Plea for scam to take over woman’s home

Miller and Hall, a Van Nuys resident who is out of custody on a $1.1 million bail bond, are believed to have worked together to have the alleged victim sign a grant deed so the pair could sell her home to another buyer, according to prosecutors.

The woman allegedly defaulted on the property taxes for her Redwood City home valued between $1.5 million and $1.7 million and was preparing for an auction to be run by the San Mateo County Tax Collector’s Office in the summer of 2018 when she was approached by Miller. On July 23, 2018, the Realtor allegedly took the woman to an Applebee’s restaurant, bought her two margaritas and offered her a $500,000 reverse mortgage that would allegedly give the woman the chance to live on the property until she died, according to prosecutors.

Miller allegedly gave the woman $1,000 in cash and asked her to sign a grant deed in favor of Hall’s enterprise and showing the woman had been paid $800,000 for the property, a sum she claimed she never received. Hall allegedly recorded the grant deed the same day and paid the delinquent property taxes, according to prosecutors.

Because the purchase price was so far below market-rate value, the San Mateo County Recorder’s Office reported the sale and Miller was interviewed by an inspector with the District Attorney’s Office about the transaction. Days later, Miller allegedly gave the woman another $1,000, increased the home’s purchase price to $600,000 and called the inspector to say she “cleared everything up” with the woman, according to prosecutors.

On Aug. 22, 2018, Hall allegedly sold the property to a buyer for $997,000 and some eight days later, Miller allegedly went to the woman’s home with a U-Haul truck to get her to move out.

Miller’s defense attorney Adriana Eberle was not immediately available for comment.