NEW ORLEANS — A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered U.S. Marshals to arrest Jonathan Burden to force him to show up in court, after the self-proclaimed real estate investor failed to pay $26,800 in sanctions and failed yet again to show up for a hearing.
Burden is accused in at least seven lawsuits of tricking New Orleans area homeowners into signing over their properties to him and, in some of the cases, of filing false documents to seize people’s homes out from under them. He has repeatedly ignored court orders and tied up those cases in civil court, even while the FBI and New Orleans Police Department investigate him over the allegations of criminal fraud.
But Thursday was the first time a judge has ordered Burden to be forced into court, with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill issuing the order to force Burden to appear at a hearing on Nov. 30. It’s unclear when federal marshals plan to arrest him or if they will hold him in jail until the hearing.
It’s one of the cases we detailed in our WWL-TV series “Un-Real Estate” in May and June.
Burden filed a document in the Orleans Parish land records after Lorraine Robinson died early this year, claiming she had signed over her Central City four-plex to him in 2019. But she had already filed for bankruptcy protection, and Grabill ruled in June that Burden had stolen property from the estate.
Burden collected more than $4,600 in rent from Robinson’s tenants and used the bogus deed he filed in the land records to convince police to throw Robinson’s brother, Johnnie Robinson, off the property. In September, Grabill ordered Burden to pay that money, along with more than $20,000 in fees and $2,000 to Robinson’s bankruptcy lawyer, Jonathan DeTrinis, for costs he racked up after Burden sued DeTrinis for stalking him on social media and then never showed up for his own case in court.
“As he’s done this entire time, he’s ignored everything in this case,” DeTrinis said. “Judge Grabill’s a federal bankruptcy judge and they don’t play by those rules. So, she ordered a bench warrant for his arrest, she’s sending the U.S. Marshals to go pick him up and we’re having a hearing on Nov. 30 to answer why he isn’t respecting the court’s authority.”
“I guess he thinks he’s above the law. But the feds are gonna catch up with him and they gonna give him what he deserves,” Johnnie Robinson said.
Burden posts prolifically on Instagram and Facebook bragging about his real estate “hustle,” including videos of himself convincing homeowners in financial distress to sign paperwork that he later uses to claim ownership of their properties. In one case, he appears in a video bragging about “taking down a monster,” a million-dollar mansion owned by Kathryn Stewart, a widow who was facing foreclosure because of debt on her late husband’s reverse mortgage.
According to Stewart’s lawsuit against Burden, he convinced her to sign a document he claimed was a backup offer for the house, but actually filed it in the parish records, clouding the title so she couldn’t complete a pending $1.1 million sale. She had to agree to pay him $85,000 to let the sale go through, according to court documents.
In another case, Burden took ownership of a Bywater house and immediately sold it for $100,000 based on a completely forged deed. The house was owned by Derrick Breston and his late mother, who both purportedly signed away the property after Breston’s mother was already dead. The notary whose name appears on the document also told WWL his signature was forged.
Breston says his civil case and an investigation by the NOPD appear to be going nowhere.
“I’ll just be glad when it’s over with, because I’m still fighting, still paying lawyers and just going through the process and just hope this is over with and this doesn’t happen to no one else, and I’ll be glad when the authorities step in and do what they have to do,” said Breston, who also attended Thursday’s bankruptcy court hearing.
Burden has been seen recently researching more property records at the Orleans Parish Clerk’s Office.
“He’s still out there doing his thing, so we’re trying to break him down so we can give him justice,” Johnnie Robinson said.
Burden has not responded to WWL’s repeated requests for comment.
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