Front Page  »  

Kelly Gearhart’s trial delayed a fourth time

October 15, 2013
Kelly Gearhart and Jay Miller

Kelly Gearhart and Jay Miller

By KAREN VELIE

For the fourth time, former Atascadero “Person of the Year” and prominent North County land developer Kelly Gearhart’s fraud trial has been delayed.

Gearhart’s public defender, Kim Savo, successfully requested another delay in her client’s trial originally scheduled for Oct. 9, 2012.

Savo noted a variety of reasons for the early delays including the need to have more time to review financial documents, recordings of a radio interviews from the Dave Congalton Show and phone recordings. In her latest motion, Savo asks the court to delay Gearhart’s trial because she will be out of state due to an adoption.

In her latest motion, Savo asked the court to grant a continuance from Nov. 12, 2013 to July 15, 2014.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Goorvitch opposed the lengthy continuance and instead requested a new trial date of Feb. 18, 2014.

Goorvitch argued that the original trial date has already been continued for a lengthy amount of time, that the vast majority of discovery was made available last year, and that the continuance will require James Miller’s sentencing to also be extended, according to court records.

Gearhart and Miller, the former president of Hurst Financial, allegedly defrauded more than 1,200 investors of more than $100 million in an alleged Ponzi scheme. Miller and Gearhart bilked investors who put money into Central Coast real estate projects and then siphoned off the monies for other purposes, including maintaining lavish lifestyles, federal authorities alleged.

In the summer of 2011, Miller agreed to plead guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering as part of a plea agreement the court then filed under seal. It is likely that his testimony against Gearhart and others will result in a shortened prison sentence.

Because of the court’s Oct. 8 order to delay Gearhart’s trial, Miller’s March 17, 2014 sentencing date will also be delayed, according to court records.

In August 2012, Gearhart pleaded not guilty to 16 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering at a federal court in Los Angeles. He faces up to 300 years in federal prison if convicted on all charges.

Both men remain out of jail on bail.

 


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


48 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I thought a public defender was defending Kelly. Public defenders get paid by the court not by Gearhart. Actually we are paying for his defense. Let me know if I’m wrong about this will you?


God Bless


0

You are correct, spirit filled


0

The so called “leaders” of the wanabe “salinian tribe”, are still trying to get some more investors for their so-called casino. They are in the middle of a pending lawsuit concerning some land in San Miguel also. They haven’t figured out yet that sometimes when scamming, you get into legal trouble. I’m sure they are being looked at for the casino deal they were a part of with Kelly. The FBI is usually pretty thorough.


0

These are the same guys that claimed in Federal court that Kelly “hoodwinked” them. Now they are trying to do the same thing to investors and the people in their wannabe tribe.


0

First, my dead grandson was Jake, not Josh. Since those people were once what I thought of as family, I saw first hand the shape Jake was in when Kelly and Tamara ran. Kelly quickly decided I was the enemy when I questioned what he was really up to turned down his invitation to move with them. He had been lying to his Dad and me for years. I am not pleased that his trial has been bumped up yet again but after living in a truck for two plus years , I am finally in a little rental and struggling just to get by. You can damn sure bet that this new date will give me time to raise the money to be there. I want to see him go to prison. There are many others that should be going too, including Tamara. The entire pack deserve some jail time as far as I’m concerned. I hope Jake is at peace and happy wherever he is. Later Louise


0

This is a prime example of what the lack of leadership in a father can do! Kelly thought only of Kelly, obviously not concerned about what Jake was doing, HOW he was doing, feeling, etc! Crazy how the love of money can be as intoxicating and controlling as any mind altering drug, EVEN to the expense of their own families! Drug and alcohol addiction can drive someone to rob from their families, so can the love of money! I’m sorry you have had such a tough time, thanks to Kelly, glad to hear you’re getting back on your feet! I agree 100% as far as ‘MANY OTHERS’ going to prison! The entire pack DOES deserve jail time for sure! How many other lives have been ruined due to their deceit, and just plane robbery? I think, (I hope), the net is being cast out for all those involved to get to just that!


0

Sorry about that, Louise. I am old and I do well when I can remember my OWN kids names! I wonder just how much investigation is going on over the Indian Gambling casino? I know they’d uncover those big fish if the investigators were truly honest. This scam has SO many players in it, from petty officials to the “real deal’. I’m guessing the “lessor” ones will be surely thrown to the wolves in order to lighten the sentence for the main players. It makes me think of Martha Stewart, who was thrown in prison and then given a house arrest BRACELET because she recieved inside information. She never cheated people out of their lives, like these scum bags did. Who ARE these people, that they can yank things around like this?!


0

You may want to rethink your thoughts about Martha. Yea she did deserve prison. Do you know what she could do with inside information? It lets the individual bail out (i.e. sell their shares) at full value, (before others find out) before the shit hits the fan and others take a loss of 20% or more on their shares. It was for stock in her company and let her keep her investment in full, while others who invested in her lost. Yes it is as bad as what Kelly did.


0

He is a clever quarry.


0

He’s not clever, his defense is clever. With time, the distance created will benefit the Richards that are helping him.


0

Is there a statue of limitation that is being cultivated within these delays? There may be a list of accused yet to be formally discoverd that will ripen into exempt with time.


0

OK, THAT is worrisome! Does anyone know ablout this? That sounds like EXACTLY what’s going on!


