Hillside couple protests judge's decision

It's been nearly seven months since Willie and Cleo Hodge received the final eviction notice ordering them to vacate their Hillside home.

In the days since, Hodge, 78, has faxed dozens of letters to county prosecutors, state senators, judges, lawyers and the news media. The letters plead for help while laying out a complicated case of mortgage fraud that led to the Hodges losing the title to their home six years ago.

"The feeling is hopelessness," he said last week. "We need to keep our home."

In a last-ditch effort to remain in the Bailey Avenue house, Hodge and his 82-year-old wife started picketing outside the Union County courthouse last week. On Friday, the pair took their protest to Trenton.

The couple pay bills with their combined Social Security checks. Hodge worked at an insurance and electric company before getting his real estate license, which he still holds. His wife, Cleo, was a stay-at-home mom who later worked for Macy's for 17 years.

In 2003, Hodge said he was diagnosed with cancer, hospitalized and fell behind on the mortgage.

In an effort to save the two-story, red-brick home Hodge bought for his wife as a wedding gift, the pair decided to sell the house with an agreement they could buy it back in three years, at which time Hodge had hoped his health would have improved and he could go back to work.

But the sale, negotiated with the help of a neighbor who is serving time in federal prison for her part in a mortgage fraud scheme, was not what they thought.

The neighbor, Joyce Kirkland, had a buyer who had stolen someone else's identity. Kirkland was sentenced to prison for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme, of which the Hodges' home was one part, according to prosecutors.

As a result, the mortgage company that financed the deal foreclosed on the home after it went into default.

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