I wonder why the gap in the resume ' of 9 years after teaching.

I'm Concerned; 

Generally,  where there is smoke there is fire - but not always. 

So far, to the best of my knowledge,  there have been no legal charges levied against Mr. Cole.  He has not been placed under arrest,  nor has he been professionally sanctioned (disciplined for wrongdoing) by the State of California.  Under our system of laws,  there is a presumption of innocence until he is PROVEN guilty.    

Unlikely as it may sound, it  could very well be Mr. Cole was not personally involved in any wrongdoing and this real estate debacle is the sole fault of Mr. David Crisp.  I honestly don't know if Mr. Cole is guilty of anything and at this point in time neither does anyone else - including the media.  That is why we have law enforcement and the courts.

Sure there is a lot of smoke.  

This entire situation is tragic.  Honest, hard-working members of our community were harmed as were financial institutions.  Adding fuel to the fire is this debacle was fueled by greed and disregard of the law BUT Mr. Cole is innocent until proven guilty and I see no reason whatsoever why he cannot be allowed to earn a living for his family as long as it is under the umbrella of supervision provided by a company he does not own.  As an employee of another company, his actions would be constantly reviewed by his new boss and if his actions are out of line or against the law he would be fired.  It is highly unlikely Mr. Cole would do anything to complicate his current legal situation.  

In my opinion,  for the media to pursue him over 100 miles to another community "seeking comment" is stretching journalistic integrity and again, in my opinion was calculated to cause him as much harm as possible while snagging that all important headline.

I would prefer Mr. Cole be tried in a court of law not the media: 

If he's guilty of wrongdoing, it will all come out in court and it will be front page news but if he is found innocent, his professional life will be ruined and the news of his innocence will probably be buried in the smallest print possible - somewhere in the Local Section.  Somehow, some way,  the media needs to do a better job of reporting the news instead of attempting to make the news.

 If he is guilty,  then by all means punish the absolute Hell out of him.  Lock him up for a very long time as a deterrent to anyone else who may be tempted to place dollar signs above integrity.   If he is innocent, he deserves an apology (which he probably won't get).  In any event, let the investigators do their job and let's try him in a court of law not the court of public opinion.

BTW,  in case you're wondering, I have never met the man nor do I have any financial interest in any of Crisp & Cole's activities I just see a community mad as Hell and determined to have their pound of flesh BEFORE the court even convenes.  

I disagree, the media should tar and feather this guy as much as possible, however possible.  Cole, along with this greasy younger partner Cole, took advantage of people and deserve to reap everything they have sown.  Just because they have yet to be charged or convicted does not mean they have done nothing wrong.

At this point in time, if Cole has any redress at all it will not be against the "media". He is a "public figure" now.

His redress, if any, would be against his employer over there if she indeed let him go just based upon the  "media attention" he is now getting!

If he was dong his job (and that may be her  "out") then she cannot let him go for just attracting attention unless she can show it is hurting her busness. Her saying she  "wasn't very aware of his situtation" when she hired him is not very compelling.

etbartley---

WOW! so what you're saying is if the little guy is dumb enough to be duped then he's fair game???! You must be a realtor!

These jokers and the rest of the REI were preaching no end in sight for home prices and if you don't buy now you're forevever priced out. Yeah, a lot responsibilty falls on the buyers but at the end of the day these buyers were promised, by so called professionals/experts, that prices would continue to rise. And to this day there are still REI 'experts' out there screaming buy now, buy now as prices continue to plummet. Yeah right!....hey I heard Chevy is having a big sale next month ah what the heck I'll go ahead and buy now! 

I have no pity on any REI 'professional' that took part in this debacle, I hope they suffer more the poor little guy who got duped.

Well etbartley, I see your point, but I believe he saw the writing on the wall, saw the house of cards about to fall, however you want to say it and tried to jump ship before it got ugly.

It only partially worked.

The link in the homepage slide goes to a Money Talks post put up at 11:58, and at the time of this comment, does not have any comments yet.  It doesn't go to this post.

WOW!

I respect everyones opinion but true be told that Carl and Crisp did fraud in many way they did.  No, I'm not the law or the courts but I was a lender that almost dealt with them and did not proceed because I saw the disrespect they had for borrower and the greed they had grown.  And to be honest the courts and the law does not equal justice. Trust that! Let see look at O.J. case.  Anyhow, if Carl had learned his lesson he would have never tried to get back into the realestate bussiness, out of respect for him, the familes he harm, and his own family.  Granted they were not the only bad realtors but they were the cockiest of them all.  Before, the bust, they loved the attention they loved the media.  They could not get enough of it.  For those who  think using realtors is a bad choice. Just because there is a bad apple in the bunch doesn't mean all are bad.  There is good realestate practice out there.  I am not saying because of me or defending my profession but with all the negotiation going on on these REO and with the legality of these transaction, you do need some guidance.  So, now lets not just focus on all the bad.  Lets turn our market around and gain equity on those who have homes and the new buyers let make sure they get the best deal!  It is a great time to buy!  And I am so glad the media let us know what Carl was doing.  If there was a predator in your neighborhood you would want to know, so the media was just letting the county of Oxnard a heads up.

Word has it a new website is to be unveiled. This site will include all info. via public record of ALL employees working at  these reporting agencies. News, radio, and paper. Looks like someones about to level the playing field. The dirt continues. This should be interesting. 

How is that going to level the playing field?  Did the Californian or radio stations possibly commit fraud and hurt innocent people and now we need to get back at them?  That's just lame.

Yea possibly, I dunno i just overheard about this site..It will be interesting to see how these reporters handle there phone numbers and home address's and other financial info posted in public eye.