0:04

Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. This week how to Protect yourself

0:08

from Home title fraud. Michael Allen Harrison will have details on his ten Grands

0:13

concerts coming up at the end of the month and the impact of the Fatanyl

0:16

crisis on Wultna mccounty. I'm e Love and ninety Kate Ex's Scale Cunningham.

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Today I'm taking a look at the growing crime of home title fraud. We're

0:26

used to thieves stealing cash, electronics, cars, and catalytic converters from cars,

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but now crooks are getting boulder quietly stealing homes out from under unsuspecting owners.

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Earlier this year, eighty three year old Bob Henny nearly lost his childhood

0:40

home in Portland's Saint John's neighborhood to a fraud ster. Henny spends a lot

0:43

of his time in southern California, and if not for three long time neighbors

0:47

who keep watch, the thief might have gotten away with it. Back in

0:50

February, his elderly neighbor Janet, noticed a man in a locksmith truck and

0:53

another in a private vehicle pull up and go to the front door of Henny's

0:57

home, and so she called the one on the other side of my house,

1:00

Janine, and said, hey, there's two guys going up there messing

1:03

with Ron's front door. Why don't you ask him what's going on. So

1:07

she went out and she walked up to the fence and she asked him,

1:11

what are you doing over there? And this one guy said, well,

1:15

I just bought this house and the key that they gave me doesn't fit,

1:19

so I'm having the blocksmith open the door. And she said, oh my,

1:25

that's not that can't be because Ron would have told us if he was

1:27

selling the house. He didn't sell the house. No, and she said,

1:33

I think I'm going to call the police. And with that, the

1:37

guy that was in a small car spun around whatever, got in his car

1:41

and left. Well, the police arrived just a few minutes later, and

1:45

the locksmith was still there, so they interviewed him and then I guess he

1:52

left, but they took some just a cursory report. And then after they

1:57

called me and told me what's going on, I thought, well, maybe

2:00

somebody just trying to break into my house, until the neighbors discovered another disturbing

2:05

sign. The same neighbor that was that had talked to him. Called the

2:10

neighbor behind me and said, hey, uh, Carol, Now she has

2:14

a key from my back door. Carol does, She says, I think

2:19

some of my mail might have been delivered to Ron's house. Can you go

2:23

in and check? She said, My my so security check is is missing.

2:30

And so Carol came over and went in the house and took the mail

2:36

and went through it, and lo and behold that her check was there.

2:39

But so was a bunch of mail from a mortgage company offering to sell mortgage

2:47

insurance to this gentleman or this person called so Bestra Garcia. My friend Carol

2:54

called me. She says, do you know a guy named Silvestra Garcia.

2:58

I said, heck no, I've never heard of him before. And why

3:00

because there's all kinds of mail coming to your house saying it's his house.

3:06

And at that point I got really upset. Henny frantically called the city of

3:09

Portland and Moltnoma County. The news wasn't good, and she said, well,

3:14

your name is not on the title to your home. It's a name Silvester Garcia. Garcia registered a deed with the county on January twenty ninth,

3:22

showing he bought Henny's house for two hundred and thirty six thousand dollars, less

3:24

than half its market value, but Henny hadn't sold his home. He called

3:29

his daughter, Sarah Henny. It was a mad dash to even figure out

3:31

what this meant. I mean, I had never heard of title hod so

3:36

I did an old fashioned Google to try to figure it out. A good

3:39

friend of mine works for a title company in Minnesota. And this is totally

3:44

random, but you know, I'm a colleague of her sisters, and her

3:46

sister called her and said, hey, this is going on. Immediately that

3:51

person could pull up some information and make sense of it for my dad and

3:55

I, And so that kind of got us started on a path to getting

4:01

all the information together, understanding what was going on, and then eventually hiring

4:05

our attorney to help get the deed put back into my father's name. Henny's

4:10

attorney, former state Representative Julie Parrish, got a copy of the deed filed

4:13

by Sylvester Garcia. They forged my client signature, They forged the notary signature.

