COLLATERAL
DAMAGE
owner had died and the property
was in the control of her estate.
Throughout, Mogelberg believed
he would prevail, he said. He researched federal and state consumer protection law extensively,
to the point where he could cite
parts of the code from memory. He
said the family tucked the money
they would have been paying in
rent had Bank of America accepted
their checks into savings.
Three months later, on March 21,
Mogelberg was at home with Jaylyn
when Orange County sheriff’s deputies showed up. He had to leave
right now, he says he was told.
He was not permitted to take
anything as he left, he said — not
even a diaper bag or formula for the
baby. The door was secured behind
him with a lockbox, he said.
For two weeks, the family lived
in hotel rooms, using up their
savings. Mogelberg complained to
the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, which
controlled the previous owners’
mortgage, and had sold the property out of foreclosure to Bank
of America. A HUD contractor
negotiated their reentry with the
bank, and the eviction was rescinded — a rare reprieve.
They returned to chaos, they
HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
claim. Dressers were overturned,
clothes and belongs strewn about.
Cigarettes had been extinguished
on furniture. The toilet was fouled
with human waste. When they tallied the damage, they realized many
According to one
academic study,
tenants account for
40 percent of all U.S.
evictions in foreclosed
properties, or tens of
thousands each month.
of their possessions were gone.
“All of a sudden you go home and
there’s no home,” Mogelberg said.
He confronted the bank contractor who let them back into
the home. According to public
records, that contractor, Daniel
Ray Slusher, has been convicted
of multiple felonies, including
identity theft and receiving stolen
property. He has been arrested at
least eight times, according to Orange County court records, most
recently in May, two months after
this episode took place.
Slusher could not be located for
comment. Emails and phone messages left for him by The Huffington Post went unreturned.