Superior Court judge rules against Matthews real estate broker

A state Superior Court judge has ruled against a Matthews real estate broker accused of defending homeowners in foreclosures cases without being authorized to practice law.

The ruling, which was handed down in June, is the latest in a string of legal setbacks for Dianne Michele Carter.

In making the ruling, Judge Paul Gessner supported an injunction from the North Carolina State Bar against Carter.

Gessner’s ruling comes roughly two years after a dust-up began between Carter and the Sycamore Grove Homeowners Association, a Charlotte HOA that accused her of improperly electing herself the association’s president, opening a bank account in the HOA’s name and telling residents to send their dues to her.

She has also been ordered to pay legal fees after losing the lawsuit against the HOA.

Carter did not respond to a Mecklenburg Times request for an interview.

Attorney Mike Hunter, who represented the HOA in the legal battle against Carter, said he first crossed paths with her in 2009 when the HOA began foreclosure proceedings against Charles Johnson, a man whom Hunter believes was engaged to Carter’s daughter, for a home at 7026 Sycamore Grove Court in Charlotte.

According to the court ruling from Gessner, after a lien was filed in May 2009 on Johnson’s home for failing to pay HOA dues, Carter filed a lien against Johnson for a purported property management agreement and a debt of $200,000, naming Carter’s business, Carter Realty Sensible Tax Service LLC, the secured party, or the entity owed the debt.

Also in May 2009, she filed with Mecklenburg County’s register of deeds’ office a “truth affidavit” that granted her power of attorney for Johnson and a “common law copyright affidavit” that creates a “self-executive contract/security agreement in event of unauthorized use” of Johnson’s name, according to the injunction ruling.

Later that month, Carter submitted a letter to Hunter with a watermark in hopes of discharging Johnson’s debt to the HOA, according to Gessner’s ruling. She also sent a letter to Hunter demanding payment of $547,524 for damages to Johnson, according to the ruling.

Also, with the register of deeds’ office, in May 2009 Carter filed a document purporting to be a contract between herself and the Mecklenburg County tax collector to discharge property taxes owed by her and Erica Lauren Carter Bentley, who is reportedly Carter’s daughter, Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds David Granberry said. The documents included an invoice for $3.6 million in damages for violating an alleged copyright of Carter’s name in notices issued by the tax collector, according to Gessner’s ruling.

Then, in August 2009, Carter filed a counterclaim naming herself and Johnson as plaintiffs and the HOA, Hunter and Hunter’s law firm, Horack Talley, as defendants in response to the foreclosure action.

That same month, Hunter said, Carter represented Johnson in the foreclosure hearing. But that normally isn’t allowed, because Carter is not an attorney and was not the owner of the home, Hunter said. However, the clerk of court allowed Carter to speak on Johnson’s behalf.

Johnson lost and appealed the decision to Superior Court. At the December 2009 appeal, the judge authorized the foreclosure and would not let Carter speak on Johnson’s behalf, Hunter said.

After the judge left the bench, Hunter said, Carter began screaming at Hunter.

“People get angry in court all the time but she was going off,” Hunter said. “She was saying she was president of the HOA, that she had fired me and I had no authority to represent the HOA.”

David Johnson, deputy counsel for the N.C. State Bar, said it filed a complaint against Carter in August 2009 for the unauthorized practice of law in the Charles Johnson case. According to the court’s ruling related to the injunction against Carter, she continued to assist Johnson and others in defending foreclosure filings and prosecuting claims before the courts, including the Erica Lauren Carter Bentley trust and the Moorish Holy Temple of Science/Moorish Science Temple, South Carolina Republic Temple No. 3A.

Carter is also known as Dianne Michele Carter El-Bey, according to court documents she filed. Suffixes of El or Bey are usually used by those affiliated with the Moorish Science Temple of America, a religious group. In the Charlotte area, registers of deeds and police report that fraudulent deeds claiming ownership to foreclosed homes have been filed by those claiming affiliation with the MSTOA. Law enforcement officials say it is not uncommon for those accused of filing such fraudulent documents to retaliate on police and others by filing liens against them.

Carter filed more than $17 million in liens against Hunter, Sycamore Grove HOA President Noah Maximov and Horack Talley. Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges called her liens a “sham filing” in his order supporting the dismissal of Carter’s lawsuit against Maximov.

In May 2010, a preliminary injunction against Carter was granted by Superior Court Judge Carl Fox, followed by the permanent injunction entered this past June. It restricts Carter from acting as an attorney, trustee, notary public or with real or purported power of attorney. She cannot prepare legal documents or documents with supposed legal effect.

Carter has filed an appeal of the injunction, David Johnson said.

Hunter said she attempted a coup of the HOA’s board. He said Carter held an unauthorized meeting, during which she had herself elected president of the HOA. There were four homeowners in attendance, Hunter said.

She also opened a bank account in the HOA’s name using the organization’s tax identification number, Hunter said.

“She sent out a letter to all homeowners telling them they should all send checks to her,” he said. “I had to respond with my letter saying, ‘Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.’”

In addition to the lawsuit against Maximov, the countersuit filed by Carter against the HOA, Hunter and Horack Talley were thrown out and Carter was ordered to pay the association’s legal fees.

“He chewed her up and spit her out,” Hunter said, referring to Bridges’ ruling. “He excoriated her in court for filing all these frivolous proceedings.”

Carter was also ordered to drop the lien against Hunter, Maximov and the HOA. But she hasn’t, Hunter said, so he plans to ask the court at an upcoming hearing set to determine the cost of the HOA’s legal fees that Carter be found in contempt of court for disobeying the court order. That means she could face jail, Hunter said.

Hunter claims he had another encounter with Carter after filing a foreclosure for a credit union against someone else.

“He had been filing some of these crazy pleadings and a few days before eviction we got a letter saying, ‘I will not giving up the house without fight,’” Hunter said. “We put the sheriff’s office on notice there might be trouble. When the deputy goes up and knocks on the door, who answers the door but Dianne Carter.”

Carter argued that police couldn’t take the house because her business had a lien placed on it, Hunter said.

“But it was ineffective,” Hunter said. “Deputies came close to arresting her for interference with an officer.”

Carter had her notary license revoked in April 2010, according to George Jeter, spokesman for the North Carolina secretary of state’s office. But her name and stamp continue to appear on documents like the fake ones being filed at the courthouse, Granberry said.

The secretary of state’s office, which oversees notaries, says it has an open investigation on Carter.

Ramsey can be reached at [email protected].