Suspected Home Hijacking Case Once Considered "Civil Matter" Will Now Be Treated As Criminal Trespass, Say Cops
In Boise, Idaho, the Idaho Statesman reports:
- Caroline Werner may finally get some help in getting a stranger out of her mother-in-law's house. A Boise man named David Foldesi claims he owns the house, even though Ada County officials have repeatedly told Werner and the Idaho Statesman he does
not.(1) Marcella Boylan, Werner's mother-in-law, owns the Sunset Avenue home, county records and officials say. But she lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's. She cannot sell the house because the equity is being used to pay for her health care. Werner has sole power of attorney and is Boylan's last remaining relative.
- Initially, Boise police said it was a property dispute and therefore a civil matter. But an attorney contacted by Werner said it looked like criminal trespass, and therefore a police matter. On Wednesday, Boise police confirmed Boylan is the rightful owner and they consider it a criminal
matter.(2)
For the initial report in this story, see Stranger rents out Boise woman's home without her permission (A Boise house belongs to a nursing-home resident, officials say, but a man profits from renting it out).
(1) According to the story, for almost two years, Foldesi has been renting out the house, which he says he owns since paying unpaid property taxes on it in 2007. He has not made any property tax payments for the property since then.
(2) Regrettably, a victim of this type of scam may sometimes need to retain an attorney to "communicate with" (ie. light a fire under) the local cops, such as in this story. I suspect that the ideal attorney to retain to communicate with police in this type of case would be an ex-prosecutor who is now in private practice - one who is experienced in the criminal justice process, well-versed in the "language of law enforcement," and one who won't allow local cops to dismiss cases like this as "civil matters." hijack
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