Posted on 10/09/2007 7:31:16 AM PDT by SmithL
So when this two-story brick home goes on the auction block this morning, it will not only shatter one homeowner's personal dream but also deliver a wrecking ball to a Memphis political icon -- former state senator John Ford.
Ford's former East Memphis home, now held exclusively by his ex-wife, is in foreclosure and is set to be sold to the highest bidder at 11 a.m. on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse.
"I'm under a lot of stress,'' said an emotional Tamara Mitchell-Ford, trying late Monday to save her home from foreclosure. "Can you believe it's gone this far?''
Mitchell-Ford said she was moving to file a bankruptcy petition to block the foreclosure sale. Records showed no petition filed late Monday; Mitchell-Ford said she hoped to file by this morning.
The pending foreclosure sale is just the latest in a series of legal woes for the Ford family since John Ford, 65, was sentenced this summer to 51/2 years in prison for taking bribes.
Once one of the most powerful and recognizable political figures in the state, the Memphis Democrat has left a trail of trouble in the wake of his 31-year career in the Tennessee Senate.
One of the great testaments to his rise and fall was the 3,300-square-foot home that he and then-wife Tamara bought in 1994 in the gated Village of River Oaks community. Miles outside of his inner-city Senate district, Ford got the home when a developer co-signed on the mortgage.
Records show Ford was allowed to keep the home in 1995 despite falling months behind on his mortgage payments.
That was at the height of his power, when Ford sat on three key Senate committees and was the "go to'' man used by Memphis business interests to steer legislation through the General Assembly.
But the kid-glove treatment ended after his May 2005 indictment in the FBI's Tennessee Waltz bribery sting. After falling behind on the mortgage of a second home he owned in Collierville, Ford was put in foreclosure in November 2005 by Wells Fargo Bank and avoided an auction by selling that house and paying the bank off.
Ford had leveraged his political connections into a $356,000-a-year income as a business consultant -- a livelihood that began drying up in 2005 with the Waltz and a separate criminal case in Nashville where he's accused of concealing $800,000 in kickbacks from state contractors.
In that environment, Ford quit-claimed the couple's East Memphis home to the sole possession of Tamara Mitchell-Ford in December 2005. She now says he did it without her authorization.
"I couldn't pay,'' said Mitchell-Ford, who said she hasn't made a mortgage payment since February. Attorneys now are seeking possession of the house because of Mitchell-Ford's default on a $240,500 mortgage she took on the home last year with Yale Mortgage Corp.
John Ford declined comment on his ex-wife's statements, but said he didn't believe the foreclosure was newsworthy.
"I don't know why you're interested in someone losing their home,'' he said. "I haven't been in politics for two years. Quit beating a dead horse.''
Ford got the home when a developer co-signed on the mortgage. Records show Ford was allowed to keep the home in 1995 despite falling months behind on his mortgage payments. That was at the height of his power, ... But the kid-glove treatment ended after his May 2005 indictment in the FBI's Tennessee Waltz bribery sting.
Time to pay the piper.
And yes, John is the uncle of Harold Ford, Jr.
Well, if you or I were in this mess ... we’d have the same options - pay or lose it. I don’t get off on people losing their homes ... and certainly not in THIS situation.
Eight months to foreclose? Looks like Wells Fargo could use some management changes.
Jimmy cracked corn, and I don’t care.
A last-minute bankruptcy filing saved Tamara Mitchell-Ford’s home from the auction block this morning.
Mitchell-Ford, the ex-wife of former state senator John Ford, filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition at 10:20 a.m. — 40 minutes before her East Memphis house was to be auctioned in a foreclosure sale on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse.
Such a bankruptcy action stops a foreclosure sale and allows a debtor to draft a repayment plan on a mortgage and other debts under court supervision. Mitchell-Ford said earlier this week that she has been unable to pay her mortgage since February.
I wonder if she understands she'll have to start making payments per the loan contract, if she wants to keep the house.
...but she has some time to find another high-powered politician to latch on to.
Only a Ford!
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