Dating Problems

First of all, it's not what you think.

About a year after I'd discovered private investigator Ed Hodges had forged my name on a fraudulent trust document that gave him and a lawyer friend of his total control of my house and land, I suddenly received the bill shown here and another from his friend the lawyer that was equally ridiculous. Of course all of the charges listed were completely fabricated, had never been discussed with me or previously billed to me, and were not even for anything either man had actually ever done.

Most outrageous of all was the fact that some of the charges were from periods of time when I hadn't even known Ed Hodges! He first called me on the evening of June 25th, 2003 to talk to me about why I should hire him, and I did not know who he was before this and certainly had not previously had any business dealings with him. And as you can also see here, I didn't sign a contract of any kind with Hodges until 6/26/03. (The posted document is a page from the investigation contract I signed with Hodges. It also happens to be the page that contains the DPS violations discussed in an earlier post here entitled "Addresses" from 9/15/09.) The fraudulent trust document in question is dated 12/31/03, which is even later.

Seems to me if you're going to try to con someone out of money, you'd want to make sure you didn't try to charge them for work done at a time when they didn't even know who you were--unless you were so unafraid of being prosecuted or successfully sued that you and your associates considered it humorous to submit something like this.

I received this bill at a time when I'd spent many months searching desperately and unsuccessfully for proper legal representation despite having contacted all of the state and national legal assistance organizations I knew of. It was because of that, having received such a ridiculous set of documents from Hodges and co., and some other things that were equally alarming that I decided to take the fraudulent trust document to the professional document examiner whose findings are posted here under "She Said".

Immediately after I received this, I also sent a copy of it to DPS Investigator Taft Green of Dallas, who'd been assigned to look into my complaints against Hodges and others. Trooper Green called me back and said he agreed with me that the bills were ridiculous--but he never had any charges filed against Hodges or his attorney associate.

File Numbers

Early in 2005, I hired a lawyer to represent us that the ex-DEA and ex-FBI agents I'd hired as private investigators to help me figure out what was going on with Ed Hodges recommended highly and even went with me to see. On the day I first met this attorney and hired him, he told me why the trust document Ed Hodges had mailed me was fraudulent and I looked at it carefully for the first time and realized it was not the document I'd signed. Also at this meeting (which the former FBI agent also attended), this lawyer casually mentioned some sort of problem with file numbers on the document but wouldn't explain this further.

Several times over the next few months, I tried unsuccessfully to get this attorney to explain to me what he'd meant about the file numbers, but he just changed the subject or said it didn't matter. Eventually, I tried to get him to explain his earlier remarks to me in writing as shown here, and you can see his reply.

I'm no lawyer myself and have no idea if there's anything to this or not, but given the fact that I later caught these people allowing my adversaries to listen in on my private conversation with them and fired them as a result, I have to wonder. Therefore, I'm posting copies of the file numbers from various versions of the fraudulent trust document here in the hope that someone else will explain to me what's going on with them.

For more information on all this, please read "My Story" at the beginning of this blog.

Handwriting

And now, back to the fraudulent trust document discussions. In my previous post entitled "Pages", I mentioned some handwriting I'd noticed at the top of one copy of the document that has been used so often to victimize myself and my children.

Here I'm posting a copy of this writing along with a sample of handwriting found on an application for an agricultural exemption on our property my former husband filed with the county in 1997. Most of the handwriting on the older document is my ex-husband's, but I'm positive this portion was not written by him.

I'm no handwriting expert, but the capital "G"s and the numbers certainly look similar, which leads me to believe they may have been written by the same person. If so, I'm interested in finding out who this person is.

I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't have some ideas about who the writer might be. I suspect most people working at our local courthouse will recognize the writing immediately.

Pages

The history behind the fraudulent trust document that is discussed so often in this blog is explained in the post at the very beginning of this blog entitled "My Story" (posted 6/18/09). Because this clearly manipulated document features so prominently in our continuing situation, I've decided to discuss it in more detail, which I'll be doing in this and the next few posts here in the hope of finally finding a lawyer who will actually help us instead of trying to cheat us.

