Cary Spivak and Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

John Wesley Jr. was driving past his late father's house when he spotted strangers on the upstairs porch, a busted out door and a broken picture window. Even his father's old pickup truck, normally parked in the driveway, had been pushed onto the street.

The scene had all of the hallmarks of a burglary.

In reality, it was worse — somebody was trying to take the entire house.

"They broke the lock out. They brought a ladder," Wesley said. "It was just crazy. It was just crazy."

Earlier that day, Wesley had found a bizarre "notice" taped to a front window of the home, where his father had lived until his death a few weeks earlier, in May 2017. The paper was riddled with spelling and grammar errors and virtually devoid of punctuation.

The "NOTICE OF POSSISSION" declared the house was being placed in receivership because it was abandoned and had building code violations.

The man behind the effort to take the Wesley home was John W. Hemphill, 49, who at the time was on probation from federal prison. He was arrested in 2009 and had spent six years and eight months behind bars for a 2011 conviction for mail fraud and impersonating a federal officer. He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years.

It was part of a scheme involving the sale of properties Hemphill did not own through the guise of his company,United States Receivers Caretakers Association. According to prosecutors, Hemphill was passing himself off as a federal agent.

The documents say Hemphill had twice been convicted for the same activity in Illinois state court, the first time in 2006.

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After he got out of federal prison in 2016, Hemphill came to the Milwaukee area, where he had family and business ties.

He soon got back into the real estate business, using many of the same tactics that landed him in prison in the first place, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found.

Hemphill used United States Receivers Caretakers Association in an attempt to seize a property on the 4700 block of North 29th St, according to records and interviews. On July 21, 2017, the company "sold" that property to an associate's company, the records show. The associate, Carla Gamble, said the property was a gift.

In reality, neither Hemphill nor the company had the right to seize or sell the property, and the city ultimately took title this year because of back taxes.

The Journal Sentinel found five cases, including the Wesley home, where Hemphill or an associate improperly attempted to take control of properties. In three cases, it appeared unsuspecting families were already lined up to rent the homes.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office and police are investigating.

Hemphill was interviewed recently via video from the Milwaukee County Jail, where he was being held on felony strangulation and suffocation charges in an unrelated case.

During a pair of 20-minute interviews, Hemphill offered a variety of rambling explanations to argue his operation was legal, including claims he had received approvals from city and federal agencies. He said he had government documents that "show I am a fully legal agency," but could not produce them because he was in jail.

"If you could find it in your heart to come and bond me out, it’s $500, I could present the documents to you then, once I get out," he said in a message sent to a reporter.

Properties reviewed by the Journal Sentinel that were targeted by Hemphill or associates had a variety or problems, including back taxes or numerous building code violations.

In each case, a so-called "Administrative Order to Convey" was sent to the property owner, posted or filed in the Milwaukee County Courthouse. The orders were three or four pages long and quoted state, local and federal laws — none of which give Hemphill or anybody else blanket authority to place a property into receivership.

Only a court can order that a property be involuntarily placed into receivership, said John Wirth, a receivership attorney. An owner can voluntarily place their property into a receivership.

"This is the craziest thing I've seen in a long time" said Wirth, who reviewed the orders at the request of the Journal Sentinel. "It has enough legal gobbledygook to make somebody who doesn’t know anything about the the law concerned."

In the case of the Wesley property, the notice was typed in all upper case letters and virtually devoid of punctuation. It said if property owners wanted to contest the action, they should "CONTACT CITY COUNCEL AND SHOWE WHY THIS PROPERTY SHOULDN'T GO INTO RECEIVERSHIP."

Hours before he spotted people breaking into the house, Wesley had called the phone number on the notice.

Wesley, 44, said he talked to a man who said he "worked for the government and was taking over my dad's house." The man identified himself as Freddrick Hemphill, a name that appears on some documents related to Hemphill's company.

Wesley said he argued with the man on the phone several times and at one point —after he discovered the break in — said they should meet on the front lawn of his father's home. The meeting never took place, Wesley said.

"I said, 'Hemphill, now we got a problem,'" Wesley recalled. "You broke in my dad's house. You broke windows. You just invited yourself in my dad's house."

Wesley said Hemphill responded by saying: "Don’t worry about it, I’m going to take this house."

