I've been in touch with him off and on all these years and I've always been interested in his different land and real estate ventures.
I would like to first say people in the United States are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty. The court cases concerning Ralph Baker are very much still open.
The property in question on South Elliot Street in Brooklyn that belongs to Ralph Baker, the blind African American Photographer has been in his possession since the mid nineties. When someone took a 600,000 $ mortgage out on the building , he realized something was wrong. This is when he went to the Brooklyn District Attorney to ask for help. The person who claimed to own the South Eliot Property is named Ralph W. Baker JR. The actual title to the property only has the name "Ralph Baker" on it. The real Ralph Baker, who is sitting in Rikers, unable to continue his ongoing Civil Cases was seriously dismayed when they brought Ralph W. Baker Jr. into court to question him about the South Elliot Property yet the courts did not asked him to prove his identity which could of easily been done by looking into his Social Security Card.
The Real Ralph Baker was able to legally remove the mortgage from his property in March 2012, unfortunately he was arrested in April due to his other property in Question , 140 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn. The last owner of this building passed away 15 or so years ago. The Real Ralph Baker has been managing and making upgrades to this building since the mid 90's. He legally holds a quiet title to this building. The person who had him arrested holds a confirmatory deed, yet these can not be legally obtained except by the previous owner, who has been dead long before this.
The Real Ralph Baker's problem also is that the courts assigned him a criminal lawyer "Doug Appel" whom admitted that terms like "Quit Title*" and "Confirmatory Deed*" were new to him.
Doug also felt that because Ralph is upset with him concerning him getting sent to a mental ward for 6 or so months that he can't represent Ralph and that he will ask the judge to assign him a new lawyer. This will definitely slow things down but in the end Ralph will hopefully be in a better position.
The Real Ralph Baker needs a Real Estate Lawyer
note: these notes have been made after a couple of brief conversations with the Real Ralph Baker and after briefly looking over the court papers. More fleshing out will be done in the near future. These thoughts may not be 100 % accurate, but due to the fact that Ralph's time is running out, I felt it was important to post them.
quiet title action n. a lawsuit to establish a party's title to real property against anyone and everyone, and thus "quiet" any challenges or claims to the title. Such a suit usually arises when there is some question about clear title, there exists some recorded problem (such as an old lease or failure to clear title after payment of a mortgage), an error in description which casts doubt on the amount of property owned, or an easement used for years without a recorded description. An action for quiet title requires description of the property to be "quieted," naming as defendants anyone who might have an interest (including descendants---known or unknown---of prior owners), and the factual and legal basis for the claim of title. Notice must be given to all potentially interested parties, including known and unknown, by publication. If the court is convinced title is in the plaintiff (the plaintiff owns the title), a quiet title judgment will be granted which can be recorded and thus provide legal "good title." Quiet title actions are a common example of "friendly" lawsuits in which often there is no opposition.
*CONFIRMATORY DEEDS
Confirmatory deed is a type of deed, which is used to correct certain defects in record title. It is important to know that the purpose of a confirmatory deed is not to give or create a new title but simply to "perfect the evidence of a title created long before". "A deed stating that it is given to replace a certain deed of the same tenor is merely confirmatory, and does not pass a title to a part of land which one of the grantors has acquired after the execution of the lost deed and before the execution of the confirmatory one".
Confirmatory deeds may be used to correct the deeds to the present titleholders as well as prior defects in record title. See Bon V. Graves, 104 N.E. 2d 1023 (1914), which held that a "confirmatory deed, properly sealed and declaring that an earlier deed between the same parties was also sealed, obviated the defect in the title arising from lack of seal on the earlier deed".
When a confirmatory deed is used to correct a title defect in the deed to the original grantee, who had already conveyed the property to third parties, the confirmatory deed should run to the original grantee "and to those persons claiming by, through or under him by instruments of record". It should be dated "as of" the date of the original conveyance, contain a reference to the deed being confirmed and a statement that it is given to confirm the earlier deed.
suck, squeeze ,burn, spit---jet engine
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