This document was filed by the county despite not being properly notarized (see "The Legal Situation", posted 6/23/10). The document that was filed is very different from a document I signed, and my initials were forged on all the pages except the one containing my signature, which was retained and was on clearly different paper. An accurate description of the document in the form of an excerpt from the report written by a professional document examiner I hired is posted at "She Said" (9/16/09).

Other descriptions of the document in question with highly variable degrees of accuracy are posted here at "They Said". The descriptions by the former FBI and DEA agents are fairly accurate, but the letter from their document expert friend is not at all correct. The letter from Ed Hodges' first document expert, the ex-Secret Service agent, that is posted at "He Said" (9/17/09) contains totally false information. Ditto for the letter from Hodges' second expert, posted under "I Was Told He Said" (9/18/09). False statements from some of the attorneys who conned me with regard to the document are also posted at "They Said" and "She Said".

Here I am posting copies of each of the five different versions of just the first page of the fraudulent document (with personal stuff removed) that I've obtained. I will explain each by the number I've put on it at the top left.

1) This is a copy of the first page of a draft of a trust document that was faxed to me by private investigator Ed Hodges on 12/18/03. As explained in "My Story", Hodges called me before faxing this document to tell me he was sending it. He also pressured me to sign it quickly. When I read it, I discovered it gave him and his attorney-friend total control of my house and property. Even though I'm not a lawyer and have little knowledge of legal affairs, I still was able to realize there were many problems with the document Ed had faxed. I made some notes in pencil on the document about some of these problems, and I told Hodges I couldn't sign it and why. Although I didn't notice it at the time, I later discovered Hodges and his attorney friend had already signed this draft document. The former DEA agent I later hired as a p.i. and then had to fire insisted I give him my original of this document that has my penciled notes about the changes on it, and he refuses to return it to me.

2) After being very heavily pressured and frightened by various incidents (that I realize now were staged), I did sign a completely different document Hodges provided me with that had all the changes and safeguards I'd insisted on. I followed Hodges' carefully written instructions (which I'm not posting for now, although they're extremely interesting in light of all that has occurred) about what to do and how to send the document back to him. He then told me he'd filed the document I'd signed and would provide me with a copy. I received the copy this page is from by regular mail sometime in the middle of January 2004. At that point, I still trusted Hodges and happened to be extremely busy at the time, so I filed the document away without looking at it. Notice that this page is the same as the first copy--and most definitely NOT the document I signed (which I'd have realized if I'd looked at it more carefully). Also notice how light the printing is on this version of the page, which is evidence of copying. My document examiner provided strong scientific evidence of my initials having been forged on this and all of the other pages except the page with my signature, which I know for a fact to be true (because I'm positive this isn't the document I signed).

3) Along with the document returned to me as explained in #2, this extra copy of page 1 with a filing number was also enclosed. This copy also has my initials forged by someone on it. It also has markings at the top indicating it was faxed to someone by the county. Later, after I realized I'd been defrauded, I went to the courthouse and asked who it had been faxed to, but of course they wouldn't tell me.

4) After I discovered the fraud, the former DEA agent I was employing at the time as a private investigator instructed me to go to the courthouse and "obtain a copy of everything they had on file" under the fraudulent trust. However, when I did this, I was only given a few pages of some sort of deeds that had completely different filing numbers. I went home, called the investigator, and told him the courthouse had refused to give me what I'd asked for. He told me to go back, give them the filing number, and insist of getting a copy of everything on file under it. When I did this, they gave me a copy of the document whose first page is shown here. By this time, I knew enough to realize what was on file was indeed the original document I'd refused to sign with my initials forged on it. I also noticed that the signatures of Hodges and his lawyer-friend looked exactly like the ones that were on the draft document faxed to me earlier (#1, the one I refused to sign).

