Judge Rules Against Foreclosure Rescuer

Even after Smith came home, problems remained. The family testified that the 60-pound woman was in the habit of talking to the television.

Byrd met alone with her twice, Zeldon wrote in the May opinion, in a section that summed up the financial transactions that followed.

In April 2000, Smith signed several documents transferring her home to one of Byrd's partnerships, B & B General Partnership, for $33,000. By then, an appraiser hired by Byrd had valued the house at $200,000. Smith's lawyers said that she had no idea that she was signing over the house, and that she received no money from Byrd.

A partner of Byrd's, Kevin Judd, took over the house in June 2000 for $150,000.

In September 2000, Smith and two relatives were told to get out of the house. They avoided eviction, however, after consulting lawyers. The lawsuit was filed in January 2001; Smith died a year later.

Judd sold the property in September 2003 for $282,500. He also was named in Smith's lawsuit. He and a co-defendant paid $127,500 to settle claims against them before trial, Zeldon said.

Stephen E. Hessler, Judd's attorney, said his client "settled completely" but admitted no wrongdoing. Judd, a bankruptcy lawyer, had taken out a mortgage on the house and planned to move in, Hessler said.

In the opinion she released in May, Zeldon wrote: "Despite the lip service given by Byrd and [Creative Investment Company] to helping people keep their homes, Byrd, the 'foreclosure specialist,' knocked on Hattie Smith's door for the purpose of acquiring her home for a pittance.

"It is not difficult for the Court to understand how the elderly and frail Hattie Smith would have trusted Byrd. . . . He is youthful, attractive and dresses very well," Zeldon added. "He appears outwardly to be a respectable person. Indeed, he has the appearance of a professional, educated person."

The judge announced the damages award last Wednesday, writing that Byrd's actions were "calculated to take advantage of a frail, elderly and vulnerable widow." Her award was calculated based on triple damages, plus $100,000 in punitive damages.

Byrd said last week that Smith's lawyers "have a personal crusade to put me out of business, to try to make me look bad within the community. . . . But I totally rebuke everything they have said."

The allegations that he had previously taken advantage of elderly, unsuspecting homeowners are "totally not true at all. . . . That is totally biased, totally untrue," Byrd said. "I have many elderly homeowners that would say that I helped them get their homes back."

He declined to say exactly how many houses he now has an interest in, but estimated that he owned fewer than 10.

Details about the Smith case first were reported in an article in the City Paper last December.

Karl E. McDonald, Byrd's attorney, said that the nature of Byrd's business is "inherently risky" because it involves offering assistance to those facing foreclosure. "It can be anticipated that on occasion, once the pressure of foreclosure has been relieved, that they might want to back out on the deal," he said.

That was not what happened with Hattie Smith, her attorneys said.

"Miss Smith was a civil servant for a long time. She paid her dues, paid her bills," said her lead attorney, Jeremy S. Simon, of the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, who handled the case pro bono. "She was not a deadbeat. . . . She got old and sick."

Smith's granddaughter, Tina Jackson, who represented Smith's estate after her death, had lived in the house on Monroe Street with her grandparents from age 11 to 18. She said that her grandmother "loved that house," the first home the couple had owned.

Jackson said she found it ironic that she and Byrd were high school classmates years ago in the District. With appeals, it is unclear when Jackson, of Fort Washington, might collect the money that the judge says Byrd owes the estate.

"It isn't about the money anyway," she said. "I want him to stop. I don't want him to do this to anyone else."