The second trial of two Nenana women accused of defrauding an elder out of her home in 2019 started Tuesday morning in Nenana.
Vickie Verdilla Moyle, 67, and her daughter, Annie Margaret Williams, 48, face charges of felony scheme to defraud more than $10,000 and felony first-degree theft of more than $25,000.
Moyle and Williams were convicted in December 2022 of financially defrauding their neighbor, Mae Jensen, out of their home. The judge declared a mistrial in May 2024, finding that opinion on the defendants’ character was improperly allowed at trial.
Assistant Public Defender Patrick Roach represented Williams, Defense attorney Robert John represented Moyle, and Assistant District Attorney Jeff Roe represented the state.
Roe told the jury in his opening statement that Mae Jensen sold her property for 10% of what the house was valued at in 2019.
He said, “$6,533.67. That is how much Mae Jensen sold her house in 2019 in September.”
Moyle is the director of the Nenana Senior Center, and Williams was Jensen’s next door neighbor at the time. Moyle approached Jensen in May 2019 and told her she owed $64,000 on her property in back taxes, according to Roe.
Moyle told Jensen that the city would foreclose on her home, so she offered to purchase the property for its value minus the back property taxes, Roe said. That summer, Williams confirmed with the city that it was past the statute of limitations and the city could not collect the back property taxes.
“Mae Jensen had been conned into selling her property,” Roe told the jury.
Assistant Public Defender Patrick Roach said before jurors that the city’s finances were in ruin when Mayor Joshua Verhagen took office in 2018. The city had not collected property taxes in approximately 30 years.
“She (Jensen) wanted to get out of a large house and winter was on the way,” Roach said. Jensen was looking to move out of her house, and she turned to Moyle for help.
The city started sending out statements for the taxes owed, and Jensen was told that she owed approximately $69,000 on a house assessed around $71,000.
“That would freak anybody out,” Roach said.
Moyle went to the city clerk, who clarified that Jensen owed $64,000.
“They base the deal on what the city told them,” Roach said.
Roach argued that at some point that summer, Verhagen realized that they could not legally collect the back taxes but they could still accept payments.
“It is not a good look for a politician to have mistakenly told someone that they owed in taxes the value of your home and then that home getting sold for the difference,” Roach said.
“This was not a con,” Roach said. “This was a mistake, and the wrong people are getting blamed.”
Mae Jensen took the stand first on Tuesday. According to Jensen, she met Moyle while working at the Monderosa Grill and they remained close friends.
They celebrated birthdays together, Moyle gave her rides to work and to Fairbanks, and Moyle loaned her money, Jensen said. Moyle also helped her apply to move into the Meda Lord Senior Center.
Jensen testified that she lived in a four bedroom log house on Third Street before moving to Meda Lord Senior Center. She said that she did not remember wanting to sell the house and did not remember speaking with law enforcement about the sale.
She confirmed that it was her signature on the deed and remembered going to the post office, but said that she did not remember the agreement.
Verhagen took the stand Wednesday morning and testified that a lack of enforcement of tax collecting and good record keeping for 30 years led to confusion about whether back taxes were due in 2019. The city had not enforced tax collection through foreclosure for about 30 years.
The city hired bookkeepers and attorneys and cut services and programs. The city continued to send out statements of the assessed value of a home with the balance of property taxes each March and bills in July, but did not start initiating foreclosures until March 2020.
In March 2019, the city sent Jensen a statement that she owed approximately $69,000 on her home which was valued at approximately $71,000. It was later clarified that Jensen owed $64,000.
According to Verhagen, Williams and Moyle came into the city office on May 17, 2019. He talked to a contract bookkeeper about the status of property taxes on several properties in town, including Jensen’s.
“They wanted to know what was the total amount of back taxes owed on Mae Jensen’s property and said that they were wanting to assist her in resolving her debt on the property,” Verhagen said. The bookkeeper printed out a statement of Jensen’s back taxes and gave it to the two women.