4:19

Tim Mercer, a manager of the Muliman County Office of Assessment and Taxation,

4:23

which records deeds says Henny is the victim of a new and fast growing

4:27

scam he had never seen until last year. Over the last nine months or

4:30

so, we've seen five cases that we know about so far. Henny was

4:35

advised his name could be restored on the county paperwork, but he would have

4:39

to go to court to legally restore his name on the deed. Until then,

4:43

the thief could do anything with the property, occupy or sell the property.

4:46

But other cases we've seen, the motive is that they're going to kind

4:50

of use that deed as collateral for some type of loan. So they're simply

4:57

trying to get this fraudulent deed record and then go pull a loan against that

5:02

property. The race was on to stop that from happening. Henny's attorney,

5:05

Julie Parish, filed notice of a clouded title to stop any potential sale to

5:10

a third party, along with the case to have the court declare Sylvester Garcia's

5:14

deed to be invalid and void. It's a complicated, time consuming and expensive

5:18

process you have to pay to go save their own property is a little bit

5:23

tragic. This then happened to any property unoccupied, occupied with or without a

5:29

mortgage. Even Elvis Presley's beloved Graceland was the target of a recent fraudulent auction

5:35

attempt. How does this happen? It's stunningly easy. We won't go into

5:41

specifics for obvious reasons, but Tim Mercer at the Moltnoma County Assessor's Office says

5:45

anyone with the computer can go online, pull deeds and forge signatures with little

5:48

to stop them. He and Julie Parish agree the system is ripe for fraud,

5:53

lacking adequate county systems to verify signatures and state statutes to protect personal information

6:00

need some other layer protection. Given the spike in home title fraud cases in

6:03

Oregon, Multima County officials now have a process in place to notify and cooperate

6:08

with law enforcement when they become aware of fraud issues. Parish is pushing the

6:12

state legislature to enact a law requiring that signatures be hidden on property records accessible

6:16

to the public, and she wants the Secretary of State to share with county

6:19

clerks voter ID software and processes to help detect deed fraud. Parish is also

6:25

floating the idea of pin numbers for property deeds, much like the ones on

6:28

debit cards in order to alter information on the document. The challenge is always

6:32

trying to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters in today's rapidly evolving world,

6:39

and title companies are tightening their processes. Sarah Frano with First American Title says

6:44

videos now part of their transactions. We use remote online notorizations that does have

6:50

the video component to it, so we get people in front of a camera

6:56

doing that signing before a notary. It's part of First a Mayor's holistic approach

7:00

to fraud prevention. We like to blend technology, employee training and educating customers

7:05

on the indications of potential fraud during real estate transactions. And Fronto offers these

7:11

suggestions to help you stay ahead of fraudsters. If you are buying a property,

7:15

go through a title company like First American. When you are purchasing a

7:19

home, make sure you select a title insurance policy with fraud coverage and specifically

7:25

ask for the First American EGLE policy or similar policy to purchase because it covers

7:31

fraudulent transfers after the policy date, which can help you cover costs clearing the

7:38

title to the property and undoing a fraudulent conveyance and once you on the home.

7:42

Frono says there are other ways to protect that property without expensive third party

7:46

monitoring. Set up a Google alert with your property address. If the fraudster

7:49

lists the property for sale, an alert might help stop a sale before it

7:55

even happens. Two, you can monitor your credit report for any change to

8:00

your credit resulting from new loans being encumbering on your property. And Thirdly,

8:05

Tim Mercer at Muldoma County's Office of Assessment and Taxation says you can monitor legal

8:09

activity on your own property. Most every assessor in the state has a website

8:15

where you can go look at property ownership. But if the unthinkable happens,

8:18

the best advice is to contact law enforcement and your attorney. I'm Gail Cunningham,

8:24

News Radio eleven ninety k EX. Michael Allen Harrison is moving his ten

8:30

Grands performances to a new venue this year. Ten Grant's is a performance unlike

8:33

anything you may have seen before. Michael Allen Harrison joins us on Local Voices.

