First paragraph:

Dubbed the "master" robo-signer by US Congressman - Hank Johnson during recent congressional hearings, Jeffrey Stephan has shown up in his district. The 4th District Congressman has his hands full. One of Johnson's own constitutents - Wekesa Madzimoyo and his wife - Afiya have been waging a pro-se battle against Stephan's employers- GMAC, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of NY Mellon Trust.  The lenders have been trying to foreclose on the Madzimoyos' Stone Mountian, GA home for 17 months. Mr. Madzimoyo has fought them contending that they've broken GA Laws and don't have standing to foreclose, because they didn't have a valid assignment of the mortage note and security deed. When it looked like the pro-se litigant's case might gain some traction in the GA State Court, the lenders moved the case to Federal Court and brought in qick-signing Jeffrey Stephan to perfect yet another retro-assignment.

According to Court Depositions in cases in Floriday and Maine, Stephan has testified that he signs between 400 and 1000 documents a day. Only this time, Mr. Stephan may have signed a bit too quickly.

South De Kalb county, GA is home to many educated, middle and upper middle class African Americans who flooded to the area in the 90's fueled by expanded educational and job opportunities, and the aspirations of their parents who fought to overcome the lingering legacy of Jim Crow. They came to finally realize the American dream - upward mobility and home ownership.

"When we moved to Atlanta just after the Olympics in 1996," said Madzimoyo, "people were moving into the Atlanta Metro area at a rate of 7000 people per month. Homes where being built everywhere. We never saw so many Black people living in so many fine houses. It was the Black Mecca."

Then a DeKalb County Commissioner, Hank Johnson saw a dark cloud behind the silver lining. He called it "predatory lending" and in 2002 authored and passed Georgia's first approved ordinance against predatory lending, which state legislators later used as a guide in passing statewide law. It was not enough.

Today the Mecca is beginning to resemble a wasteland or broken promises and broken dreams.