Photos for Headline Surfer® / DAYTONA BEACH -- It is truly amazing how for more than a year, the Daytona Beach News-Journal has misled the public in its reporting of the accusations levied against Waverly Media principals Jim Sotolongo and Ramara Garrett.
Headline Surfer® will publish a story listing literally dozens of factual errors it has uncovered based on its own review of public records and having sat in pre-trial hearings and courtroom testimony since the trial got under way a week ago in U.S. District Court in Orlando.
Since February, Headline Surfer® has written several emails to the News-Journal -- two of them extensive in detail -- asking the reporter, Lyda Longa, and Editor Pat Rice why they were continuing to mislead the public. The emails went unanswered.
At far left is the original erroneously-reported reference in the Daytona Beach News-Journal as to an indictment being issued by the FBI. Next to it is the correction published two days after the error was pointed out in an email to News-Journal reporter Lyda Longa, Editor Pat Rice and Publisher Bill Offill.Of the 100-plus factual errors, the News-Journal has printed two corrections.
Both corrections by the print newspaper were tacked on to end of previously published stories following Headline Surfer® emails as well as tweets on the Headline Surfer® Twitter account.
The first correction was the News-Journal's factual error in February claiming Sotolongo had been charged with all 14 counts of the indictment when, in fact, he's been accused in 13 counts.
And in a story published in the News-Journal online on Friday and repeated in the Saturday print edition, the News-Journal wrote the following:
Former mortgage broker Christopher Mencis -- one of the four main individuals indicted by the FBI in a mortgage fraud operation that federal agents said cheated banks out of millions between 2006 and 2012 -- testified on behalf of the government Friday.
The FBI does not have the power to indict any person or entity, period, end of story. That function rests solely with a grand jury based on evidence presented by the government behind closed doors.
A grand jury, once empanelled and having heard evidence from witnesses whose testimony is secret, then has the duty of either returning a "true bill" for an indictment or a "no true bill" rejecting such a request from the government. And the process of delivering the bill is handing it up -- as to a higher authority to a judge, who sits on a raised bench in the courtroom.
Only the News-Journal can answer for what goes into its published stories. But it is clear that there is a bias in the reporting of what is occurring in the courtroom and it's just plain wrong.
It wasn't until opening statements last Tuesday when Prosecutor Tanya Wilson specifically cited seven Volusia County properties as the extent of the government's claim against Sotolongo, Garrett, and Stephanie Musselwhite, three of the four indicted principals accused in the Volusia mortgage fraud scheme, that the News-Journal finally reported the factual allegation cited in the grand jury indictment.
Ramara Garrett and Jim Sotolongo. principals in Waverlty Media and on trial in U.S. District Court, along with colleague Stephanie Musselwhite, on bank fraud conspiracy charges, have pleaded innocent. Garrett and Sotolongo, who live together and have an 11 month-old baby, believe they are being "demonized" by the News-Journal because of their competing interests in advertising.Here's the scoop: The News-Journal has been using the initial complaint affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court on March 29, 2013, by FBI Special Agent Robert P. Robichaud II, alleging Sotolongo, Garrett, Musselwhite and Christopher Mencis were the main players in defrauding banks in the transactions of 70 upscale single-family homes in five Central Florida counties to the tune of $50 million.
Robichaud dubbed the conspiracy the "Sotolongo Mortgage Fraud Ring" or "SMFR." It named several others as complicit in the ring.
But on April 24, 2013, a grand jury handed up an indictment accusing Sotolongo, Garrett, Musselwhite and Mencis with defrauding lending institutions of seven properties totaling less than $13 million.
The indictment, which was based on the FBI complaint affidavit, became the blueprint for the government's case against Sotolongo, Garrett, Musselwhite and Mencis.
But the very next day after the grand jury indictment was entered into the court record and accessible through the clerk's office and online through "Pacer," a federal search engine program that charges a nominal fee to access federal court records, the News-Journal cited the FBI allegations.
