For Scam Victims, Justice Is Better Late Than Never

When Betty Jackson received the long-overdue payment, she couldn’t stop murmuring her thank-yous.

Cora Gordon was convinced it was heaven-sent.

Ernest V. Haskins stared at the check in his hand in disbelief.

“I’m just going to look at it for a while,” he said.

The three were among about 30 South Los Angeles and Inglewood residents who received a little piece of justice last week, decades after being swindled out of thousands of dollars and their homes by a notorious real estate investor.

The victims--defrauded by businessman William E. Hankins Jr.’s promise to save them from foreclosure--picked up their belated settlement checks at a posh Century City law firm.

Attorneys from the firm, O’Melveny & Myers, who sued Hankins in 1979 and doggedly pursued him through the courts, were able to secure about $400,000 in payments for his last uncompensated victims.

“I didn’t think anyone was working on this still,” said a jubilant Kenneth Thompson, 60, clutching a check for $8,100. “I thought it was a dead case. When I heard [about the settlement], I jumped for joy.”

Thompson, who now lives in the San Fernando Valley, was one of an estimated 100 people who were tricked out of their homes by Hankins, a wealthy Pacific Palisades investor who claimed to be refinancing their property.

Hankins approached mostly low-income homeowners facing foreclosure or debt and offered to help them get the money they needed. He had them sign a stack of refinancing papers, and in the process they unwittingly turned over the deed to their homes to him, according to attorneys and court papers.

When the homeowners fell behind in their mortgage payments, Hankins took over their property and evicted them.

Thompson, who worked as a chemical mixer, said he lost his four-bedroom Inglewood home after he fell one month behind in paying Hankins. He and his wife had to move into an apartment.

“It was real depressing,” he said, shaking his head.

O’Melveny & Myers took on the case at no charge after hearing of the homeowners’ plight from Public Counsel, a public-interest law firm. Almost a dozen O’Melveny & Myers lawyers have worked on the lawsuit in the last two decades.

The attorneys won an initial civil settlement in 1980, restoring homes to another group of about 30 victims, but then had to battle Hankins in court for the next decade as he tried to transfer his property and declare bankruptcy to avoid repaying the remaining 70 people who lost their houses or money in the scheme.

Over the years, some won settlements, but the largest number--many of whom had given up or forgotten--had to wait until last week.

“It’s really exciting to be able finally to get these people their money,” said lawyer Carla Christofferson, who took on the case in 1995. She and another attorney, Rodrigo Castro-Silva, secured the distribution of the final settlement in court two weeks ago. “No one thought there was anything that could be done.”

The story took a bizarre twist in January 1995, when Hankins was fatally shot in his driveway, ambushed by an assailant hiding in the bushes. The murder remains unsolved.

At the time, Hankins was facing trial on 18 felony counts of fraud, forgery and grand theft filed by county prosecutors in connection with his swindle. (Hankins inadvertently brought together two men who would become world-famous as antagonists in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. His attorney when he was arrested was Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., and the LAPD detective who at one time investigated Hankins’ slaying was Mark Fuhrman.)

The victims’ civil-case attorneys, stymied by Hankins’ maneuvering, were able to push forward only after a change in state law allowed them to try to seize Hankins’ last remaining asset: his home. Before they could proceed, however, his son offered a settlement of $400,000 in place of the home, where Hankins’ widow still lives.

There was no way for many of the remaining victims to get their homes back. They were no longer in Hankins’ possession, having been sold or transferred. But the son’s settlement was enough to repay the equity the victims had in the homes, as well as 10% interest for the nearly 20 years it took to collect the money.

Last week, the recipients started filing into O’Melveny & Myers’ Century City office to pick up their checks. Many were emotionally overwhelmed as they sat in leather swivel chairs at a long wooden conference table as Christofferson explained how much money they were getting--anywhere from $270 to $87,000.

“I can’t believe it’s finally over,” said Jackson, 49, who lost her South Los Angeles home to Hankins. “I was so shocked. I didn’t think it would ever happen. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.”

Christofferson smiled. “I’m glad we could do something,” she said. “Sorry it took so long.”

The law firm spent months tracking down the last of the swindled homeowners, taking out ads in the The Times and the Los Angeles Sentinel and even hiring a private investigator to find the victims, most of whom had retired and left the neighborhood years ago.

In the end, 28 of the 42 remaining homeowners who were still owed money were located and issued checks.

Some only had a hazy memory of the scam. For others, the pain was as sharp and real as if it happened yesterday.

“I went through so much with that man,” said one woman, who refused to be identified or to discuss the case further. “I just want to leave it behind me.”

The money wasn’t enough to erase the anger many still feel at Hankins’ duplicity.

Ernest Haskins said Hankins charged him exorbitant interest after lending Haskins money to repair his Inglewood home. Suspicious, Haskins repaid him in a month and demanded his deed back.

“I went in and told him, ‘Somebody is going to get you someday,’ ” said Haskins, 61, who now lives in Gardena.

Cora Gordon said she suffered a nervous breakdown after going deeply into debt to get the deed to her three-bedroom South Los Angeles home from Hankins. She fought for years to keep her house, borrowing from friends and her church.

She was able to keep her home, she said, only because she discovered that someone had forged her name on the loan agreement.

“What happened to all of us was a tragedy,” said Gordon, 57, who still seethes with anger at the mention of Hankins’ name. “This is a man who preyed on people. I got sick because of all the stress, not knowing if my children were going to have a place to stay.”

Gordon was shocked, she said, to learn she finally was going to get back the money he owed her.

“Justice is a slow process,” she said. “You don’t think something is going to come after 18 years. I personally felt it was a miracle. I think God stepped in.”