The widow of a Denver police officer killed in the line of duty says she is the victim of a real estate scam and fears she may lose her home.
Kelly Young, widow of officer Donnie Young, worries that she and her two daughters will have to move and lose tens of thousands of dollars. She filed a lawsuit against several parties involved in the sale of her home near Castle Rock in December.
“I don’t want to take my daughter out of her high school,” Young said as she took her 5-year-old trick-or-treating Monday. “And now prices have gone up, interest rates have gone up – to say nothing of the connection we have to our home.”
In December, Donnie and Kelly Young entered a contract to buy a home for $345,000. The new house was unoccupied and within sight of the home they were living in, so when the Youngs’ home sold quickly, they negotiated to move into their new home before closing.
But the closing date was delayed again and again. When Donnie Young was shot and killed in May, the Youngs still had not closed on the house. In the meantime, they had put $25,000 into the home, according to the lawsuit. The Denver Police Protective Association also spent time and money on landscaping after Donnie Young’s death.
Real estate agent Terry Hastings, a defendant in Young’s suit, said she and another defendant are also victims – accusing Windsor businessman Darin DeVoe of being the bad guy.
Hastings was the realty agent representing the sellers, DeVoe and Jan Davenport, when the home was sold. The transfer of title was delayed as it became unclear whether DeVoe or Davenport actually owned the home, according to Young’s lawsuit. The matter became further complicated when it was discovered the Youngs paid thousands of dollars less for the home than what was owed against it.
“I’m hoping that we can come together to get a solution to this rather than with lawsuits and the like,” Hastings said. “Nobody wants to sell a house out from under Kelly Young. … She’s been through enough.”
But Young said she was deceived by Hastings. “She has known DeVoe for a very long time,” Young said Monday. “I feel like they were all in on it.”
Hastings defended herself and Davenport, noting that Davenport has made payments on the house since January to keep it from going into foreclosure. She also said DeVoe no longer returns her phone calls or e-mails.
Young’s attorney, John Trueax, said DeVoe is evading service of this and several other lawsuits.
Attempts to reach DeVoe at several phone numbers were unsuccessful.
It was not until this summer that Kelly Young discovered what she believes happened, Trueax said.
“Mr. DeVoe purchased the property two years earlier and then immediately sold it to Jan Davenport for a much higher price. This is a real estate scam known as ‘flipping,”‘ Trueax said in an e-mail.
While not always illegal, flipping can be a crime if it involves fake documents or false appraisals. Sometimes the second buyer is in on the scam, and the two split the proceeds from the inflated mortgage.
“So, unbeknownst to Donnie and Kelly,” Trueax’s e-mail continued, “when they contracted to buy the house, there was approximately $40,000 more in debt on the house than the agreed-upon sale price of $345,000, meaning that Mr. DeVoe and Ms. Davenport would be required to bring a large sum of money to the closing table.”
Young said Hastings and DeVoe told her that an appraiser was coming to her house in June because DeVoe was considering lowering the price. Young said she found out later that the appraisal was for Davenport to take out a second mortgage.
“This was just a couple of weeks after Donnie died,” she said. “I mean, I had all these people in my house.”
Trueax said Davenport “fraudulently represented to the new lender” that she lived in the home.
Detective Donald “Donnie” Young was shot to death while working security at a party in Denver. Denver prosecutors are working to extradite Raul Garcia-Gomez from Mexico to face charges in Young’s death.
In her lawsuit, Kelly Young says she is the victim of fraud, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act by Hastings, Davenport, DeVoe, his company the DeVoe Group LLC, Home Solutions Real Estate, Hastings Real Estate, and New Horizons and Associates Inc. She is seeking unspecified damages and the completion of the sale, among other things.
Court records show DeVoe has been sued over breach of contract or money eight times since 2000. In 1999, he was ticketed by Fort Collins police for impersonating a notary.
Young said she is disappointed. “I can’t believe somebody would do this.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
