Bruce,
Perhaps I'm being overly critical, but it seems to me that what Jaime
did was actually "worse" than what Kerry did. Jaime enabled Kerry. After
all, if Jaime had not made the forgeries for him, then Kerry wouldn't
have had any practically perfect fakes to sell to his victims. To say
Jaime didn't do anything "wrong" is like saying the guy who engraves the
plates to make counterfeit $100 bills didn't do anything wrong because
he didn't actually pass out any of the fake money himself.
But we're just being mean and small-minded, I guess. It's clear now that
Jaime was merely an innocent dupe, just another victim of the
silver-tongued devil. Apparently we need to understand that what really
happened was something like this:
"Kerry: Hi, Jaime. Listen.. I need you to produce another "highly
accurate reproduction" of the Black Cat for me, just like the one you
did 6 months ago. Naturally I'll pay you the same as last time.
Jaime: Gee, Kerry what happened to the first one I made? You told me to
make you a virtually indistinguishable-from-the-original duplicate so
that you could sell your authentic Black Cat and keep my expert copy to
hang on your wall.
Kerry: Yeah... and that's what I did. But then, see, we had this
earthquake and the poster fell off my wall and my dog ate it. So now I
need you to make me another one.
Jaime: Oh...well, OK then.... since it is only for your own personal use."
-- JR
Bruce Hershenson wrote:
JR
Obviously we are very wrong here. The restorer in question is not a
perpetrator of any crime, he is actually a *VICTIM*. After all, he was
just "following orders". How sad that people are now persecuting him.
They should be showering him with sympathy (and apparently,
restoration consignments) instead.
Bruce
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 2:41 AM, James Richard
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Steve,
I'm simply echoing "Bruce's logic" as Franc called it: Given what
Jamie now admits he did, if you send him a poster to work on how
can you trust him not to do something he shouldn't with it? Like
use it to make a near-perfect forgery that would go to someone
else... or maybe send you back the forgery while your original
stays with him or goes who knows where?
His total disregard and disrespect for the community of movie
poster collectors -- demonstrated his admitted part in this
massive 2-year forgery scam -- clearly disqualifies him from any
future position of trust in that community as far as I'm concerned.
What, we should say, "Well, he's been caught and will pay
(whatever) price the law lays on him for his part (not much,
likely, since he is now a cooperating witness in the case against
Haggard) -- so now he's learned his lesson, he's sorry (that he
got caught), and will promise never ever to do something like that
again... so everything's cool."?
No, I might go for something like that if Jamie had been the one
to first come forward and break the scandal instead of Grey Smith.
Or if Jamie had gone to some of the people who were sold his
forgeries and said "Hey, guys, I think I may have unknowingly been
involved in something that was done to you." Or gone to Heritage,
his biggest customer, and said "Um, Grey, I think I screwed up...
here's what I did, but now I realize I was duped and shouldn't
have done it and here's a list of the posters I forged."
Or he could have simply stepped up to the plate like Diane
Jefferies did in regards to the fake DRACULA poster when she
publicly told her story on this list about how a client pressed
her to do things to that poster which she had serious doubts
about. Although she did it -- because that's what the paying
client insisted on -- when she saw her work put up for auction
under false pretenses, she quickly decided she needed to publicly
tell this list what she knew about the situation and so was
instrumental in bringing to light the true nature of that poster.
But no. Jamie did none of those things. He just kept on cranking
out the forgeries until the shit was about to hit the fan (or
maybe until Kerry stopped paying him?). And when the scam was made
public even then he lied, denying for months that he had anything
to do with it. He's only admitting it now in order to cut himself
a deal with the prosecutors.
Sorry. Not someone I will ever send my posters to. Other
individuals may be feel differently and can do what they wish of
course, but I don't see how an operation like Heritage -- which
takes extremely valuable posters from people on consignment (in
trust) can run the risk of continuing to do business with him.
As ever, just my humble opinion.
-- JR
Steven F. Poole wrote:
Gosh.....That's a pretty strong statement, JR. To say that
Jaime should never be trusted with posters again.
Help me to understand your point here. Because of being a
possibly unknowing accessory to this crime? Because he may send
a dupe your way on returning work? Because he will always be
suspect of making forgeries of any real posters one sends his
way? Or just on general principle of being an admitted expert at
reproducing the real deal by way of vintage posters?
I'm not trying to be dense here. I just would like yourself or
Bruce to go into more detailed reasons why you guys are holding
these tough (but maybe valid) reasons. I have been a client of
Jaime's in the past and I would appreciate any discussions on the
topic.
~Steve
----- Original Message -----
*From:* James Richard <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Thursday, December 03, 2009 11:41 PM
*Subject:* Re: [MOPO] BIG News in Universal Horror Fraud Case
No one is that naive. When Jamie was asked to create a
duplicate of the same poster more than once -- a duplicate
which would be virtually indistinguishable from the real
poster -- there was no possibility he did not understand what
he was being asked to do or fail to realize what Haggard
would do with them. No doubt Jamie had what he considered
good reasons for going along with scam. I'm sure Kerry has
his own reasons, as well. Doesn't change the fact that Bruce
is right: No one should ever send Jamie Mendez another poster
now that there is no longer any doubt about what he did.
There is no excuse for what he did and he can never be
trusted with posters again.
-- JR
Franc wrote:
Bruce --- I'm not taking sides in this one but your logic is
flawed. A forgery is defined as "the process of making,
adapting, or imitating objects with the intent to deceive."
If Jaime Mendez's claim is actually true in that he didn't
know that is was the intent of Kerry Haggard to sell these
works as originals, then Jaime had no intent to deceive.
Hence Jaime is not guilty of forging movie posters
irrespective of the fact that it is his work that was
ultimately used in Haggard's forgery.
Franc
-----Original Message-----
*From:* MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]]
*On Behalf Of *Bruce Hershenson
*Sent:* Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:27 AM
*To:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [MOPO] BIG News in Universal Horror Fraud
Case
I guess those who said that we have to give this
restorer the "benefit of the doubt" will now accept that
he is *GUILTY* of forging movie posters (whether or not
he was "aware" of what purpose they would be used for),
since he admits to it himself.
Given this news, are there still people here who think
they should send their posters to this person for
restoration? How can you know that *YOU* won't receive a
reproduction in return? And what of the many, many
posters he restored for many dealers and auction houses
over the past three years? Don't they all need to be
checked over closely.
I applaud this person for "doing the right thing", but I
certainly would advise him to find a new line of work.
Bruce
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:29 AM, Sean Linkenback
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Sue is probably waiting until their regular
newsletter to make an announcement, but there is
BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC news in the ongoing civil
lawsuits (which will definitely affect the upcoming
criminal suit) in the Haggard fake case.
Jaime Mendez has entered a sworn affidavit in the
Gresham v. Haggard case for the plaintiff and is
testifying that he DID indeed make the fake posters
on behalf of Kerry Haggard, but did not realize the
true motives behind Haggard's request.
There is also a partial list provided by Mendez of
the posters he worked on.
You can read more about it at the LAMP website:
http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/newsite/INDEX/ARTICLES/Frauds-Update.htm
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at
www.filmfan.com <http://www.filmfan.com/>
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