Ocwen Robo-Witnesses Have No First-Hand Knowledge Of Homeowner’s Mortgage

The law firm representing Deutsche Bank National Trust Company in a Florida foreclosure action are demanding that the homeowner’s attorney, Thomas Ice be removed from the case because Ice accused Deutsche Bank of using Ocwen Robo-Witnesses in foreclosure cases.

Ice alleges the expert witnesses from Ocwen Financial, who is servicing the loan for Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, have no first hand knowledge of the homeowners mortgage and are told what to say in court by Ocwen executives.

Three days later, Ice’s allegations of Ocwen Robo-Witnesses being used by Deutsche Bank and Ocwen appeared in the Miami Daily Business Review. Attorneys from Clarfield Okon Salomone & Pincus who are representing the former Nazi financiers, are fuming mad about the article that detailed how Deutsche Bank’s servicer on the loan, Ocwen provides scripts to its unqualified witnesses to crush homeowner defenses and allegations of improper conduct by financial services sector employees.

Ice provided the Daily business Review with 23 questions and answers prepared by Erin Prete, a former Quintairos Prieto attorney who represented Ocwen in the case against his clients, Thomas and Jeanette Rolle, in 2013, as proof the lender coached “robo-witnesses” with no first-hand knowledge of mortgage details.

Clarfield Okon Salomone & Pincus allege Ice sought to influence the outcome of the trial by publicly disclosing privileged information inadvertently provided to him. They also accused Ice of releasing the information in a ploy to discredit Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer, the national law firm that handled the litigation in 2013 before Clarfield Okon Salomone & Pincus took over the case.

In his May 26 motion, Clarfield Okon Salomone & Pincus attorney Owen Sokolof requested the judge block Ice and the Rolles from introducing the documents in court and filed a motion to disqualify Ice Legal from the case.

The dispute apparently started when Ice accused Erin Prete, a former attorney for Ocwen of improperly spoon-feeding questions and answers to unqualified records custodians testifying in foreclosure cases against Florida homeowners.

Ice provided the media with 23 questions and answers prepared by Erin Prete, a former Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer attorney who represented Ocwen in 2013, as proof the lender coached the so-called Ocwen Robo-Witnesses who had no first-hand knowledge of mortgage details.

The cheat sheet detailing an in-house witness preparation strategy was accidentally emailed to Ice during a discovery disclosure in 2013 when the Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer was still involved.

Ice told the Daily Business Review that he discussed the documents detailing the use of Ocwen Robo-Witnesses with the previous attorneys and later and later with the attorneys from Clarfield Okon Salomone & Pincus to ensure the email contained no privileged client information. In his defense, Ice claims that opposing counsel didn’t assert privilege as required by Florida Rules of Civil Procedure until after the article was published.

Ice told the Daily Business Review, “We’re taking the position that it wasn’t privileged. The act of trying to disqualify Ice Legal is pointless. It’s just trying to get even with us for letting the world know what they’re doing. You can’t protect future fraud on the court by way of attorney-client privilege.”