them it would be overseeing debt collectors starting
chants can use debt collectors directly they should work with me. I told them to this year. For the first time in history, the feds
T t
Rr without getting prosecutors involved.” look up my Safeway card. I’ve been shop- will require those making over $10 million a
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ping with them for the past 30 years!” year to supply regular reports to ensure they’re
| | Joseph Ridout has a hard time believing Safeway said there was nothing it could do. not deceiving and threatening consumers.
that so many scam artists have chosen She’d have to contact the state attorney’s office. Still, Moira Vahey, an agency spokes-
M M
Ll careers in bad checks. Hirth called the phone number on the woman, declined to comment on how it
FIFi “We believe that very few of the recipients letter but got nowhere. would deal with the bad-check programs.
| | of these letters intended to defraud the mer- “They accused me of committing a For now, the only oversight comes from
chant,” says Ridout, who works for Consumer fraudulent act. They said that if I don’t pay those making money on the deals: the dis-
T t Action, a San Francisco nonprofit. “It’s just everything and take their class, I could trict attorneys themselves. And they show
Aa
EE people who overdrew their checking ac- be arrested and end up in jail. He was little interest in policing the industry.
counts with a check. The curious thing is very, very mean. I told him that I didn’t Take the Minnesota company once known
| |
that it’s a moment in time when banks have understand how that could happen. I said as Financial Crimes Services. In 2009 it
C c destigmatized overdrawing your account I’d already handled it, it should be cleared was sued for violating the Fair Debt Collec-
SIsi
Uu with a debit card. What’s the difference?” up, but he just went on and on and on.” tion Practices Act. The company agreed to
MM
pay $75,000 in penalties and court costs.
| | “They’ve prosecuTed more glue- Last year, it changed its name to Check
Diversion Program, and it’s still operat-
sniffers Than bad-check wriTers in a ing throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Yy “We’re not a debt-collection company, but a
Ll loT of These counTies. This is noT an
Kk diversion program,” says CEO Scott Adkis-
Ee son. “We send out approved letters. And
Ee overwhelming problem.”
WW it’s the DA’s decision who gets them, not
F F –Paul arons, consumer-rights lawyer ours. We just manage the program.”
SS
The evidence suggests otherwise. In Min-
In fact, it was banker scheming that landed Hirth wrote another letter to Safeway, beg- nesota’s Goodhue County, the program is run
Carole Hirth in trouble last year. More than ging the grocer to contact the prosecutor’s of- by the Red Wing Police Department, which
33 Starting FEB 27th a dozen major banks have paid multimillion- fice. The letters and phone calls kept coming. referred inquiries back to Adkisson. Minne-
0101 dollar fines for reordering purchases and It wasn’t until she got in touch with sota Attorney General Lori Swanson would
9, 29, 2 delaying deposits solely to generate over- Arons that she discovered she wasn’t not respond to interview requests, either.
2 2Yy draft fees. In Hirth’s case, PNC was holding being threatened by Cook County. It Levin believes this lack of oversight may be
ARar her direct deposits until it withdrew her was Corrective Solutions, which has the key to dismantling the programs: If pros-
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Nn outgoing charges — effectively overdrafting contracts with 21 counties in Illinois. ecutors aren’t reviewing the cases, collection
Aa
3-J3-J her account so it could charge extra fees. In 2010, yet another class-action suit agencies aren’t legally eligible for immunity.
22 She knew none of this at the time she was filed against the company, this time In the meantime, victims like Orr,
Yy
Rr wrote a $393.86 check to Dominick’s, a on behalf of 600,000 victims in Califor- Schwarm, and Hirth have little recourse
Aa
NUnu Chicago grocery story. The 59-year-old was nia and Pennsylvania. In November, it but to hire lawyers, paying thousands
JJAa in the hospital being treated for Crohn’s agreed to pay a $3 million settlement. But to defend themselves for bouncing
disease when the check bounced. For some because the class was so big, each victim $50 checks at the grocery store.
reason, the store never tried to redeposit would receive less than $3 dollars. A fed-
1100 it, which most merchants do. If it had, says eral court refused the settlement, order- E-mail [email protected]
001-016.indd 10 1/18/13 6:24 PM