Free Response to Motion - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 1 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 1

1

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

2 3

4 CAMILLE MELONAKIS-KURZ,

5 individually and on behalf
6 of other similarly situated

8 Plaintiff,
7 employees,
9

vs.

Case No. 03-MK-2485 (PAC)
Hon. Patricia A. Co

10

an

11 HEARTLAND HOME FINANCE, INC.,

12 Defendant.
13
14

15

16
17 18

The Videotaped Deposi tion of ANTHONY HOWARD,

Taken at 30800 Telegraph Road, Suite 2925,

Bingham Farms, Michigan,
C omm en c i n gat 8: 1 8 a. m. ,

19 20 21 22

Tuesday, November 15, 2005,

Before Judith C. Werner, CSR-2349.

23
24

25

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 2 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

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THE WITNESS:

First of all, I didn't

2

decide.

Like I said, the rate sheet is there, you

3 know, so wha tever rate you're picking is gonna

4 basically determine the fees that you're getting.
5 BY MR. POCKRASS:
6 7
8

Q.

In your work wi th Heartland, did you tend to focus on

prime mortgages or subprime? Was there one area or
the other that you tended to focus on?
A.

9

No. We were given leads, and we worked the leads as
we got them.

10
11 12 13
14
Q.

So you didn't have a choice as to what

you wanted to work.

Did you tend to find that you were working in more --

more in one of those areas than the other?
A.

To be honest, I really didn't pay that any attention.
I just worked the lead.

15

16
17
18

Q.

What about in terms of helping the customer? Did you

enj oy working in one area more than the other?
A.

Well, I'm gonna tell you something.

I enjoy my work,

19

period, so whether somebody has a large loan or small
loan doesn't matter.
I enj oy my work.

20 21
22
Q.

That's the

point.
What sort of things would you do at Heartland to make
people aware of you, get name recogni tion, marketing
type things?

23
24

25

A.

I don't recall -- personally myself I don't recall
.

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 3 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 17

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doing anything to get name recogni tion.
Q.

2 3
4

Would you send out flyers to people?

A.

They gave us flyers that I think maybe on a couple of
occasions to send out.

5
6
7
S

Q.

What sort of flyers were those?
They were like, like -- kind of like postcard size,
and it basically says rates are low.

A.

Q.

And what else was on the postcard -- on these flyers?
The individual's name and then Heartland's name, the
contact number.

9

A.

10 11
12
Q.

How often did you send out these flyers?
I think maybe twice.

A.
Q.

13
14

Do you know of other loan officers who also sent out
the flyers?

15

A.
Q.

A couple, yeah.

16
17
1S

Who else sent out those flyers?
Mr. Gaddis sent flyers out once.
Is tha t Antonio Gaddis?

A.
Q.

19

A.
Q.

Yes, it is.

20 21
22

And who else?
I believe a gentleman by the name of Mike sent them

A.

out.
Q.

I can't remember Mike's last name.

23
24

What about on shopping carts? Did you have some sort
of an advertisement on shopping carts?

25

A.

Yes, we went -- another gentleman and myself went and

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 4 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 18

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got permission to do that on our own, so we paid for

2 3
4

tha t ourselves.
Q.

And where were these shopping carts?
At Farmer Jack's supermarket.
How did you come up wi th the idea of doing the grocery

A.
Q.

5
6 7 8 9

carts?
A.

Actually the other gentleman that I did it with, it

was kind of like his idea. We worked together on it,
put it together.
Q.

10 11
12 13
14

And who was that?
I can't think of his name.
Adam's last name.

A.

Adam.

I can't remembe r

Bowen.

Tha t 's it.

Adam Bowen.

Q.

So when you did these carts, did they have both your
name and his name on them?

15

A.
Q.

Yes.
Were there other types of things that you did to

16
17

market yourself?
A.
Q.

18

No.
Did you identify other grocery stores where you wanted
to do this?

19 20 21
22

A.
Q.

No.

Tha t was the only one.

And what was it that made you decide to do ita t that
specific store?

23
24
A.

The salesperson that had approached Adam evidently had
a contract to work primarily wi th Farmer Jack's.

25

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 5 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 19

1

Q.

Do you still have copies of that ad or the -I might have it packed away.

2 3
4

A.
Q.

What exactly did these look like?

A.

