Property manager to stand trial for forgery
DANVILLE – A local property manager will stand trial on charges that he forged signatures on several real estate contracts and homeowner tax-exemption cards filed with the Vermilion County supervisor of assessments' office in July.
Circuit Judge Michael Clary on Thursday found probable cause to try Kevin Flynn, 51, of the 200 block of Newell Road, Danville, with 11 counts of forgery of a lease/contract and nine counts of forgery on tax-exemption cards. A jury trial was scheduled for March 12.
Flynn, who is being represented by Danville attorney David Ryan, pleaded innocent to the charges.
Flynn is the owner and broker of Flynn Property Management, which owns and manages rental property in Danville including apartments, duplexes and single-family houses, some of which are approved for federal Section 8 subsidies.
Prosecutors charged him with the 20 Class 3 felonies in early October following a Danville police investigation.
At a preliminary hearing, Danville police Detective Michael Bransford told Assistant State's Attorney Kavita Uppal that police began investigating Flynn after then-Supervisor of Assessments Don Crist filed a report. Bransford said Crist became suspicious because of the number of contracts that Flynn filed at one time.
Bransford added that Crist became suspicious of the signatures because of the handwriting. And upon examining the signatures himself, the detective did too.
Bransford then testified that he showed the lease contracts and homeowner tax-exemption cards to the people whose names appeared on them. After seeing them, he said, 10 people told him that the signatures weren't theirs and that they did not give anyone permission to sign on their behalf.
Under questioning by Ryan, Bransford said two or three other tenants he interviewed could not remember whether or not they had signed the documents.
Prosecutors have said Flynn would have benefited from the filing of the documents, which contained a number of forged signatures. There's also evidence that he tried to discourage certain witnesses from talking to authorities.
To receive the standard $5,000 owner-occupied homestead exemption on a house, a property owner must file a tax-exemption card with the supervisor of assessment's office.
Flynn has been free on a $50,000 bond since he turned himself in on Oct. 7.
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