If county supervisors agree, more intensive investigation of real-estate fraud by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office will be funded by collecting a $2 fee each time property documents are officially recorded.

District Attorney Christie Stanley is asking the Board of Supervisors, when it meets Tuesday in Santa Barbara, to approve the new fee to pay for a full-time investigator who would handle only cases of fraud involving sales or purchases of real estate.

The cost of that criminal investigator is estimated at $81,000 annually, which would come from $2 fees assessed for recording deeds of trust, notices of default and other property documents.

Such fees have been allowed under state law since 1995, but all the money collected must be used “to deter, investigate and prosecute real-estate fraud crimes,” Stanley explained in a report to the board.

About eight other California counties have such a program in place, she said.

“Historically, the (Santa Barbara County) district attorney has handled very few real-estate cases, as economic crimes are very labor intensive, requiring specialized expertise and intense preparation prior to filing criminal charges,” she noted. “Insufficient funding has been available to effectively investigate and prosecute each case where fraud might be suspected.”

No centralized program for dealing with those crimes exists in the county now.

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Yet, instances of real-estate fraud are on the rise, Stanley added.

“Victims of real-estate fraud and predatory-lending schemes in Santa Barbara County are most often senior citizens and people with limited English speaking abilities,” she said. “In some cases, these victims have lost thousands of dollars to unethical and often unlicensed ‘real estate professionals' (or) ‘mortgage sales associates' and others.”

Such fraud, she observed, “strikes at the heart of the American dream” of home ownership.

That type of crime, she said, “can only be prevented through community outreach and focused investigative programs designed to reach those most likely to be victimized.”

The supervisors will meet, beginning at 9 a.m., in the Betteravia Government Center, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria.

In an unrelated item, they also are scheduled to approve the board's written responses to a May 9 county grand jury report entitled “Illegal Immigration and the Detention System.”

Most of the findings and recommendations in that report dealt with conditions at the County Jail, so the proposed board responses piggy-back those of the Sheriff's Department.

Regarding the jurors' finding that “the population of illegal immigrants in Santa Barbara County contributes to inmate overcrowding and incarceration costs in county detention facilities,” the supervisors and Sheriff's Department would respond by partially agreeing with that assertion.

“Illegal immigrants account for 10 to 15 percent of the jail population,” their written response states.

Probation officials agree that illegal immigrants contribute to jail overcrowding but say it has almost no effect on juveniles halls, where less than one percent of those in custody are illegal immigrants.

The grand jury recommended “permanent assignment of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer to the main County Jail.”

Since January, when newly elected Sheriff Bill Brown took over the department, federal ICE officers have increased their presence at the jail, which (in turn) has increased the number of immigration holds,” according the department's written responses to the May 9 report.

“Rather than have a permanent ICE officer assigned” to the jail, the results of their presence there two to three times per week are being monitored - as are the percentage of immigration holds - “to ensure adequate ICE response.”

Chuck Schultz can be reached at 925-2691, Ext. 2241, or at cschultz@lompocrecord.com

July 9, 2007