5) Immediately after I received the report from the document examiner I'd hired (see "She Said", 9/16/09) stating the trust document on file was fraudulent and manipulated, Ed Hodges filed a lawsuit against me and my children alleging we owed him and his lawyer-friend large sums of money for clearly fraudulent "trust duties" (some of which were from time periods when I hadn't even known them!) and property taxes Hodges claimed he'd paid on my property--even though I'd paid all of the taxes myself and had all the receipts and cancelled checks for them! (My kids and I quickly filed a counter suit.) This final copy of the first page of the fraudulent trust document is from the initial paperwork Hodges filed with the court as part of the lawsuit. Although I've removed them for posting as before, the initials that are supposed to be mine are again clear forgeries. In this copy of the document, each page has double lines down the entire right side. This is something I've seen on official documents from law enforcement agencies, and I believe it may be related to the fact that Hodges was using the former Secret Service agent of "He Said" (9/17/09) as his expert witness at the time. (This expert suddenly quit shortly after I discovered potential ties between him, the local real estate market, and my ex-husband. Since then, he has harassed me.) Finally, notice that there is faint handwriting at the top of this page. I will be discussing this later.

These are the documents numerous lawyers and even a retired judge have tried to use to extort money and property from me repeatedly. The local tax appraisal board has used this document to try and conceal enormous increases in my tax appraisals, the illegal changing of ownership names and addresses on my house and land (which at one point were illegally listed under my ex-husband's office address as documented earlier here), and other blatantly illegal acts. They continue to refuse to admit the fraud or make any corrections, and they continue to list ownership of my house and property under Ed Hodges' address. Without proper legal representation or help from law enforcement, I haven't been able to force them to stop committing criminal fraud, and by my latest tax appraisal statements, the fraud is actively continuing as a result.

Some (but not all, by any means) of this fraud is summarized here in "How To Steal Property In Four Easy Steps". I wrote this shortly after my last property tax protest hearing during which, among other things, the county's tape recorder that was supposed to be officially recording the proceedings was instead quietly playing music; when this was pointed out to the appraiser in charge, he simply switched it off and proceeded with the hearing. (At least this time he didn't have an enormous black eye as an official at one of my previous hearings had. That guy had looked like he'd been in a fight, and it was very disconcerting, to say the least.)

The Legal Situation, No. 1

In the United States of America, everyone is supposed to be entitled to proper representation by an attorney. However, I've been searching for proper legal representation for myself and my children for over 11 years now without success. More lawyers than I can count have first conned me, then (after I figured out what was going on) attempted to con me, and now either stall or completely shun me.

Eventually I learned I'm not the only victim of this sort of treatment by the local legal profession by any means. I'm posting this recent letter to the editor of the Kerrville Daily Times because it explains the legal situation here far better than I can and also because it provides a separate point of view. (I don't know the author.)

While the writer here gets it right, he doesn't go far enough. In our case, it has become clear that our adversaries are so powerful as to be able to cause the State Bar of Texas' referral services to deliberately send me to lawyers that actively tried to con me. Other experiences I've blogged about previously here (and many more I'll probably discuss in the future) make it clear both state and national legal assistance organizations like the Texas Advocacy Project, Texas Legal Aid, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and ACLU (both state and national), Public Justice, NOVA, and the various national crime victims' organizations have been pressured and/or coerced into refusing to help us.

How can this be?, you ask. It's because our case pits one homemaker and her children against numerous public officials (see "My Story" and "How To Steal Property...", for ex.), a former Secret Service agent (see "He Said", for ex.), former FBI and DEA agents (see "They Said", for ex.). and possibly people at the highest levels of the federal government (see "Namedropping" and "Questions and Answers", for ex.).

If you happen to know of an honest lawyer who can't be bought or coerced and is interested in a lot of publicity and the possibility of quadruple damages, PLEASE ask them to contact me immediately!

Potential Medical Problems

I've written a little about my father before (see "Family Business" posted here on 6/29/09), but while I'm on the subject of "medical problems", I feel the need to add a short discussion of some I've come to believe my father might have. I'm sure he would disagree with me, but see what you think.