Why? Only the News-Journal can answer that, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the FBI complaint affidavit has a far greater scope of crimes alleged and dollar amounts defrauded. After all, there's a huge difference in reporting banks were defrauded of 70 properties and $50 million as opposed to a mere seven properties and less than $13 million. And there's a big difference between describing those properties in five Central Florida counties as opposed to just seven homes in just one county.
Why? Only the News-Journal can answer that, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the FBI complaint affidavit has a far greater scope of crimes alleged and dollar amounts defrauded. After all, there's a huge difference in reporting banks were defrauded of 70 properties and $50 million as opposed to a mere seven properties and less than $13 million. And there's a big difference between describing those properties in five Central Florida counties as opposed to just seven homes in just one county.
And it should be noted that when the prosecutor read aloud the seven properties in opening statements and the mortgagees that went with them, I turned around and nodded at Longa who was sitting a couple rows behind me implying by my look, "See, I told you so."
She just gave a me a dirty look as she sat next to a private investigator named Michael Hullett, who Sotolongo told me earlier was instrumental in giving the FBI dirt on him because of financial dealings he had with his parents that didn't turn out the way they liked.
I'll be reporting more on Hullet and Longa's connection with him and his parents in an upcoming story.
As I was sitting in the courtroom for the openings, I recalled an earlier story back in February where Longa had attributed quotes to the prosecutor regarding the number of properties Sotolongo and Company allegedly defrauded and I wrote to her back then.
This is what I said in the email to her dated Feb. 5 and copied to Rice, the editor:
Could you please explain how you quoted 70 properties tied to Sotolongo as coming from Prosecutor Wilson's own mouth to Judge Dalton? I was there, too. She never used the figure of 70 or any number for that matter. That comes from the initial complaint that isn't even part of the superseding indictment. Also, you stated Sotolongo is named on all 14 counts, when in fact, he's not. Could you please explain the factually incorrect reporting? This is an on-the-record request. Also, you have not reported on Musselwhite attorney Richard Klugh's change of venue/individual jury questioning in response to alleged biased reporting by the News-Journal. It was filed with the court last Thursday. Please feel free to elaborate or not. That is your choice. Thank you for your time and consideration.
There was no response.
In addition to going with the bigger numbers of the FBI as opposed to the indictment, the News-Journal reporting has portrayed Sotolongo as a criminal, before this trial has concluded. In fact, at the beginning of a Jan. 29 story, she wrote the opening paragraph as follows:
Phrases like the "Sotolongo Mortgage Fraud Ring" or "SMFR" as described by the FBI's Robichaud's affidavit, but do not appear in the indictment. Even more agregious is the News Journal's typecasting of Sotolongo as a "career criminal" in a recent story despite the fact that that term does not in either the FBI affidavit or in the federal indictment. Furthermore, nothing concerning this case or Sotolongo's history demonstrates career criminal status.
In fact, the term "career criminal" is a legal term ascribed to felons convicted of multiple violent crimes.
There's nothing in Sotolongo's history to justify the term, but because there was the possibility of a plea, the term was put up there in the very first paragraph.
To make matters worse, in the very same story, the News-Journal's Longa reported Sotolongo was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet, despite her own reporting back in October that it had been removed by the authorities.
To make matters worse, in the very same story, the News-Journal's Longa reported Sotolongo was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet, despite her own reporting back in October that it had been removed by the authorities.
And in another story, Longa led off with Sotolongo having been convicted of selling drugs almost a decade and a half ago, even though he never spent a day in prison. Why? Again, it's the Daytona print newspaper that has to justify it.
Later today, Headline Surfer has a story from Sotolongo and Garrett who feel they've been "demonized" -- made to look bad -- by the newspaper because of their competing Waverly Media bus bench business.
Well, I've got to get ready to go to today's session of court. It should be quite an experience for obvious reasons seeing the dagger eyes of the print reporter.