Restitution hard to collect/ Pair finally paying in theft case

Nearly a year after real estate broker Gary Hurt and his wife, Linda, were given probation for stealing $270,000 from 49 clients, the couple is just now beginning to pay the restitution that prosecutors deemed more important than jail time.

For most of the victims, it doesn't matter much anymore. A trust fund that repays victims of real estate fraud has reimbursed most of the landlords who lost rent and the renters who lost security deposits.

Still, the single largest loser in the couple's dash-with-the- cash plan - a 77-year-old man who loaned the Hurts more than $100,000 - reckons his kids will have to collect for him.

The Hurts' story made headlines in 1999. It fascinated many not only because of the number of victims and the nature of the crime, but because of the incongruity of the couple's descent from the solid middle class into serious crime.

The story since the couple's sentencing in March 2000 has highlighted the difficulties and tortuous pace of collecting restitution for victims of large-scale economic crime, even in a high- profile case monitored by authorities.

The Hurts' strange saga began in August 1999, when the two simply closed and locked the door to Performa Realty, a property management company they had spent almost two decades building into an apparently profitable business. After selling some things and cleaning out their home, the Hurts disappeared, taking with them money stolen from rent payments, security deposits and escrow accounts.

Before they left town, though, the Hurts used some of the loot to buy a pickup truck and a fifth-wheel trailer. Weeks later, on the lam, they traded those vehicles for a $80,000-plus motor home. The Hurts were caught in a Texas border town when they tried to fill a prescription; $50,000 in cash was found in a safe in their vehicle. Police suspect they were headed for Mexico and a life of leisure.

After they were returned to Colorado Springs, 4th Judicial Assistant District Attorney Robyn Cafasso reluctantly agreed to drop 51 felony counts against each of the Hurts in exchange for a guilty plea to two felony charges - theft and defrauding a secured creditor.

Cafasso said she offered the deal to the Hurts after talking to the victims about what they wanted most - hard time or their money back. The prosecutor said the deal seemed the only way to go, since she doubted the middle-age couple would be sentenced to prison anyway.

Although she has long since moved onto other cases, Cafasso said last week her office intends to make sure the Hurts do exactly what they promised to do.

"Without getting some upfront money or restitution, we wouldn't agree to probation," she said. "After talking to their probation officer, I feel confident we will get all our restitution in this case. He's on top of it."

So far, though, almost all the restitution paid has come from selling the toys the Hurts bought with their ill-gotten gains. The motor home was sold for $51,000, and an additional $2,100 was raised by selling Gary Hurt's firearms. That money, plus the $50,000 in cash found in the motor home, has been disbursed to victims.

In addition, the Colorado Real Estate Commission has paid about $37,000 to 35 victims. The money came from a $2 million trust fund established through broker license fees and designed to reimburse victims of fraud by licensed Realtors. An official said he doesn't expect the fund to be reimbursed by Hurt - unless he wants his real estate license back.

The Hurts themselves have paid back very little - yet. Each was supposed to pay $250 a month during the first six months of their probation, a sum that was to increase to $500 a month or 25 percent of each person's net income until all victims were repaid.

That schedule was almost instantly derailed, however, when Gary Hurt, as part of his plea deal, had to serve 64 days in the El Paso County pokey. He then was shipped south to Pueblo, where he served six months in that jail. Shortly before the theft, Hurt had been convicted of menacing when he waved a gun around at Pueblo Reservoir, where he often boated. Prosecutors in Pueblo decided he had violated his parole on that conviction by stealing clients' money in Colorado Springs.

While her husband was in jail, probation officials decided Linda Hurt couldn't pay her share of restitution and make living expenses, so they delayed her obligations.

Gary Hurt, released from the Pueblo jail in early December, is now employed along with his wife at a local development company, which is aware of their past and is reporting their incomes to authorities. Starting next month, each of the Hurts will have to pony up $250 a month for their victims and report to their probation officer bearing financial statements on their income and living expenses.

The Hurts, now living in a rented apartment, could not be reached for comment.

Cafasso said getting restitution for victims of crime has always been difficult. A day in local courtrooms often will find victims, prosecutors, even judges expressing frustration that defendants have not paid restitution.

The courts employ a private firm to try and collect from convicted criminals. The District Attorney's Office monitors restitution payments made by those given deferred sentences. And probation officers also are charged with keeping track of restitution efforts by their clients.

Still, even with that blanket of supervision, collecting the cash remains hard. Criminal defendants often have excuses - creative and otherwise - for not paying. Many believe, sometimes correctly, that failing to pay won't in and of itself send them to prison. And more than a few who land in district court have drug and alcohol problems, possess few job skills and have little idea how to manage money.

"You always wonder where they're robbing Peter to pay Paul," Cafasso said.

Still, she said her office, economic crimes, is serious about collecting restitution, mostly because the defendants it monitors have escaped prison sentences solely so they could pay their victims back.

She said that effort was given some backbone in December, when a judge sent a former homebuilder to prison for not paying a sufficient amount of restitution. The contractor had been given 16 years of probation in 1991 based on an agreement to pay $600,000 back to his victims.

He paid some, then stopped, giving one excuse or another. Although he restarted the payments just before his court hearing, it was too little, too late. The man will spend the rest of his sentence - 61/2 years - in prison.

"That was encouraging to me after that much time," Cafasso said.

Still, time isn't something Scott Pfaff and his wife are flush with.

The couple had loaned Gary Hurt various amounts of money for more than a decade, and Hurt had always paid it back. The last loan was the largest, about $104,000, all of which was lost when the broker left.

Because it was a loan unrelated to a real estate transaction, the couple was ineligible to be reimbursed by the real estate trust fund. The Pfaffs got a few dollars from the sale of the motor home and the recovery of the cash inside it, but it will be years, if ever, before they see their 100-grand plus interest.

In fact, at the rate the restitution is dribbling in, Pfaff said he'll be long gone before the Hurts do him right.

Last year, for example, he saw a total of $3,578 returned to him - from the sale of the motor home and guns. In June, Pfaff recalls, he got two reimbursement checks - one for $6.29 and one for $10.48.

"I told the probation officer I wouldn't even waste the postage or my time sending out a check like that," Pfaff said.

Pfaff received no money from the Hurts in October, November or December. Finally, in January he got two checks totaling $225.

Now that the Hurts are working, he expects to see similar-size checks in his mailbox through the rest of the year.

Still, given the amount the Hurts stole, the interest accruing and the relatively measly monthly repayment, Pfaff isn't going to engage in any spending sprees.

Asked if he was planning, say, a cruise around the world using the money due him from the Hurts, Pfaff snorted and replied:

"Well, maybe around the bathtub."

The fraud

The Hurts' saga began in 1999, when the two closed the door to Performa Realty, a property management company they had spent building into an apparently profitable business. After cleaning out their home, the Hurts disappeared, taking with them money stolen from rent payments, security deposits and escrow accounts.

Copyright 2001
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