Years ago (when I was still married) while on a visit to see my father (who lives in another state), I remember him telling me he had lost a large sum of money in a financial investment that had gone bad. At some point someone had apparently persuaded him to invest a large chunk of his retirement money in some sort of medical scheme (possibly related to nursing homes??) that involved a major medical corporation which has their national headquarters near where he lives. I remember being very surprised to hear he'd invested in anything to do with this company, because my father was always very much influenced by my husband, and my husband and his close friends were always talking about how much they hated this company. (One of my husband's closest friends even had a letter that railed against this company published in a national news magazine.)

My father refused to tell me much in the way of details about what had happened, but I do remember being shocked to hear him say he'd lost enough to be concerned about his retirement status. He was obviously very angry and upset about it. I told him that one of our children had been rushed to a San Antonio hospital owned by this corporation as a newborn but that my husband had told me it was because it was the only place they could find an open bed in neonatal care the night our infant became critically ill. Recently when my ex-husband finally did provide me with valid health insurance information for one of the children, I was surprised to see that the coverage was through this same company.

After my divorce, I remember my father mentioning to me that he had signed some sort of trust document. I didn't think much about this at the time, but after I had all the problems with fraudulent trust documents discussed in "My Story" at the beginning of this blog and elsewhere here, I began to wonder exactly what sort of trust document my father had signed and who had gotten him to sign it.

I also realized belatedly that my father had once told me one of his doctors had insisted on his taking some sort of a "mental function test", supposedly to check for dementia-related illnesses, and I remembered my father bragging that he'd made a perfect score on this test that the doctor congratulated him on. I was already extremely concerned about the amounts of potentially addictive medication this doctor and others were prescribing for my father, and I tried to talk to him about this to no avail. Given what had happened with my children and me, I'm concerned that this test may have actually been given to try and head off a possible court challenge of my father's mental state relating to the trust document he told me about.

As explained in the earlier post, I was forced to break off all ties with my father in 2004 when I realized he was conspiring against my children and me with my ex-husband and others and after enduring serious threats from him when I told him I'd contacted the FBI. Even then, he seemed to have symptoms of being addicted to prescription medication, but without additional information I don't have access to or being around him since then, it's difficult to know what's going on for sure. In any case, my father has made it very clear that he will never listen to me or believe me because he prefers people with far more money and power than I'll ever have. He doesn't seem to understand the basic tenant of white collar criminals: they don't stop until they have completely cleaned out one victim; then when they have, they move on to the next one.

Hodges Statements

Here are some sample excerpts from emails I received from private investigator Ed Hodges in 2004 that document some of the things he was telling me. (See "My Story" at the beginning of this blog.)

There are a couple of additional things you should be aware of. Notice that Hodges used "Pegasus" for his email address, which also happens to be the well-known symbol of Louisville, KY where my father and step-mother live (see "My Story" and "Check Connections"). Also, I have learned that "falco", or falcon, is Mexican narco-slang for a drug lookout; Hodges' p.i. company was called Peregrine International.

Lawyer 4

As stated previously, I've been advised that it's important for me to document my inability to find proper legal representation for myself and my children despite my many years of constantly searching, so periodically I'm posting examples of my dealings with various attorneys and organizations. Again, these are in no particular order; the numbers I'm assigning them are only for identification purposes within my blog.

I've discussed this particular lawyer before, but I feel the need to go into more detail about him because my dealings with him were so different from what I generally encounter. (Attorneys usually either refuse to even speak with me on the phone when they hear who I am, stall for several weeks in various ways and then refuse to speak with me, or try to con me by insisting I sign over a portion of my land to them before they'll represent us and then get very uncomfortable when they realize I know what's going on. Note: The lawyers in the latter group are usually the ones I've been referred to by the state bar association's referral service.)

I'd heard that a woman in our town had filed a major lawsuit against the local hospital and others over the wrongful death of her husband. This suit was suddenly dropped, and it was rumored that she had received a substantial settlement privately. It just so happened that I was a client of the business where she worked and knew her slightly, so one day I asked her about who had represented her. She replied that her lawyer had been a relative of hers from Boerne and that she would call me that evening with his name and contact information. She did call me later, and she gave me the contact information for a well-known Boerne attorney whom I knew to have represented some very high-profile clients.

