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F. Jeffrey Miller - Prosecution Witness Testimony Overview

Witness Jennifer Kelly, Independence, Missouri, was the first witness called by the Government. According to the testimony Jennifer Kelly provided in court:

She and her family moved into a Miller Enterprises home with a lease/purchase agreement. The Government presented the Residential Contract for Sale of Real Estate, signed by the Kellys on 11/22/97. The sales price was $156,900 and the closing date was ‘TBD' (To Be Determined).

Soon after the Kellys moved into the Lee's Summit, Missouri, home they allegedly began receiving loan applications in the mail from Associated Capitol, a mortgage company the Kellys later found out, was owned by F. Jeffrey Miller. Ms. Kelly was receiving 2-3 applications a week, usually throwing them in the trash. Ms. Kelly testified that she add not received a copy of the completed sales contract with Jeff Miller's signature on it and without it she couldn't shop for her own financing. Beth Hessel from Associated Capitol, allegedly phoned Jennifer Kelly and asked her if she was receiving the applications and questioned why she wasn't mailing them back.

Ms. Kelly opened one of the applications. The application was allegedly pre-filled with loan information. The sales price was now $170,000 and did not indicate the $2500 down payment made when the Kellys moved into the home. The application also indicated that Ms. Kelly's income was $4,000 per month which was grossly overstated. According to Ms. Kelly's testimony, the application also misstated her children's ages, her length of employment. Ms. Kelly testified, ‘I never gave them this information.'

After Ms. Kelly questioned the information on the loan application, she received another from Beth Hessel at Associated Capitol. Ms. Kelly testified that this application indicated a sales price of $182,000. Ms. Kelly wanted to shop for alternative financing but needed her original purchase contract with the original selling price. To do this, she needed a copy of the complete contract with Miller's signature as the seller.

Ms. Kelly testified that she called the Miller Enterprises offices sometimes 3-4 times a week for months. She described herself as becoming ‘a pest'. Mr. Miller was allegedly never available and didn't return her phone calls. On a day where she again was told that Miller was not available, Ms Kelly testified that she devised a ‘scheme'. She called the office back and told the receptionist that she wanted to sell homes for Miller in her subdivision. She told the jury that Miller was going to like her and then be convinced to give her the sales contract for her property and fix the problems with her house. Within 10 minutes, she received a return phone call from Miller, which resulted in a meeting later that day.

During the meeting Miller allegedly told Ms. Kelly how she would need to run classified ads in local newspapers. The ad needed to say ‘Bad Credit OK, Bankruptcy OK, Owner Finance OK. Miller told Kelly that the most important thing was that they had a job and ‘something of value'. ‘I had a hard time understanding the concept', testified Kelly and she questioned why Miller would want unqualified people to live in his homes...they might damage them. Miller told Kelly that he wanted the people in the home fast and that he didn't care if he took ‘em (the houses)back 2,3, or 4 times.

Shortly afterward, the Kelly's hired an attorney. She testified that no one at Miller Enterprises would fix anything in the house. The Kelly's moved out of the house shortly thereafter, never closing on it.

Witness Julia Barton owned and operated a crafts café in a mall in Olathe, Kansas. She answered a classified ad in the newspaper, called the number listed and spoke with Realtor Todd Earnshaw. They discussed the available homes for sale and set up a meeting for later that day. The model home and sales office had signs for Maplewood Realty and Classic Realty. Ms. Barton was given a list of available homes with the address and the sales price. Ms. Barton viewed the homes and decided on a home priced at $270,000. When the sales contract was written up, it had a sales price of $310,000. When the Bartons questioned this, they were told, "don't worry, don't worry". They were assured that Earnshaw could finance them without a problem and that the house would appraise for $310,000 or more. They were told, "this is what we do".

Subsequently loan officer, Brian Rouse visited Barton at her shop. He asked for a copy of her driver's license and social security card. But upon review of the loan application it indicated a sales price of $330,000 and assets of $81,000.

Question: ‘Did you have these assets?'

Answer: ‘No'

Question: ‘Did you agree to a purchase price of $330,000?'

Answer: ‘No'

After Ms. Barton testified that she and her husband had signed just one loan application, the government introduced three different loan application, all with signatures of the Bartons. The government compared the signatures of all the applications and Ms. Barton testified that two of them had lines through the names and were crooked. When placed one above the other the witness testified that it was Brian Rouse who had cut and pasted the signatures from the original application onto the two subsequent applications. Ms. Barton testified that Mr. Rouse had incorrectly indicated their income to be $12,000 per month. Actually the gross income for the shop was about $7000 per month.

At the closing, the Barton's find out that the final sales price is $316,000;

Question: ‘Did Brian Rouse or Todd Earnshaw ever tell you that the house would sell for what it was appraised for? (And not the $270,000 that was on the sales sheet)

Answer: ‘No'

Next Witness: Rick Hayes