Free Response to Motion - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-31

Filed 02/16/2006

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Louis Rodriguez 10/25/2005 Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO

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4 CAMI LLE MELONAKI S - KURZ,

5 individually and on behalf of

6 other similarly situated

8 Plaintiffs,
7 employees,
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vs.

Case No. 03-MK-2485 (PAC)

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Hon. Patricia A. Coan

11 HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, INC.,

12 Defendant.
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The Videotaped Deposi tion of LOUIS RODRIGUEZ,

Taken at 30800 Telegraph Road, Suite 2925,

Bingham Farms, Michigan,
Co mme n c i n gat 4: 2 6 p. m. ,

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005,

Before Judith C. Werner, CSR-2349.

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

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Louis Rodriguez 10/25/2005 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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Q.

When you were a senior loan officer, did you ever
advise anyone below you in a loan officer posi tion on

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how to do what to do and when?

A.

Yeah.

I was -- probably a couple of people, a few

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people try to show them the ropes, you know, as far as
structure goes.

Who, I don't remember for sure who,
I would

but I know that there's a way to do things.

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try to show different people how to do that typically
that were on my team, per se team, you know, because
doing it wi th the other side, really I don't think

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Q.

that would have been a good thing.

Why not?
Because they're on a different team.
I was on Mike

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A.

Waite's team so
and he taught me.

Mike Kelly was on Mike Waite's team
So if I was gonna show anybody what

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to do, it would be somebody on Mike Waite's team,

because you're competing against the other team per se
as far as what you produce in numbers for the month.
Q.

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How did your team compare to the other teams while you

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were there?
A.
It would differ.
It would differ.

Being a bigger

team, you know, it would seem like we'd probably do

better a lot of the time because we had more loan

officers.

So, I mean, if you got a team that has half

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the numb e r 0 f loa n 0 f f ice r son it, n a t u r a 1 numb e r s ,

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-31

Filed 02/16/2006

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Louis Rodriguez 10/25/2005 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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to one of our associates out of the telemarketing
company, and it's my job to follow up and make sure

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that somebody has done an analysis for you." That was
pret ty much it, and if they did or didn't would

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determine whether I would go into a further discussion
of their intimate details, and if they already had,

then I would thank you very much and have a nice
you know, have a nice day for the most part.
Q.

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And if they didn't, what would you do?
Like I said, I would collect their intimate

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A.

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Q.

information to see if they qualified for a loan or

not, which was the same thing I did at the prior

place, collected thei r information.
Could you give the customers -- we're back talking
about Heartland now.

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Could you give them options on

pr icing?
A.

If I collected their information, I would be able to

do that.
Q.

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And what about locking in ra tes? Could you lock in
rates while you were at Heartland?

A.
Q.

Not off the first phone call.

Could you at some point?

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A.

Yeah.

Wouldn't make sense to lock somebody on a very

good rate and find out, because I didn't follow
through and do the credi t report, and they didn't

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-31

Filed 02/16/2006

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Louis Rodriguez 10/25/2005 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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quali fy for the program; would be kind of fraudulent,

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so that's why I say not off the first phone call

because you'd have to go through and get the credi t
report, which is what I did at the other place as well
too, and then make sure that they actually qualified.
Q.

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And then what analysis would you do once they told you
that one had not been done yet?
MS. FISHER:
Obj ect to the form of the

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question, but you can answer.

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THE WITNESS: What are you objecting to?

MS. FISHER: To the form of the question,

12 the way that she asked her question.
13 BY MS. RAYMOND:
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Q.

If you understood it, you can answer it.
Try it again, please.

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A.
Q.

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Okay.

I f the customer that you contacted from your

Heartland lead told you that, no, an analysis had not

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been done yet, you had said earlier that you would

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A.

then do an analysis.

What was that analysis?

Oh, I'd ask them if they had time for me to collect their information to do an analysis for them, and if they did, I would start to ask them questions in order
to be able to qualify them for a loan, which would be

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everything about them, everything, from middle ini tial
to bank accounts to bankruptcies, foreclosures, to

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

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identification of the property.

I would actually go

through what was called a 1003 information.

Whatever

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is required by the federal law through Fannie Mae, I'd ask those questions, so that when I contact them, when
I called them back wi th the analysis, I've collected

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all the information that would be needed to be able to

make that analysis, which was what I had done before
a t the other company too.

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Q.

So did your previous experience help you then when you
were doing your analysis at Heartland?

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A.
Q.

Yes, absolutely, because I already knew the structure.

So you didn't heed to use notes or anything?

A.

No.

I already knew their structure.

They were the

same -- it was the same Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

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application.
Q.

The 1003 was the same one.

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Okay.

So after you performed the analysis, then what

did you do?

A.

I would call them back and make a proposal.

They

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would make a decision whether or not they wanted to go
forward wi th the proposal, and if they did, then I
would meet wi th them or they would meet wi th me, but

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typically I would meet with them, or I would just send
them out the package for them to sign and send back
with their documents, which usually were the out-of-state transactions, and sometimes if they were

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Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

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four or fi ve hours way up north or some place like
that, but if that's what they wanted me to do.
Q.

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And how would you come up wi th your proposal?

A.

Just depended on their income, depended on their
credi t scores, depending on their debt, depending on

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their value of the property and available rates at
that given time, as you called pricing.
Q.

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Would you select the appraiser?

A.
Q.

Yes.
When does that step come in?
Depends on the client.

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A.

If they want to -- I would ask

them -- if we would go forward, I'd ask them if they
would be okay to order the appraisal then, because
typically it's what takes the longest amount of time
to turn around.

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Sometimes they'd want to wait until

we met or until they saw the documents but never until
the client told me to.
Q.

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What happened when you would have a meeting wi th the
customer?
I would just go over the program, the same thing I

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A.

went over with them on the telephone, and then I would
always have a check list of what documents I need for
them to have highlighted, and they would -- as we went through and they would scurry about getting their

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different stuff, then I would check it off, and then

Case 1:03-cv-02485-MSK-PAC

Document 345-31

Filed 02/16/2006

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Louis Rodriguez 10/25/2005 Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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Q.

And then you would help determine what product would
most benefit the customer?

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A.
Q.

Yes.
Was that part of your goal was to help the customer
reach its goals?

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A.

Yeah, exactly, because if I couldn't benefit them,
then I wouldn't try to, you know, go further wi th the

transaction.
Q.

Bottom line, no benefit, no sale.

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Are there any other duties that we haven't talked
about that you had as a loan officer at Heartland?

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A.

Boy, that's a pretty wide question.

I mean they were

just all the duties that a loan officer would have to

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do to be able to close a loan wi th a client. I mean you've got to your processers order up the ti tle
work, and then there's certain things the processors
did that you didn't do.

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Follow up.

Boy.

I'm sure

tha tit probably involved other things, you know, but, like I said, those things differ with each individual.

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Some people decide to mess their credi t up,
so that means they got to get through more hurdles to

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qualify. Other people decide to keep track of their
credi t. They have less hurdles to have to get

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through. So just the ones wi th less hurdles would
require less work. require more work.
The one wi th more hurdles would

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Maybe I'd have to get their last