I wrote to this attorney asking him to help us, and I sent him a summary of our case and sample documentation. To my pleasant surprise, his staff called and said he would meet with me, so I made an appointment. I was specifically instructed to bring the fraudulent trust document with me when I came, but instead of bringing the original document, I took a very high-quality color copy of the document. I also brought along a substantial amount of additional documentation (also all copies).

When I arrived for my appointment, I used the restroom in the hallway outside the law office and then went inside and checked in with the receptionist. I was asked to sit in the waiting area, where I waited for about 30 minutes. Finally, the lawyer came out, introduced himself to me, and then asked me to remain in the waiting area while he checked the restrooms. To my amazement, I watched him go out into the hallway and go into both the men's and women's restrooms briefly as if looking for someone. He then came back into the office, told me he was ready to see me, and escorted me back to his office.

Once I'd sat down in the lawyer's office and told him my story, he asked to see the fraudulent trust document, so I pulled out a folder containing the copy I'd brought and gave it to him. He glanced at it quickly and asked if he could hang onto it so he could study it further; I told him he could. He then began to ask me a lot of questions about where I'd filed complaints, and he wanted contact information for each person I'd talked to in law enforcement, which I gave him. I asked him about his fees and how much he would need as a retainer, but as soon as I'd asked him this, he said he couldn't accept a retainer from me and that he still wasn't sure he could represent us.

At that point, I started to become very uneasy about the whole situation with him. I asked him what the problem was, and he became evasive and said again that he just needed more time to study the fraudulent trust document. I asked him how long this would take because I was anxious for us to have some legal protection as soon as possible, and again he became evasive about whether he could represent my children and me or not and said he'd have to get back to me on it. Then as I was getting my things together to leave, he told me to be very careful driving home because he'd had four previous clients who'd been murdered. At that, I remember feeling the hair on the baON

Versions of the Truth

During the last half of 2005, I received 4 different invoices from the same few days at the end of June 2005 from the two p.i.s from Boerne that I was working with at the time. One of these invoices (the first one here) was from the former DEA agent, and the other three were from the ex-FBI agent. Notice that there are so many changes and contradictions here, it's impossible to tell from them what really happened. [Very important note: I paid these as soon as I was first given them, at the end of June 2005. Although I received some of the copies much later on, these invoices contained NO past due amounts.]

Here's what I know actually happened. Around 6PM on June 22, 2005, one of my children called me from their dad's house where they had visitation that evening and said their father had just left for what he'd told them was "a big meeting at his office about a major new real estate development in our neighborhood". I immediately told my adult child who was at home with me (because they wanted no more contact with their father by this time due of all the trust-related incidents described previously) that I intended to drive down to my ex-husband's office with a notebook and write down all of the vehicle information and license plate numbers from vehicles parked outside. My offspring insisted on coming with me and bringing a camera to take photographs, so off we went. When we got there, we parked on the street in front of the office; we did not go onto the property at all. We both immediately noticed a small tan car that looked a lot like one we'd seen Ed Hodges driving in the past, and this car also happened to have a license plate frame that said "Arlington" [the city where Hodges lived] at the top which reinforced our suspicions that it was indeed his car. We also recognized most of the other vehicles out front as belonging to local doctors. (There were also a number of vehicles in back of the office that we couldn't see well.) I started writing down plate numbers and detailed descriptions of vehicles parked in front, while my child took photos with their digital camera. As we were sitting there, a white Suburban drove up, pulled into the lot, and parked; then we saw a local doctor we knew well exit the vehicle and go inside. My child photographed this vehicle as well, I took down the information for it, and we watched for a few more minutes as various people milled around just inside the front glass doors of the office with drinks in their hands. Then we left.