0

Wow, this really IS ‘worrisome’! Is there a way to look into this? It would be shame for the other ‘players’, ( like Las Vegas??) to not be accountable for their part in this mess just because of a limitation clause!


0

I do remember what happened with Kelly’s son, so sad and tragic. And true, these guys really don’t have a problem with ripping off friends and family! Look what Kelly did to his step-mother! It’s all about status and how others see them! All about money, all about their toys, all about them! Crazy thing, if they ever DO get to spend some ‘long time in jail’, with all the bridges they have burned, they might NOT have anyone visit them! They might have to sit ‘there all by them little selves!’ LMAO!


0

~ Replying to chickenboo ~


0

I’m sure Melanie Schneider will visit on a regular basis.


0

LOL! True story Al!


0

I saw the headline and thought (as I’m sure many) are you F**KING KIDDING ME!!!!


I don’t blame Gearhart on this, it is his defender. She was given a length continuance before. She had this date on her calendar for a long time and OOPS I have an adoption to deal with? I DON’T THINK SO!!! And then because she can’t make one day she needs ANOTHER EIGHT MONTHS!?? ENOUGH ALREADY!! To every defense lawyer reading this, do you get it now why we the general public hold you in contempt and utter HATRED!!?? I wish they would get rid of all you worthless A–HOLES!!!!


0

At the rate this is going, this is going to look like the final court scene from the movie Goodfellas. Remember at the end when a lot of the older mobsters are in court and have gotten to the point where they are either in wheel chairs and or using oxygen. Yep that is where this is heading.


0

REALLY, “Beenthere”? You don’t blame Gearhart? Silly to blame his attorney…SHE is simply a tool, bought and paid for like any other “tool”. She won’t do one thing until King Kelly says so. He’s paying her and she’s doing exactly what she’s paid for. But since there’s so much more to this then meets the eye, she could also be being ‘operated’ by the rest of the slimeballs who are frantically trying to protect some of the dirty big dogs who would be caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. Don’t loose focus on the real criminals here…the lawyers are slimey, that’s for sure. But if YOU were the one paying them, then they would be just as slimey as YOU wanted them to be. They have no favorites…except who has the deepest pockets!


0

LOL! True story! Attorneys will do what ever their clients tell them to do, just ‘show me the money!’ I just wonder how long the investors money will last? As we all know, attorneys don’t come cheaply and they sure don’t work for free! Maybe they really ARE trying to drag this thing out until all the investors have all passed away! And since their loved one’s have been left penniless, thanks to Jay, Kelly and their buddies who helped them squander the family inheritance, then the slimeballs walk? Course, Jay and Kelly both made it a point to give their kids enough money to look after them in their senior years. If justice is done, their kids can visit them in prison, along with their buddies!


0

Justice does find ways to be ‘served’….remember, Kelly’s son Josh died of a heroin overdose before he was able to spend the million dollars Kelly gave him for his 18th birthday. True enough, some of the investors have already died. But the problem with these thugs, Kelly Gearhart, Jay Miller, David Graves, and the rest of them is that they don’t “hurt” like the rest of us. It’s all about power and wealth.They will and have cheated their OWN families and their own “best friends”. The ONLY thing that would ‘get to’ them is some long time spent in jail with all their ‘status’ destroyed. Unfortunately, they are emeshed with even dirtier, even BIGGER thugs then they are. But if push comes to shove…even their big pals will throw THEM under the bus!


0

Here’s where you thinking of eye for an eye gets downright scary. What did Kelly’s son do that he deserved to die? Yes other people are suffering because of his a-hole father but why want the kid dead? That doesn’t make it right.


0

I never said Josh deserved to die. I didn’t want the kid dead…?! You obviously HAVEN’T “been there and done that”. My kids went to school with Josh. It’s just a horrible and ironic thing that Kelly tries to launder a million dollars by giving it to his obviously troubled son and then he dies a tragic death. Kelly may or may not have suffered that loss. But certianlly, Kelly will NEVER have any remorse for the suffering he has caused the investors who trusted him. I am sorry for Josh, but happy for any pain that Kelly may have suffered, anywhere he can.


0

Sorry your first line wasn’t clear in the way it is written and leaves that impression. I have heard people hint and say as much before and again as bad as what Kelly has done, I would NEVER wish this upon him or anyone in that situation. I figure Karma is for that persons wrongs, not those unfortunately associated with them.


0

Kelly’s son’s name is Jake. Not Josh.


0

Just to add insult to injury, Gearhart’s attorney is a Public Defender who is being paid for by us the taxpayers. How in the world does something like this happen? Maybe this is one of the reasons for the numerous delays that have been happening?


0

First off chickenboo, you don’t know the half of it, how pissed off at Kelly I am and or blame. I got stiffed (for services rendered not investing) for thousands, so trust me I have plenty of blame to go around. But in this case her excuse was such utter bullshit and the judge could and should have struck it down, so it could easily have still been stopped irregardless of if Kelly did or didn’t put her up to it.


0

I don’t think it mattered WHAT ANY of the attorneys say. She could have said she had a hair appointment and the judge would still have granted her the delay. I believe they are all “in it”, possibly even the judge has been bought off. I still can’t get over the title companys getting off scott free. “Bullshit” is the appropriate term here, that’s for sure. That’s why I believe there are bigger fish in this ‘pond’.


0
1 2