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Blind woman says she was duped into selling house - Houston Chronicle

Blind and poor,

Patricia D. Pusey

lost her historic home in the Fifth Ward after she says she was duped into signing a deed of sale - a document the 77-year-old woman mistakenly believed

to be an agreement to help her pay off delinquent taxes.

 

Instead of getting rescued from tax troubles, her family home was sold and later razed as a result - with family heirlooms, antiques and keepsakes still

inside, she told the Chronicle.

 

Around the time she signed the disputed deed in August 2008, Pusey said she'd been distracted by far more pressing troubles than unpaid taxes: She had suffered

a minor heart attack and her son had been diagnosed with terminal cancer that fall.

 

"I know what a deed of trust is. ... I maybe didn't have my sight, but I'm not stupid," she said.

 

Pusey lived in her five-bedroom house on 5305 Margarita St. for decades. Her father built it in 1948, and she moved back there to raise her four children

after her marriage broke up. She later inherited it after her parents passed away.

 

Pusey said she never intended to live anywhere else - until damage from a 2006 electrical fire forced her into an apartment. Even then, she repeatedly rejected

offers to sell.

 

Latest in a series

 

Pusey's allegations are the latest in a series of reported real estate thefts in Harris County that mainly center around questionable or bogus transfers

of vacant or abandoned homes belonging to mostly elderly or absentee landowners in historically African-American neighborhoods.

 

A Houston businesswoman and real estate investor named

Niyoka Taylor-Campbell,

34, of Humble, faces related 2011 charges of felony theft of more than $20,000 and execution of a legal document through deception as a result of Pusey's

complaint,

Harris County Criminal District Court

records show. The case is being prosecuted by the Harris County District Attorney's

Consumer Fraud Division.

 

"This woman knowingly took advantage of a legally blind senior citizen," Pusey said in a sworn statement describing the disputed 2008 sale. "She also knew

my health was not good and that I was dealing with a family emergency. There is no way I would have signed over the home, which my father built, to anyone."

 

Taylor-Campbell's defense attorney,

Tonya Rolland,

says her client has insisted "on her innocence, and from what I can see she hasn't done anything illegal."

 

Rolland said Pusey consented to selling her home and Taylor-Campbell never offered tax help.

 

"It is our stand that this was a legal real estate transaction," Rolland said.

 

She refused to disclose details of the sale, including what, if anything, her client paid Pusey for the property, valued by the Harris County Appraisal

District at $55,000 in 2008.

 

After the 2006 fire, Pusey said she was unable to borrow enough money for repairs, and back taxes began to accrue as the damaged house remained vacant for

two years.

 

Then in May 2008, Pusey said she was approached by a friendly 34-year-old Houston entrepreneur, Taylor-Campbell, who runs both a real estate investment

company and a tax advisory service. Taylor-Campbell called frequently and met with Pusey several times before they reached a deal.

 

Deed of trust

 

But Pusey says she agreed to grant Taylor-Campbell legal authority only to help with delinquent taxes. In a sworn statement, Pusey claimed she was alone

when Taylor-Campbell arrived with a notary and what Pusey believed was a tax document to sign. It turned out to be a deed of trust that transferred the

house to a company Taylor-Campbell herself had created, records show.

 

The notarized property deed transferred Pusey's home to a company called Strong Roots of Texas, a

Limited Liability Company,

on Aug. 28, 2008, county records show. Secretary of state records show Taylor-Campbell formed "Strong Roots of Texas LLC" in July 2008, only about a month

before the alleged "sale." Other documents show the company's legal status was "involuntarily terminated" even before that sale went through for failure

to pay required fees.

 

Taylor-Campbell's company later resold the property to a businessman who resold it to Mt. Corinth

Baptist Church,

deed records show. Taylor-Campbell has no ties to the church, her lawyer said.

 

lise.olsen at chron.com

 

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Blind-woman-says-she-was-duped-into-selling-house-2176086.php