Later that evening, I sent an email explaining what had happened that contained all of the vehicle information and some of the photographs to the guys who gave me these invoices and the Boerne lawyer they'd insisted I hire. As explained in my earlier "My Story" post, the next morning the former DEA agent called me with a long list of things he wanted me to immediately do: 1) go to the courthouse and obtain a complete copy of everything they had filed under the fraudulent trust (the one Ed Hodges had forged my initials on and the county had filed without its being properly notarized); 2) mail a retainer check to a lawyer I was told worked for the DEA (her web page with the state bar association listed her as a "Government Lawyer"; I was told to mail the check to a P.O. box) that these two p.i.s said they wanted to consult on my behalf; 3) mail the original of the fraudulent document that had been sent to me to a former FBI document examiner in VA by registered mail, along with a check and a pre-paid return envelope addressed to the Boerne lawyer (rather than me; the p.i. absolutely insisted on this); and 4) go driving around town to see if I could spot the tan car with the Arlington plate frame again. [I did all of these. We did not see the car again, though.]

Now here's what I think also happened, based on these various invoices and other things that happened later on. I believe that shortly after I emailed them the vehicle information and photos, the two p.i.s, the Boerne lawyer, and unknown others had a frantic late-night meeting with this "government lawyer" (whom I have since learned has ties to famed criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin of Houston) that was probably adversarial to my interests. They then had the audacity to charge me the retainer I was asked to mail to this attorney after the meeting with her had already taken place. Contrary to what the ex-DEA agent says about this meeting in his invoice, I absolutely WAS NOT INFORMED about this meeting (so I could not have requested it as he states).

Although I later repeatedly requested to speak with the attorney they'd met with, I was told I "wasn't allowed to talk to her"--despite her having cashed my check that was clearly marked "Retainer". The document expert I was told to mail the document to (who also cashed a check from me) was the one who sent me the letter posted below refusing to write me a report or provide me with an invoice. [I eventually filed a formal complaint against this attorney with the state bar association--that was thrown out by them.]

One final but important note: the former FBI agent mentioned to me at the client meeting he lists that the license plate I took down and my child photographed on the white Suburban we saw the doctor drive up in and get out of did not belong on that vehicle. I believe that's another reason why "Ran license plates" was omitted from one of the later copies of the invoice.

Even More Trust Issues

Here are some additional samples of documentation of my ex-husband's repeated attempts to get our over-18 children to sign trust documents. (FYI, the date on the excerpt from my letter to a friend is 12/30/03.)

More Trust Issues

Here you can see a copy of the letter I received in the mail along with the first set of trust documents for my older two children (completely unsolicited by us) as discussed immediately below.
To clarify, these two handwritten letters were written by the same attorney that drew up the trust documents (the kids' grandfather and my former father-in-law).

Girls' Trusts, Con't.

This is the second letter described in the post below--the one that was handed to my second child (who had recently turned 18) and carried home by them. Note that the date on the letter is almost certainly wrong (school awards are handed out in May, not April, and at the time this letter was given to us, in May of 2005, we had just had an award ceremony at school); however, it is exactly the same as the date on the first letter I received concerning these trust documents (see above).
The child this letter was written to was a straight-A honor student with near-perfect attendance who has recently graduated from college with a difficult double major.

Trust Issues, Con't.

(See previous post.)

Trust Issues

As soon as each of my children turned 18, their father began pressuring them to sign trust documents drawn up by his father (a lawyer), but I told them not to sign anything I couldn't have another attorney look at (they were not given copies of these documents). Late in April of 2005, two trust documents like the one shown here (one for each of my children who were over 18 at the time, the younger of whom had only just turned 18) suddenly turned up in our mail. These documents were sent to me by my former father-in-law (the attorney who drew them up) along with a handwritten letter from him telling us why the children should sign them.

Sure enough, the next time the kids had visitation with their dad, he insisted that they go straight over to "the office" [it was never clear to us whether he meant his own office or his father's for this] and immediately sign these documents. I'd already shown my kids the documents, though, and I'd pointed out to them that if they signed them, they'd be signing away their rights to whatever was in "Schedule A"--and "Schedule A" was missing, so anything could be added and they should not sign the documents. They understood this, but when they tried to explain to their father why they couldn't sign anything like this, they said he became very angry and told them he wouldn't pay either of their college tuition bills for the coming semester that would be coming due in about a month. This upset and frightened the kids, both because they were worried about their tuition and also because they were upset about being threatened like that, but they continued to refuse to sign anything, told their dad why they couldn't, and then came home early from their visitation because they said when they refused to sign, their dad got "scary". I pulled out my copy of our divorce decree and showed them where it clearly stated that their dad had to pay for their college tuition and repeated to them that they should not sign an incomplete document that took away their rights.