8:39

Michael tell us about the ten Grands performances. Ten Grands is ten beautiful,

8:43

black, shiny grand pianos on stage at the same time with ten pianists

8:50

playing each of them, and so all the artists we take turns, you

8:54

know, playing a solo. But then there's like four or five numbers where

9:01

we all play together. So arrange you know, some dynamic songs that are

9:05

arranged for ten pianos, and the sound is unbelievable. I mean, you

9:11

just feel like you're inside the piano, like you're just completely surrounded by this

9:16

big, beautiful wall of sound of these beautiful sounding instruments. And so,

9:24

but it's not just a complete piano show because you know, the piano also

9:30

accompanies, you know, singers and other instruments, and so we incorporate singers

9:35

in some of the arrangements. We'll have some cello and violin. Also,

9:41

two of the grand pianos have what we call MIDI capability m id I or

9:48

let's just say if you don't know what that is, we'll say computer compatibility,

9:52

where we're able to think up to a computer with incredible orchestral librar.

10:00

I mean, these are samples of real instruments. And so if I want

10:03

a flute in the arrangement, one of those you know, uh, computer

10:09

type pianos can play a flute part for me, you know, or you

10:13

know, or a full string ensemble or if we want French horn or tuba.

10:20

But then but we also like to mix in you know, a real

10:24

live instruments. We don't want it to sound a synthetic. We still want

10:26

it to sound very authentic. So it's it's really I kind of I think

10:31

of the show as a as a piano orchestra that presents all the different things

10:39

that the piano is involved in and and and and all the different genres because

10:45

you know, the piano plays blues and ragtime and jazz and classical and new

10:50

age and pop. You know, I mean, the piano is the workhorse

10:54

of music, and and so ten Grant is really a showcase, you know,

11:01

of what the piano can do, and what these wonderful young artists that

11:05

I have in the show this year, you know, have going and and

11:11

you're one of the things I'm really excited this year about is not only do

11:15

I have some great new young artists who are really find piano players, but

11:20

four of them are also really good composers. So we're gonna hear some new

11:26

music from some of these kids. And so the age range is of my

11:33

new young artists are fifteen to thirty five, and we you know, I've

11:39

done the show for over twenty three years now. I think this is our

11:41

twenty four season, and you know, and we've had you know, some

11:46

you know, legendary professionals, you know, like Tom Grant and John Nilsen

11:50

and Darryl Grant and others, and they've been in our show, you know

11:52

for many years. And as much as I love them and I thank them

11:56

so much for being in our show, you know, it's I just felt

12:01

like it was it's time. It's time to pass on the torch and support,

12:05

you know, the young artists that are coming up, give them exposure,

12:09

you know, get people, you know, hearing their name because they're

12:13

just as good as we are. And and they, you know, they

12:16

need an opportunity to be seen and heard and and so that's that's why I

12:22

call it, you know, ten Grands a new era, you know, and we're also we're in a new venue. Yeah, we've been at the

12:28

Schnitzer Hall these years, and but when they opened up the new Patricia Research

12:37

Performing a Center for the arts, and and I've done two shows that are

12:41

already just on my own. H I was so impressed with the acoustics.

12:46

I was so impressed with the stage. The stage is is is about the

12:50

same size as the Schnitzer stage, but the hall only holds five hundred people.

12:56

So imagine a stage that's like the big haul the Schnister, you know,

13:01

or the Keller, but there's only five hundred and fifty seats. Wow,

13:07

So there's there isn't a bad seat in the house. So it's going to be like sitting in dress circle, you know, and with all those

13:13

ten pianos and the other instruments of the singers, You're just going to be

13:16

surrounded by that sound like you've never heard before. That's great and so so

13:22

I just have so much new excitement around it. It's given me, you

13:26

know, a lot of new energy working with a new young artists and and

13:33

you know, because you know, I think the last four or five years,

13:35

I mean, the shows have been great, but I've been kind of

13:37

feeling like for me artistically, I've been kind of like on autopilot, you

13:39

know what I mean, you know, and so and you know, I

13:46

want to be inspired. I want to, you know, I want to

13:48

I want to get excited about what I'm doing. And this really is it

13:52

is this new direction has done the show. Sure time to mix it up

13:54

a little bit. You mentioned the young performers. One of them's fifteen.

