Rancho El Dorado resident Nichole Italiano sits in her home surrounded by mountains of paperwork. For the past six months she has gathered data, collected testimony and spent hours at a downtown Phoenix law office preparing a mortgage fraud case revolving around a broker having her sign loan documents a few weeks after coming out of a coma. Her unusual story began several years ago, though even today, it’s no closer to being resolved. Italiano moved to Rancho El Dorado in October 2005 after her landlord of five years in Mesa decided to sell the property she was renting. “He gave me a 30-day notice, but said I could move into a property he and his wife had on the market in Maricopa,” Italiano said. Italiano moved to Maricopa and had lived in the house for a little over a month when tragedy stuck. The 33-year-old model was on a photo shoot in Queen Creek, which involved her being on horseback. Something spooked the horse, and it reared up on its hind legs, launching Italiano headfirst to the ground where her head struck a rock. The 1,000-plus pound horse crashed down on her, causing multiple skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging. Rescue crews responded, eventually airlifting Italiano to Scottsdale Healthcare. “They didn’t know if I was going to live,” she said. Italiano was in a coma for three days, and spent several more days in the hospital before being released to home hospital care. “I was supposed to have someone take care of me at my home, but I had no one,” she said. During the next several months, Italiano continued to make trips to the hospital due to recurring memory loss, headaches and difficulties in processing information. Then came a surprise. In February 2006, Italiano received two unexpected pieces of mail. “They (the letters) stated I owed money for a mortgage payment,” she said. Italiano immediately called the number on the notices to find she had signed into an 80/20 mortgage in December, with her landlord, Eric Amorossi, acting as the mortgage agent. “I told them (the mortgage company) of my medical condition at the time, and they said, ‘We are sorry to hear of your condition, but there is nothing we can do; you signed the document,’” she said. Italiano said she had talked with Amorossi prior to her accident about purchasing the home and had even given him her tax returns to see if he could secure her a monthly payment in the $1,200 to $1,400 range. “The mortgage payment these letters requested was twice what we discussed before the injury; there is no way I would have signed for a monthly payment that much,” she said. Italiano said Amorossi was aware of her condition at the time. While in the hospital, Italiano had a friend, Adam Bossin, call her landlord to explain the condition she was in and what had happened. “Eric Amorossi was well aware of her mental and physical condition,” Bossin said. Her doctors agree she wasn’t in any condition to sign a mortgage for up to six months after being released from the hospital. “Based on the nature of her injuries, the severity of damage to the brain, I have no doubt that Nichole had difficulty processing information and difficulty remembering explanations, if any were given to her, for several weeks and even months after her accident,” said Lise LaBarre, a physician who conducted follow-up exams resulting from persistent memory loss. “Whether she was aware of it or not, Nichole was not competent enough to engage in contractual negotiations or understand ‘legalese’ for at least one to two months following her injury,” LaBarre said. LaBarre was not the only doctor to confirm Italiano’s medical state was not one in which she should make legally binding decisions. “It is my opinion that Ms. Italiano was not competent to sign any contract in December of 2006, after such a traumatic head injury, and during a time when she was experiencing severe sequels of post-concussion syndrome,” said Laura Harrington, Italiano’s doctor since the time of the head injury. Harrington added Italiano had acute post-concussion syndrome for four months following the injury and to a lesser degree,18 months following the original injury. However, since her name was on the document, Italiano figured there was nothing to do but honor the contract. She worked through all of the money in her savings during the next several years, in addition to putting in seven days a week, 14 hours a day, all to keep the contract in good faith. On the advice of friends who maintained she should question the legality of the contract, in February 2009 Italiano forwarded the contract to a consumer protection group for review. The group informed her the contract had several pages of illegalities in it, not including the issue of her medical state. Due to the complexity of her case, the time necessary to fight it in court, as well as some work in her past that involved nudity, Italiano said lawyers were hesitant to take her case. “They tell me they will have a hard time with any judge,” she said. When Italiano discovered she had a case, she contacted her mortgage company, EMC, and notified them she would no longer be making payments to them. “They foreclosed on me several weeks later,” she said. To stop the foreclosure sale of the home, Italiano has filed for bankruptcy and begun to gather depositions for a claim against EMC for mortgage fraud. Neither Eric Amorossi nor EMC could be reached for comment. Italiano’s case has also gained the attention of a Valley television station’s investigative team, which is working on a story. “These are huge companies I am going against, but I am not backing down,” Italiano said. Photo by Michael K. Rich |