The next time the children went to their dad's for visitation, the eldest almost immediately came back home in tears saying their dad was still insisting they sign the trust documents or he wouldn't pay for the rest of their college, that the two of them had continued to refuse to sign anything and why, and that things had gotten "too weird" for them to feel comfortable about staying at their dad's. After the visitation ended, the other over-18-year-old came home with two more trust documents (one for each child) that were identical to the ones mailed to us except that their grandfather had handwritten in "Schedule A" and the amount of their upcoming tuition bills on each document; it is one of these same documents that is posted here for your inspection. I repeated to the kids that they should not sign the documents because they would be giving up all of their assets to their father and that this should have nothing to do with their tuition payments, which were a separate issue. They said they understood this completely and that they had no intentions of signing any such document, but they also both said they were afraid of going back over to their dad's.

Since all this happened at the time that I was working with the ex-FBI agent, the ex-DEA agent, and the Boerne lawyer (who was on the city council there at the time), I took these trust documents to them and had them looked at. Instead of advising me, however, they all asked me what I thought of the documents, which I thought was very strange. When I told them I felt the kids shouldn't sign them and why, they began trying to change my mind in various ways, but as soon as they realized I had no intention of backing down on the issue, they just said I should tell the children what I felt was best.

After this, the kids said they were still being threatened about not signing the trusts whenever they were at their dad's, but they held their ground and didn't sign anything, made it clear to their dad and grandfather that they had seen what the divorce decree said about their education expenses, and left their dad's house early several more times when they said things got too argumentative. After about a month of this, their father suddenly showed up at our front door one day with two checks, one to pay for each of their college tuition bills (but one of these was several hundred dollars short, and both checks were from his father's account, not his, for some reason). We immediately sent these checks off to the schools involved by registered mail because they were a few days late.

The older of these two children was seriously upset and frightened by this incident and also realized that they had almost no assets of their own for their dad to want--unless the kids inherited our house and land from me. This child was also angry and upset over their grandfather's having drawn up these documents and also about the threats related to it and some other serious but separate incidents that had occurred in the past. They decided it was in their best interest to end all contact with their father and his family at that point, and they now say that even though this decision was very painful at the time, they do not in any way regret it or the peace it has brought them since. The younger of these two handled the situation differently, telling their father that they would overlook the whole incident if their father and his family never again mentioned trust documents and that if they did, they would follow their sibling's lead and also end all contact.

My youngest child recently turned 18, and they said their dad has already mentioned trusts several times. For the record, ALL of my children say they have NEVER signed any sort of trust document.

Another lawyer from my case (the last one, who has ties to both San Antonio and Boerne) is now advertising as an elder law lawyer and is giving "Elder Law Seminars"; the advertisements for these sound as though trusts may be involved. Also, while this lawyer was supposedly representing me, I remember her telling me about other cases she was involved in from all over our area that concerned court cases involving estates, trusts, real estate, etc. (After I fired her, I learned she had previously worked as a criminal defense lawyer in Bexar County and also as a personal injury lawyer with a prominent San Antonio firm.) Update, 3/16/21: This last attorney is now running for public office in Bexar County.

I Was Told He Said

When the former Secret Service agent quit as Ed Hodges' expert witness, I received notice from Hodges' attorney that this expert was taking the agent's place. However, I never saw any sort of report or statement that was actually from this expert witness, so I have only the word of the attorney that this witness was also willing to testify under oath to things I knew for sure weren't true.

Very important note: NONE of the attorneys or document examiners connected with our case ever mentioned anywhere that the fraudulent trust document in question had been filed by the county clerk's office without being properly notarized.

They Said

Here's a sample of what a former FBI agent, a former DEA agent, and the lawyer they took me to were telling me. Later (after I fired them), I asked the former FBI document examiner they sent me to for a written report; this is what he told me.