13:58

Tell us about some young performers. Well, the youngest pianist, her name

14:05

is Esther Harrison. She happens to be my daughter. But she's been in

14:11

the show before, and she's been in my Christmas shows that you know,

14:15

she's she's she's even though she's one of the young artists, she's somewhat a

14:20

vetterans because she's grown up. You know, she's grown up in an entertainment

14:24

family. The biggest surprise about her is that the last couple of years she

14:28

started sharing music that she's been writing. She's been kind of keeping it to

14:33

herself, kind of shy about it, and then she started sharing some of

14:37

her new music, and she wrote this piece that just knock you out.

14:41

It so beautiful and it has such a strong melody. You could hear it

14:46

in a in a movie as a movie theme. You know that piano piece

14:50

that was in La La Land that's so big, right, you know,

14:54

I mean it's it's not the same type of piece, but it has that

14:58

same kind of impact when you hear it. Wow. You know, it's

15:01

that kind of song where like, you know, teenagers you know, all

15:05

around the world and want to learn that song because they heard it in a

15:07

movie. Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing. Well, tell us about the the eight hands on two pianos. What's that? Well, that's

15:15

a tradition. So you know, you have two people on each piano,

15:18

so you got the two big night book pianos in the middle, and so

15:24

you have two people on one piano and two people on the other. So basically eight hands and so it's an arrangement for eight hands to do something you

15:31

know, fun and crazy. And what makes it extra exciting this year is

15:39

that one of the eight hands artists, his name is Charlie Martin, and

15:43

I think Charlie is either seventeen or eighteen. He's also a composer, so

15:48

he's sculpted an arrangement of one of his original songs to do with eight hands.

15:56

So how do they do that without getting their fingers mixed up? Well,

16:00

you know, I mean, if you know much about music, you

16:03

know you have the trouble cleft, which is kind of from middle c up

16:06

and the bass clefs from kind of think of it as dividing the piano up.

16:10

So you just divide the piano up, and so instead of one hand

16:14

playing up in the upper register, you got two of them playing up there.

16:17

Wow, you know, and two of them you know, playing down the lower register, so you can get deeper base notes going. And then

16:25

also, you know, you can instead of just playing a melody, you

16:30

know, just with one hand, you can double it up and play octaves.

16:34

Rather than playing an octave with one hand, which isn't as smooth as

16:38

playing active melodies with two hands together. It's you know, smooth and connected.

16:44

It just creates a much more dynamic palette, you know, in which

16:51

to create and to perform. So ten grands is a benefit for Play It

16:55

Forward. It's a nonprofit that you created along with your wife, Maryett in

16:57

twenty seventeen us how it helps kids well. Play It Forward is a really

17:03

unique program because it also involves the community in a big way. And this

17:08

is the reason we call it Play It Forward is because we take in gently

17:14

used instruments from the community. Could be a violin or an obo, but

17:18

we've taken in lots of pianos. Most people associate the piano with me,

17:22

and so these instruments come out of people's living living rooms, and we really

17:27

stress, you know, gently used, you know that they've been really well

17:34

maintained, and so many of them come to it like they just came off

17:37

the showroom floor. And because we want to pass it on or play it

17:42

forward, you know, to a child and a family who otherwise wouldn't be

17:47

able to afford it. And so not only do we give instruments, but

17:52

we also we give scholarships to have free lessons, and so we have after

17:59

school lesson for we have individual lesson scholarships. And also we are in one

18:06

of the Portland public schools now we're at Martin Luther King Elementary and we're teaching

18:12

two hundred students over there every week. Wow, that's great. Tell us

18:17

about the ten Grands concerts? How do we when are they and how do

18:21

we buy tickets? Three days June twenty eighth, twenty ninth, and thirtieth.

18:25

So Friday night at twenty eighth at seven thirty, Saturday and Sunday both

18:30

shows are at well. On Saturday is two pm and seven thirty and then

18:34

the Sunday show on the thirtieth is two pm and six pm. Really easy

18:40

to find tickets, you can either go to Michael Allanharrison dot com or you

18:44

can go to ten Grands dot com, or you can go to the Research

18:48

Center for the Arts ticket page. You could also find it at Play It

18:52

Forward PIF music dot org, or you can just google it ten Grands Michael

18:59

Allan Harrison'll pop up. It does. Yes, that's how we got it.

19:03

Great, Michael, anything else you'd like to add? Anybody who comes

19:06

to this show is just in for lots of surprises and just a huge treat.