It was basically had a picture of me, a picture of

5
6 7
8

him, our names, Heartland's phone number, and then

Heartland Home Finance, and I can't remember exactly
but I think it said something about purchasing,

refinancing.
Q.

9

You are also in the military? Is that right?

10
11 12

A.
Q.

Yes.
And what sort of a position do you hold in the

mili tary?
A.

13
14

Actually I'm not in the military.

I'm on call.

I'm

on duty right now, reserve, standby.
Q.

15

And how long have you been doing that?
Approximately five or six years.

16
17

A.
Q.

Were you on active duty prior to that or --

18

A.
Q.

No.
And what rank do you hold in the Reserves?

19

20 21 22

A.
Q.

I'm sorry.
What rank do you hold in the, Reserves?
It's not a rank.

A.

I work with the Department of

23
24
Q.

Defense.
Can you explain that to me a little bit? I would really need to get permission to get into
A.

25

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 6 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camille Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

1

this.
Q.

Page 20

2

Are you employed by the Department of Defense? Is
that right?

3
4

A.
Q.

Right now I'm not.
When you were employed at Heartland, were you employed
by the Department of Defense?

5 6
7 8

A.
Q.

I was on call at that time, yes.
I have your dates of employment wi th Heartland as July

9

10th of 2001 to March 20th of 2004.

10
11
12

A.
Q.

That is about correct.

And when you started at Heartland in July of 2001,
were you on call wi th the --

13
14

A.
Q.

At that time, no.

When was it that you first went on call?
I believe it was in 2003 I believe it was.

15 16
17 18

A.
Q.

Do you remember what month in 2003?
No, I don't.

A.
Q.

Do you have any sort of documents or information that
would help you remember that?

19

20
21 22

A.

I might have something packed away.

I'm not sure if I

have.
Q.

Starting wi th -- my understanding was that sometime
around 9- 1 1 that you had to perform work for the

23
24

Department of Defense.

Is that --

25

A.

Yes.

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 7 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 25

1

A.

Honestly, I really don't think
different times.
set time.

they came in at

2 3
4

I don't know if they came in at a

Q.

When you were coming in at 8:30 or 8:45, were there
other loan officers who were already there at work?

5 6
7

A.

I don't remember seeing any.

The only person I

usually would see would be my manager, Fred.
Q.

8
9

What about Dan Heath when he became your manager?

Would you see him there at 8: 30 or 8: 45?
A.
Q.

10 11
12

Sometimes.
Would there be times when you would be the only person
in the office?

13
14

A.

Tha t 's hard to say, because the way, the way the
structure was set up, there are loan officers on one

15

side and I was on the other side. A lot of times when
I came in, I didn't see any loan officers on this

16
17

side.
Q.

Now whether there were some on the other side,

18

that I don't know.

19
20

What -- did your branch have a name or a number or -Like Southfield 1, Southfield 2, Southfield 3.

A.
Q.

21
22 23 24

Yeah.

Wha t was the number for your branch?

A.
Q.

Southfield 2 I believe it was.

Now were there other branches on the side that you
could see?

25

A.

There was one other branch I believe.

I think they

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

Document 345-18

Filed 02/16/2006

Page 8 of 8

Anthony Howard 11/15/2005
Camile Melonakis-Kurz, et al v. Heartland Home Finance, Inc.

Page 59

1

Q.

And I know you told me about Inter 1st was one that
you would use a fair amount?

2 3
4

A.
Q.

Yes, right.
New Century was one that you used a fair amount.

5
6
7 8 9

A.
Q.

Right.
Would say, for example, North American be one that you would use ahead of New Century and Inter 1st, or would
it be one that you would pick if New Century or Inter

1 s t didn't come through?
A.

10 11
12

North American was a conventional lender, so basically
normally you would use North American for people that
had really good credi t, really high scores.

13
14

Q.

And how did you know that?
Reading up on the lenders.

A.

You have to have some

15

working knowledge of the lenders that you're working
wi th, I mean which ones are conventional and which

16
17 18
Q.

ones are nonconforming.

And where would you get information about these

19

lenders?
A.

20
21
22

Read up on them, call the account execs, ask them
questions about their programs.

Q.

So like before when you were telling me about maybe -let's say Heartland turned down a loan, or there was a
loan that they couldn't do for some reason.

23
24

25

A.

Okay.