Alleged impersonator allegedly defrauds man out of SLO County properties

June 2, 2021

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series about allegations of theft, illegal cannabis cultivation, impersonation and fraud.

By KAREN VELIE

After living in a home near Lake Nacimiento in north San Luis Obispo County for almost 20 years, Daniel David successfully transferred the property into his wife’s name, even though the property appears to legally belong to a man living in another county. This action that has led to allegations of forgery, fraud and theft, according to court records.

In late 2017, Daniel David rented a portion of a property at 14615 Chimney Rock Road in rural Paso Robles to two men wanting to grow cannabis while he continued to live in a home on the property. Daniel David said he offered to sell the property to the men, but Adam Macari and Ryan Smith backed out of the deal.

After Daniel David offered to sell him the property, Macari did a title search and discovered the property actually belonged to Patrick Michaels, Macari said. Shortly afterwards, Daniel David kicked Macari and Smith off the property without their belongings, Macari said.

Then on April 5, 2018, Daniel David filed an interspousal grant deed, transferring 14615 Chimney Rock Road “from Daniel David (who took title as Patrick Michaels and changed his name) an unmarried man, hereby grants to Arriela David, a married woman as her sole and separate property,” according to the interspousal grant deed.

Daniel David then transferred two other North County properties, 15750 Natoma Pass Road and 3975 Natoma Pass Road, in the name of Patrick Michaels to his wife Arriela David while claiming to have changed his name to Daniel David.

After discovering the properties were no longer in his name, Patrick Michaels from the Los Angeles area hired attorneys Don Lanson and David Hadek who filed a suit for fraud, forgery, quiet title, cancellation of deed and declaratory relief.

“The forged deeds are fabricated and fraudulent instruments, and, as such, are void and of no legal force or effect,” according to the lawsuit. “Plaintiff has never changed his name and has always been named or known as Patrick Michaels or Patrick Montoya.”

In his defense, Daniel David says he owned a business with the name Patrick Michaels and has used the name Patrick Michaels legally. He insists the properties are his to sell, and that he currently has interested buyers.

The Los Angeles based Patrick Michaels is asking the court to determine the right, title and interest in respect to the properties. He is also seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

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I know of a nutcase who once changed his first name to “Judge” thinking it would help him win a race for DA. He was soundly trounced however.


Is it me or does the home look like a manufactured home with various additions? title transfers are quite easy & have no oversight for manufactured homes as they go through the state of california dept. of housing.


If the David’s pulled off this above property title crime the DA should also into the Letters of Conservatorship that Arriela David took over Lael David on 2/28/18.


A Lis Pendens was recorded on 5/21/21 to temporarily cloud the title. A red flag should have occurred on 6/5/19 when the Quitclaim deed transfer from David to his wife Arriela occurred. That Quitclaim triggers Tom Bordanaro’s Assessor office to send out a reassessment form which will contain untruths of the transfer by Arriela. David set his wife up as a co-conspirator in a big fraud and felony. Criminals always try and get others in the boat with them, so they don’t go down alone. Then Arriela’s reassessment form would trigger the Tax Collector department to send out a tax bill to Arriela versus continuing to send it to Michaels. So, Michaels should have noticed by early 2020 that he wasn’t getting his tax bill. I would also do a deposition of the notary that witnessed the Quitclaim deed signing and get the one-line transaction from the notary book which has the thumbprint as evidence. There could be two thumbprints in the notay’s book. One for David and one for Michaels as they are both shown as Grantors on the SLO Recorders indexing. There are likely to be incriminating internet searches, text messages and emails between David and Arriela, but those will be difficult to pry loose. Subpoena David and Arriela’s checking accounts and see how long they were making rent payments to Michaels and when they stopped.


If daniel david did this,I would think it should rise to the level of a criminal offense and the P.D would get involved.


Who was paying the property taxes all these years? To whom was the bill sent?


“In his defense, Daniel David says he owned a business with the name Patrick Michaels and has used the name Patrick Michaesl legally. ”


How is that a defense to stealing property??? You can’t just take any property that happens to belong to someone else with the same name.


Who thinks legalizing pot is going to weed out the crooks and criminals?


There’s a black market for almost anything you can think of. There is already one for weed. So, no, I don’t think that’s going to happen.


The same people who think making gun ownership illegal will prevent criminals from having guns.


Kind of a strange one but I love the part where the lawsuit says he’s never changed his name and has always been known as P. Michaels or P. Montoya… Think there’s some nefarious goings on out there…


Lots of reasons the real Patrick Michaels may have changed his last name from Montoya. Maybe he got married and took the last name of his spouse (which happens more often than you think, especially when the spouse has existing kids with that last name). Or maybe he wanted a more “British” sounding last name than Montoya? Seems pretty clear that the only nefarious dealer here is scumbag Daniel David.