19:11

And you know, this has been a tradition for many years, and

19:15

I wanted to continue to be a tradition. You know, I'm going to

19:18

turn sixty six this year's and I definitely have less birthdays and in front of

19:22

me that I have behind me, and so you know, I want to

19:26

pass the torch on. So you know, so when someday when I crossed

19:30

over to that mysterious place that we all go to, yes, you know,

19:37

I'd love it for it to keep going and these young leagues, you

19:40

know, carry on the torch and keep Play It Forward going and support youth

19:45

and education. And so yeah, that's what's all about. That's Michael Allen

19:51

Harrison with details and his ten grand performances coming up June twenty eighth through June

19:56

thirtieth at the Patricia Research Center for the Yards, a benefit for Play It

20:00

Forward. Volo MC County Health issued a report on fentanyl deaths earlier this year.

20:07

It helps to show who's affected by the crisis and what's being done about

20:11

it. Doctor Emily Mositas is an epidemiologist with multnom mccounty. The report describes

20:15

eight hundred and sixty eight people who died of fentanyl overdose in Moltnoma County since

20:21

twenty eighteen. We see a dramatic rise over time that the data went from

20:27

about two deaths per month in twenty eighteen to the partial data in twenty twenty

20:33

three shows us about thirty six deaths per month, more than one per day.

20:40

Maultnam County does not, however, have the highest rates of overdose in

20:42

the country. The rise has been very sharp and we did surpass King County

20:47

in our overdose rates and now we're similar to San Francisco. When we look

20:53

at the geographic data, we see a centralization of hotspots for overdose that are

20:59

downtown. Is part of the rationale for the ninety day fentanyl emergency response.

21:04

We also see in these data that thirty four to forty four year olds have

21:08

emerged as the highest risk age group. This was a recent emergence in the

21:14

past couple of years. There is a gap between males and females in these

21:19

data, and the rates have been higher for males consistently over time, but

21:25

that gap has widened as the rates increased more quickly for males. Although the

21:30

highest number of fentanyl related deaths in these data was in white residents, the

21:36

rates were highest in the American Indian Alasca Native community and the black community.

21:41

And when we look at the change between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two,

21:45

this can help us understand what groups might be moving towards increasing inequity and

21:52

risk. And we can see that although people who were identified US whose Hispanic

21:57

had lower lower rates in general, their rise, the proportional rise was high

22:04

was substantial. Overall these data, all this demographic information, all these turns

22:08

over time. This tells us which groups had some of the highest risks for

22:12

fintannel related overdoses, and we can use these data to tailor our efforts at

22:18

the Health Department and to support community efforts to help reach people who need it

22:23

most. So I'm going to hand it over to doctor Bruno to talk a

22:26

little bit more about those efforts. Doctor Richard Bruno is the MULTA McCatty health

22:30

Officer. They're more than just numbers. They're our friends, our family members,

22:33

our neighbors, congregation and community members, and the statistics that we're presenting

22:38

in their support are really human beings with the tears wiped away, as Paul

22:42

Bergier once said, So we want to be very conscious about that and very

22:47

respectful about the folks that have lost. I want to also mention that we're

22:51

continuing many of the programs and pilots and initiatives at the ninety day Fennal Emergency

22:56

Raised, especially in supporting our culturally specific organizations in the area who are caring

23:02

for people who've been disproportionate impacted by this crisis to keep doing the work that

23:06

they're doing. We're also focused on our youth related communications campaign, trying to

23:11

ensure that we are preventing youth from getting involved in fentanal use and overdose as

23:18

well. Rachel Banks is the director of the Molno Macutty Health Department. The

23:22

data in this report represents communities and particularly when we see inequities in community,

23:30

to acknowledge that that is a disproportionate burden that communities are bearing, that our

23:37

communities of color are bearing, and talk about some of the ways that we've

23:42

invested in those communities and are supporting them. And also that taking an equity

23:48

lens and using an equity approach necessitates that we acknowledge the impact of racism and

23:59

colonialism and just those exacerbating burdens that communities are facing. With this the overdose

24:07

mortalities being an additional piece there. So in the Health Department, we support