Despite the broken lock and window, a man and woman told Wesley they had agreed to pay a $1,000 so they could move into the house with their children.

Hemphill told the Journal Sentinel that he was authorized to seize the house because there were back taxes owed on it, but backed off because he had known Wesley's father.

Until Wesley confronted him, Hemphill said, "I didn't know he had a junior."

The Wesley family still has title to the property.

'Scamlords' strike city residents

Journal Sentinel investigations have identified multiple scams targeting central city residents.

Last year, the Journal Sentinel reported that disgraced ex-realtor Gathan Anderson had engineered the sales of properties he did not own and was not authorized to sell. He was arrested in September 2017 on suspicion of theft by fraud but has not been charged. The investigation is continuing.

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In a separate case, a 31-year old Milwaukee woman lost $2,000 and all of her possessions when she, her young children and her fiance rented a house from a man they thought was the landlord. The man, who has not been found, actually had no interest in the property and the real property manager moved all of the family's belongings to the curb.

Their possessions, including a baby crib, TVs and clothing, were quickly stolen. Even the family cat was gone.

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Assistant City Attorney Heather Hough, who prosecutes problem landlords in civil cases, said the office has seen so many new schemes that some have dubbed the perpetrators "scamlords."

"As more and more of these type of cases (appear), we realize how incredibly creative some of these people are," said Hough. "Each one brings their own particular flavor."

High-level help

Hemphill received some high-level help when he got out of prison.

In August 2016 — a month after Hemphill was released on probation — U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis, a Chicago Democrat, wrote a letter on congressional stationary that bolstered the credibility of the felon's operation.

"Please accept this communique as my recognition and acknowledgement of the fact that I recognize the United States Receivers Caretakers Association as doing business in the United States as a Receivership Agency," the letter signed by Davis said.

The letter identified Hemphill and another man as executives of the agency, saying they could "receive, hold and repair property as designated by courts, banks, corporations and individuals."

Ira Cohen, an aide to Davis, confirmed the letter was authentic and that Hemphill and Davis have known each other for years. He said the congressman would have just wanted to see Hemphill turn his life around.

Three attorneys who specialize in receivership law told the Journal Sentinel they are unaware of anything called "receivership agencies."

Yet, Hemphill insists they exist — and that he is authorized by the federal government to take control of properties.

The Davis letter is "a letter of recognition ... he recognized my agency to do business, to take properties" throughout the nation, Hemphill said.

Pressed for proof, Hemphill pointed to a 2017 letter his company received from the IRS. The document appears to be a form letter and simply provided general information. The phone number on it is for an IRS customer service line.

"My status is a government unit," Hemphill said.

At the time of his 2011 sentencing on the federal case, Hemphill's attorney, Gary Ravitz, wrote in a court filing that his client truly believes he's entitled to seize properties.

"John's steadfast insistence that he is right in this regard, and that everyone else is wrong, might suggest some confused thinking," said Ravitz.

'Hemphill Real Estate Training'

Hemphill said family ties brought him back to Milwaukee when he was on probation. Several relatives, including his mother, live here.

His company, incorporated in 2002, has other ties to the Milwaukee area. Records from Hemphill's federal conviction include about a dozen deeds and other land documents that list a Wauwatosa address for that company and a second Hemphill entity.

Those records also note that Hemphill's business card, which included an image of the Great Seal of the United States, listed a Wauwatosa address as far back as 2009.

When he came back to Milwaukee, Hemphill said he named several people to be receivers — which according to him meant they would be empowered to seize properties in need of repair or had other issues.

Among them were Carla Gamble and her friend, Theresa Anthony, a woman who was released from federal prison in March 2017. Anthonyhad beensentenced to six months for pocketing Social Security payments for herself and her company, City Transformation Ltd.

Anthony and Gamble said they each met Hemphill through an intermediary.

Anthony said she rejected Hemphill's offer to help her. Gamble, however, gave it a try for a few months. She said she did not first research Hemphill or the law on receivership.

"I'm kind of like a newbie" to real estate, she told the Journal Sentinel.

Last year, Gamble attempted to seize a W. Center Street property owned by a church. Associate Pastor Giles Patterson said he asked her, "Where did you learn how to do this? It sounds like you must have got some training.’”

"She said, ‘Yeah, I got it from Hemphill Real Estate Training in Illinois,'" he said.

