BUFFALO - Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announces that his office recently helped restore rightful ownership to a 77-year-old Vietnam War veteran who nearly lost his home in a deed theft scheme. Earlier this month, our office successfully argued a motion in State Supreme Court, which validated the victim’s property ownership after a scammer attempted to fraudulently sell his home with a falsified document.
The convicted scammer, 34-year-old Marcus A. Gaskin of Buffalo, deceptively coordinated the sale of a townhome on Bennett Village Terrance in the City of Buffalo through a quitclaim deed. The prospective buyers provided the defendant with a payment of $64,000 in exchange for the transfer of the property title. The defendant arranged for the filing of a fake deed, which was used to illegally transfer the property title to the purchaser after the paperwork was filed in the Erie County Clerk’s Office in October 2022. The homeowner, who had no intention of selling his home, was unaware that he was the victim of deed theft until an eviction notice was posted on his front door.
For this crime, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the Second Degree (Class “A” misdemeanor) in February 2024. He was sentenced to a conditional discharge.
After the guilty plea, the fraudulent deed transaction was expected to be rectified between the civil attorneys representing the victim and the prospective buyers. After the victim’s attorney notified our office that the ownership rights were being challenged in the ongoing civil proceeding, a post-trial motion was filed in State Supreme Court to argue the validity of the rightful owner’s deed.
Enacted last November, Legislation S.6577/A.6656 enhances the ability of state prosecutors to protect homeowners by allowing district attorneys to move to void fraudulent instruments and invalidate sales that affect the ownership of real estate property. Under New York State Criminal Procedure Law 420.45(1), when a defendant has been convicted of a crime that affects the title to real property and where there is a falsified instrument that is material to the transfer or purchase of the real property, the district attorney may file a motion in Supreme Court to void said instrument.
Earlier this month, Gary Ertel, chief of our office’s Special Investigations and Prosecution Bureau who prosecuted the offender, successfully argued the motion before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller who granted the order and declared the deed “void ab initio,” which invalidated the transfer of the property.
“I am pleased to announce that our office was able to convict the offender and restore rightful homeownership to the victim. For most people, our homes are not most valuable and beloved asset. I believe this is the first motion to be filed in Erie County under the newly enacted legislation that allows prosecutors to protect homeowners who have been the victims of this scam. I commend Judge Boller who stated, on the record, that he was enthusiastically granting the order, which ultimately ended this ongoing legal entanglement for the victim who found himself in this situation through no fault of his own,” said Acting Erie County District Attorney Mike Keane.