24:12

overdose prevention efforts in a range of ways, which really include preventing initiation,

24:21

particularly by youth and other people, includes harm reduction as well as providing treatment

24:27

services, ensuring that there are treatment services, and ultimately supporting recovery. And

24:33

we do that for every single Our job is to make those those available for

24:37

anyone who needs them in the county. But more specifically, data like this

24:42

help us to tailor those interventions, and so we have a variety of efforts

24:48

that are working with community health workers, for example, in the Native and

24:52

Indigenous community, Black communities, our LATINX communities, working with community health workers

25:00

and treatment providers to raise awareness and to ensure that we're supporting the interventions that

25:07

are needed. As doctor Bruno mentioned, part of that is communications campaigns as

25:14

well as specific podcasts and trainings that are really tailored for those community members.

25:22

We have a range of different groups that we work on. I mentioned a

25:26

few of them, as well as our youth and working with in school settings,

25:33

with educators and with youth themselves to identify topics of interest, including fentanyl

25:40

awareness and including the distribution of the lock Stone Boula. Mccunty Health Director Rachel

25:47

Bank says there are specific programs aimed at the bipod community support. A group

25:52

called the Future Generations Collaborative that works with the American Indian Alaska Native population.

25:56

They are putting on and hosts staying training specific to that community. That's an

26:03

example. We work in a program called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health

26:08

so REACH, which focuses on the Black African African immigrant community. They are

26:15

working. They're doing a number of things. One of them is working with

26:18

youth to put on podcasts that are specific and supporting youth advisory councils, student

26:23

health councils, those sorts of things. They're also partnering with the organ Health

26:27

Authority later this month to host awareness and listening sessions to identify what specific messages

26:36

are needed and what specific interventions are needed. We also have been supporting a

26:41

group, for example, of Latino and Latina Latine LATINX serving providers, treatment

26:48

providers and providing information and support to really tailor those messages based on the specific

26:59

either drug use and overdose information that we're seeing. One other example, we

27:04

have a path program out of our Behavioral Health division that has culturally specific services

27:11

as well meant to connect people who are using to treatment pathways. So those

27:17

are a number of examples I can share. Rachel Banks explains what they help

27:21

the community gets out of the report. We want to validate the community's experience,

27:25

so whereby communities are feeling this, these sort of data reports validate that

27:29

experience can be used as a call to action to support investments in their communities.

27:36

Those are a couple of the ways and to generate conversations about prevention and

27:41

some of the root causes that to address as well as increase awareness of the

27:48

services that we have available. This is doctor Emily most Sitas. Yeah,

27:52

I would echo that, Thank you, Director Banks. I would echo that

27:56

and say that this is this kind of quantified presentation of information is a compliment

28:03

to the experience that communities are feeling, and it allows us also to provide

28:10

transparency for the information that we have, so that the community has the same

28:14

information that we have and they can present that quantified side. Doctor Richard Bruno

28:18

explains how different agencies are working together. Yeah, so I would. I

28:22

would say one of the most positive outcomes from the entire NINETI Devental Emergency Declaration

28:29

was a streamlining of many of the processes and breaking down barriers between different government

28:34

agencies. You know, for example, for the first time, we've been

28:37

sharing a lot of this data with each other. So for example, on

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the public dashboard that we have available now, we have firefighter data, so

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oftentimes their first responders, they're providing resuscitations and reversing overdoses in the field,

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and so we're being able to bring their data stream into with nine on one

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data, hospital data, ambulance data, and a medical og anders data into

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a single dashboard, so you can kind of see all that together, so

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that's a great example of streamlining these efforts. Also part of the process was

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daily calls between the tragy of governmental agencies on the state, city, and

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county levels, and those daily meetings will now continue in a weekly fashion,

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so we'll continue to work on coordinating our processes, being in close communication with

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our fellow government agents, and making sure that the projects, initiatives, and

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programs that were brought to life or continued or supported through this ninety day emergency

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will now continue post ninety You can read the report and learn more about preventing

29:41

fatanyl deaths on the Moltover County Health Department's website. Thanks for listening to Local

29:45

Voices, I'm brad forward. You can hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app

29:49

under the podcast tab. Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeart Radio.