A deed filed with the county shows Hemphill sold a house for $1,000 on the 4700 block of North 29th Street to Gamble. That house actually belonged to James and Kimberly Ramsey until this past August, when it was seized by the city for back taxes.

James Ramsey said he never heard of United States Receivers Caretakers Association. He declined further comment.

Gamble managed to rent out a house in the 6000 block of North 39th Street that actually was owned by the city, according to documents obtained through an open records request.

The city had posted a no trespassing sign and a notice stating the property was city-owned — signs that prompted a neighbor to tell officials that someone was living in the property, said Deborah McCollum-Gathing, a Department of City Development property manager.

"There was furniture and everything in the property," McCollum-Gathing said, adding the locks had even been changed.

The tenant, who was living in the house with children, told McCollum-Gathing she had paid Gamble $600 to rent the home. Gamble said the money was refunded.

When the Milwaukee City Attorney's office learned about the activities of Hempill's company and his associates, it notified the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office.

"Alarming is that the man that was convicted in Chicago who allegedly trained Ms. Gamble has records, deeds and orders to convey in the City of Milwaukee," Hough, the assistant city attorney, wrote in an October 2017 email to Kurt Benkley, an assistant district attorney who now oversees the office's white-collar crime unit.

The "order to convey" that Hough referred to includes a replica of the Great Seal of the United States over the words "Office of the General Counsel, Departmental Enforcement Center."

A review of three of the documents show they each cite federal or state laws to falsely claim that either GDI 1 LLC, a Gamble corporation, or United States Receivers Caretakers Association could take title to the property.

In an interview, Hemphill acknowledged that he wrote the template for the orders.

"It had all the the legal rambling of something that was legitimate," said Patterson, the pastor.

He said he relaxed after he saw the document said the church had the right to appeal at a hearing at the Center Street Library.

"Why is the federal government meeting at Center Street Library?" Patterson asked.

A 'Twilight Zone' meeting

In a surreal scene that played out just over a year ago, on Oct. 16, 2017, three victims of the scam came together at a house in the 4700 block of North 52nd Street.

The property belongs to AASAP 5038 Management LLC, said Maurice "Mo" Wince, an AASAP property manager.

Wince happened to be friends with Wesley and Patterson — two of the people who successfully fought efforts to illegally seize their own properties.

“With God as my witness ... Mo called me. He said 'Are you sitting down?'" Wesley recalled. "He said 'Hemphill got us!' I thought he was joking."

Wesley rushed over to North 52nd Street, where he saw Patterson and Gamble.

"It was like the 'Twilight Zone,'" Patterson said.

Wince said unauthorized workers were busy on the property: "They were literally ripping out the toilets." Caroletta Glass, a second AASAP property manager, said the unauthorized workers had even "started doing some landscaping."

Gamble was sitting on the front stairs.

"She has a clipboard. She had all official documents," said Patterson. "She had a lanyard with an ID on it. She was directing her construction crew who was going in. They were taking new sinks and new cabinets into the units."

A woman, who was there with a young child, said she had just made a down payment to rent out the house, Patterson said.

Gamble also had a stack of the orders to convey, which were seized by police. Police ordered Gamble to meet with the district attorney's office and she complied.

"The likely scam is that she intends to rent the properties out even though she does not own them," Benkley, the assistant district attorney, wrote in a memo prior to Gamble's appearance.

No charges have been filed.

"As far as my mistakes, I've already spoke to the necessary authorities to clear my name," Gamble said in a text message to a reporter.

Hemphill is also out of the business. He was arrested on a probation violation in late 2017, and has been behind bars until Monday.

Gamble said she had returned rent payments or found housing for people who had planned to rent properties that she tried to take into receivership.

That property is still owned by AASAP, which Glass said must spend thousands of dollars to repair the damage caused by the unsuccessful takeover.

On the day of the confrontation, Gamble stood her ground, even after Patterson said he was calling the police.

"She said, 'Well, go ahead and call them. I have all my documents here, and this is all legitimate,'" Patterson. He said she then mentioned her training at the "Hemphill Institute" in Illinois.

"I’m like, 'Well, okay. You know, I don’t know what kind of training you have,'" Patterson said. "But we're in Milwaukee, and I can tell you this practice that you are trying to assume these properties under is illegal."

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