A Madera County man was arraigned Monday on 111 felony charges in a series of alleged frauds that Sacramento prosecutors say have cost homeowners thousands of dollars since 2005.
Jeff Allan McCoon, 42, who was released from custody in Colorado late last week, was arrested after Sacramento Superior Court Judge John P. Winn summarized the counts and raised questions about the money McCoon had used earlier to post $500,000 in bail.
McCoon faces charges that include false lien filings, attempted extortion and grand theft against about 50 residents from January 2005 through June 2006, according to the complainst by the District Attorney's Office.
During his brief courthouse appearance, McCoon did not enter a plea.
The Oakhurst man stood in a sage business suit next to his private attorney, Clyde Blackmon, who tried to persuade Winn to postpone the hearing and any rulings or motions until Thursday.
But within minutes, the judge ordered McCoon to be jailed because of questions over the legitimacy of funds McCoon had used to post part of the $500,000 bail after his initial arrest last month.
A bailiff then had McCoon place his hands behind his back, and he was quietly led out of the courtroom.
"I think that it's important that he shows that his bail is legitimate," Deputy District Attorney Keri Sternberg said after the hearing. "He's one of those people who just continues to take advantage of people."
Blackmon declined to comment.
According to prosecutors, McCoon operated under the guise of a credit card debt collection agency, Pacific States Credit Co. of Palm Springs.
Records show that McCoon registered the company with the California secretary of state's office in 1998, and that he also served as president of Sierra Consumer Acceptance Ltd., a company that had been incorporated in the Bahamas.
McCoon, through Pacific States, identified residents with outstanding credit card debts using a company called Unifund, which buys debt information from banks and sells it to debt collectors, according to the affidavit for his arrest.
Sternberg said that McCoon researched individuals to find those who owned property.
He then falsified Uniform Commercial Code financial statements and filed liens with the country registrar's office and with the Sacramento Superior Court, according to the affidavit.
McCoon then sent threatening letters to his victims, demanding money – often a much larger sum than the actual debt – to lift the liens, the affidavit states.
Sternberg also said there were occasions where McCoon contacted residents to pay off the lien even before he had filed any paperwork with the county clerk.
Several victims discovered the liens, she said, only when they tried to sell or refinance their homes and paid McCoon out of desperation or expediency.
"They felt they had no choice," Sternberg said.
"It's just everyday folks who have their property and some outstanding debts … and he's taking advantage of that," she said. "He's putting their homes at risk."
Liens can cause long-term damage to credit and could jeopardize a homeowner's ability to sell or refinance their homes, but financial experts and Sternberg pointed out that credit card debt is never secured by one's property. It has no connection to real estate.
That was something Sacramento photographer Thomas Parker and his wife, Kathleen, raised when they learned of McCoon's lien against their family home in January 2005.
"I don't know where he found what he did, but he told us to write him a check for $16,000," said Parker, 68, who added that the debt in question had long been paid off.
"So, I hired a lawyer to take care of it – just to get rid of this guy … this guy, he's just a vulture, that's what he is."
A year later, McCoon settled the civil case but not before Parker said he had spent about $4,000 to $5,000 defending himself against McCoon's paperwork.
"He never had the proper signatures," Parker said. "None of his paperwork was right."
Authorities in Orange County and with the Arizona Attorney General's Office say they are also familiar with McCoon and have separate criminal cases pending against him.
McCoon is scheduled to appear in an Orange County courtroom in July for a pretrial hearing on the 132 felony counts against him, said Brian G. Mulherin with the Orange County district attorney's white-collar crime unit.
"He has a lot going on," he said of McCoon.
Last week, McCoon was arrested in Arapahoe County, Colo. He had violated his probation on a 1996 conviction for defrauding businesses of more than $400,000, records show.
On Friday, he was placed on 10 years' probation, an Arapahoe County court clerk said, and was allowed to travel to California.
Call The Bee's Crystal Carreon, (916) 321-1203. Bee researcher Pete Basofin contributed.
