Prosecutors Cut Loose Duo Pinched In Home Hijacking Racket Targeting Vacant Foreclosed Homes After 'No Contest' Pleas, Credit For 'Time Served'

In Fort Pierce, Florida, TC Palm reports:

• Two men charged with taking over and renting out houses going through foreclosure pleaded no contest Monday to a charge of organized fraud under $20,000 and were sentenced to the time they've already served behind bars and probation.



• Robbie Jay Hughes, 37, and Issiac Rivers, 47, were arrested in February 2010 on more than a dozen charges of first- and third-degree grand theft in addition to a charge of first-degree organized crime.



• According to Port St. Lucie Police Department reports, Hughes and Rivers would find houses under foreclosure, break in and change the locks, do any necessary maintenance and rent the houses for cash or money orders.



• The men were charged in connection with eight houses, but Ashley Minton, Hughes' defense attorney, said there probably were a dozen or more houses involved.

***

• Rivers was adjudicated guilty because he has a prior conviction on an unrelated case and sentenced to the 587 days he's already served in jail while awaiting trial. Circuit Judge James McCann sentenced Hughes to the 498 days he's already spent behind bars and agreed to withhold adjudication because he has a clean record.

For the story, see Two Port St. Lucie men plead to renting out houses in foreclosure.