Kern County resident Gina Marie Hernandez was sentenced to 2 years eight months in state prison for recording a false document

VENTURA, California – District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Kern County resident Gina Marie Hernandez (DOB 9/24/77) was sentenced to two years eight months in state prison for recording a false document. Hernandez, along with Kern County residents Hayser Scarlett Lopez (DOB 10/17/68) and Peggy Ann Soto (DOB 7/9/59), was arrested in October 2014 after aninvestigation conducted by the District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit.

The defendants planned and executed a complex scheme to use an unsuspecting victim’s Oxnard residence as collateral for a bail bond which secured Lopez’s release from jail in an unrelated Kern County felony case. Hernandez recruited Soto, who assumed the victim’s identity by executing a fraudulent power of attorney. Soto then impersonated the victim while testifying in a bail hearing in Kern Superior court. After the victim’s residence was fraudulently used to secure Lopez’s bail bond and release from custody, Lopez fled the country. As a result, the bondsman who posted Lopez’s bail sought to foreclose on the victim’s residence, which was nearly lost during foreclosure proceedings. Lopez eventually returned to the United States and was arrested.

Lopez previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of perjury and recording a false document and was sentenced to two years in prison on February 27, 2015. Soto previously pleaded guilty to felony perjury and recording a false document and was sentenced to two years in state prison on July 15, 2015.

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