Convict in mortgage scheme must be resentenced, appeals court rules | StarTribune.com

Convict in mortgage scheme must be resentenced, appeals court rules | StarTribune.com
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Convict in mortgage scheme must be resentenced, appeals court rules
Article by: ABBY SIMONS , Star Tribune Updated: June 6, 2011 - 8:28 PM
The court said Marlon Pratt should be sentenced for a single count of racketeering.

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A Brooklyn Park man who received a 10-year sentence in a mortgage fraud scheme -- more time than prosecutors had sought -- was improperly sentenced by a district judge and should receive less time, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ordered Monday.

The court ordered that Marlon Terrell Pratt, 34, should return to Hennepin County District Court for resentencing for only one count of racketeering. He had been convicted on two counts, along with 17 counts of theft by swindle, in 2009.

A jury found that Pratt pocketed at least $700,000 in mortgage fraud scams that ran from 2004 to 2007. The scams involved $3.2 million in loans and resulted in 17 homes, primarily in north Minneapolis, going into foreclosure.

The appeals court ordered that because both of Pratt's racketeering convictions were based on multiple offenses during the three-year period, he should have been sentenced on only one of the convictions, rather than the 10 years he received for both.

The court, in a 25-page order, rejected an argument that Hennepin District Judge Steven Lange's sentence was too harsh, saying the sentence was justified given the severity of the crime.

The court rejected Pratt's argument that he was denied a fair trial because of a conflict of interest by Lange, who retired in 2006 but took the case on a special assignment. The judge had preliminarily served at the same time as an expert witness retained by Hennepin County in a federal lawsuit against the Hennepin County Medical Center.

In a dissent, Appeals Court Judge Roger Klaphake sided with Pratt that Lange should not have presided over a trial involving Hennepin County prosecutors at the same time.

Abby Simons • 612-673-4921