Sandra Hines and Abayomi Azikiwe outside the Bank of America in downtown Detroit during a demonstration against foreclosures. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
PANW Editor's Note: Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is also in foreclosure joining the ranks of tens of thousands of households in Michigan and millions around the country whose homes are being seized by the mortgage bankers. Even those who choose to join the system and do the bidding of the ruling class, have the same enemy interests literally at their doorsteps.
Worthy has consistently refused to prosecute cops who kill civilians or take any action against the bankers who are destroying Detroit and Wayne County. She went right along with the corporate media's assessment that the primary task now is to overthrow and imprison the Mayor of Detroit.
It is interesting that she is being foreclosed on by Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, one of the worst culprits in the mortgage industry nationally. This is the same corporation that the Moratorium Now Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions targeted in the successful effort to save the home of Rubie Curl-Pinkins.
If there was a moratorium placed on foreclosures even Kym Worthy could have benefited.
Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wayne prosecutor to lose her house
$337K home to be sold after failure to work out deal with lender to avoid foreclosure, Worthy says
David Josar and Mark Hicks
The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has joined the flood of Michigan residents whose homes are in foreclosure.
In a statement Wednesday, Worthy said, "after attempts to work something out with (mortgage company) Countrywide, I was unable to do so.
"A short sale for my home is pending acceptance by Countrywide and there is an offer to purchase the property."
The foreclosure is on Worthy's primary residence in the University District of Detroit.
She bought the 3,600-square-foot house for $337,000 in 2004. Her monthly mortgage and tax payment was $3,000 on a 7.6 percent interest rate, according to records.
Worthy has had a smattering of money problems that have left her vulnerable to criticism as she prosecutes Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for perjury and other felonies.
In May, Kilpatrick's attorney, James Parkman, alluded to some of Worthy's delinquent property taxes during a press conference.
Weeks after Worthy charged Kilpatrick in March, automated phone calls to some Wayne County homes discussed a lien on Worthy's house.
As of late July, a federal tax lien had been filed against her home, and she owed more than $7,500 in back property taxes and penalties.
Earlier this summer, she settled a 36th District Court civil case over the unpaid balance of a credit card bill to buy $16,000 in furniture, a dispute that had involved a bounced check, 11 late payments and a previous court-brokered repayment plan that fell apart.
Worthy, who makes $154,521 a year, also owns a rental property that is behind in taxes. County records indicate she has another year to come up with $4,482 to stop Wayne County from selling the house. She is also is delinquent $5,596 in 2007 taxes on the house.
Countrywide is one of the largest lenders in the nation.
Worthy is not the first high-profile local to face housing troubles.
"Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin, 66, nearly lost one of her palaces earlier this year due to back property taxes.
Her $714,000 mansion overlooking the Detroit Golf Club was weeks away from foreclosure in March, and she also owed $1,200 in delinquent taxes on her $1.8 million Bloomfield Township home, records show.
Franklin owes $190,058 in state and federal taxes, records show.
According to data from RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties, Michigan's foreclosure rate in July was the seventh highest in the nation.
In the economic downturn, area foreclosures could increase-- including among those with higher incomes, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president for RealtyTrac.
"People were buying homes overpriced or overvalued that they couldn't afford with risky financing, which created a toxic mix," he said.
Wayne Co. prosecutor Kym Worthy's home in foreclosure
BY BEN SCHMITT and JOE SWICKARD
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
August 20, 2008
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s home in northwest Detroit is in foreclosure, her spokeswoman said today.
Worthy issued a statement today about the foreclosure: “A short sale for my home is pending acceptance by Countrywide,” mortgage company, adding: “and there is an offer to purchase the property.”
County treasurer records show she is delinquent on about $7,600 in property taxes on the home.
In April, Worthy’s financial woes were targeted in anonymous automated telephone saying she made $128,000 a year and owed thousands in taxes while sending her child to a pricey private school in Oakland County.
At that time, Worthy admitted she had a federal tax liability secured by a lien on her home. She said the liability came when she cashed in an IRA in 2003 to fund her run for prosecutor and that she was up to date on the payments. Worthy also owed 2006 and 2007 taxes on a rental property.
The call said that “something just doesn’t add up. Who is paying Kym Worthy?”
Worthy labeled the calls “a cowardly and vicious smear campaign….I will not be bullied and intimidated out of doing my job.”
No comments:
Post a Comment