“They also talked about a statute of limitations of six years that we could go not back further to collect prior,” Verhagen said.
This was the first time Verhagen had heard of the statute of limitations, he testified. The city reached out to its attorneys and learned that the city could not legally require that debt beyond six years.
Verhagen said that Moyle met with him in July 2019 to clarify the senior tax exemptions and the topic of the statute of limitations was raised during their discussion.
In late August 2019, Williams met with Verhagen to clarify what was owed on the property, he testified.
Verhagen told the jury, “we were confident that the six year statute of limitations was a factor that we could not collect beyond.” He said that he told Williams that he understood no back taxes could be collected on this property, but he still needed to confirm with his attorney. The city also was unsure whether the uncollectible back taxes would remain with the properties until November.
“She (Williams) said she felt this would be a win win because it would help Mae out with debt and also help city to get this back into having taxes collected,” he said.
He was made aware that Williams purchased the property in September after multiple residents called and said they were concerned that the city foreclosed on Jensen’s property. Verhagen testified that the city had not initiated the process of foreclosure at that time.
It appeared that Jensen was paying the difference between the assessment of the property and the value of the back taxes, Verhagen confirmed.
Julia Hnilicka said that Jensen was the close friend of her deceased uncle, Jory Tremblay.
“At that time some people had been in the home, they had done, or started renovations but really just trashed a lot of the home,” she testified.
According to Hnilicka, Tremblay completed the bathroom renovation, painted, and replaced the carpeting at no charge to Jensen or herself, so that Hnilicka could live in the house for the winter.
Hnilicka said that she paid utilities and rent to Jensen for eight months.
Mary Kleinschmidt testified that she’s known Jensen since she moved to Nenana in 1978 and worked with Moyle at the senior center.
Once in late summer or fall of 2019, she overheard Jensen and Moyle talking in Moyle’s office about Jensen moving into Meda Lord Senior Center.
She said that it appeared Jensen understood what was happening and Moyle did not appear to be pressuring Jensen.
“She (Jensen) owed taxes and the city was taking custody of the other properties for back taxes and some of the property they got they were burning the old structures off of it, so Mae knew what could happen if she was called on her back taxes due to the city, that she may lose her home,” Kleinschmidt said.
Kleinschmidt testified that she knew the city was foreclosing on homes “not by paperwork but by word.”
John Foster Wallace, an attorney with Zimmerman & Wallace, testified for the defense as an expert in property and contract law.
Williams and Jensen signed a quitclaim deed on Sept. 9, 2019, in which Jensen gave her interest in the property to Williams.
“This was not a conventional sale,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s partner, Christopher Zimmerman, represented Moyle starting in late October 2019. According to Wallace, Zimmerman told Moyle to get a title report on the property.
A binding commitment from the Interior Regional Housing Authority showed up in the report on Nov. 8, 2019, but Moyle told her attorney she was not aware of it beforehand, according to Wallace. IRHA had invested money in the house and Jensen agreed to remain in the house for at least five years in exchange for IRHA to cover the cost of the improvements. If she sold the house before the lien was released, the new owner would assume payments to IRHA.
According to Wallace, the Small Business Administration owned the property at the time the quitclaim deed was signed in September. Jensen did not hold the property title at the time. “In title on paper, she was giving nothing,” Wallace said.
Wallace testified that Jensen and Moyle tried to come to an agreement to fix the problem, but couldn’t come to an agreement, so “the deal was off” by March 2020.
”Ms. Moyle was willing to pay full asking price but Ms. Jensen couldn’t come up with a clear title so she couldn’t sell it,” Wallace said.
In a quitclaim deed in May 2021, the SBA granted their interest in the property to Jensen, according to Wallace. She later sold the property.
Wallace testified that he did not review any materials from the city that stated that there were no property taxes on the house.
”From what I saw, the city of Nenana didn’t know what was owed for taxes,” he said.
Wallace said that Moyle was not aware of the total cost of the home due to the situation with the taxes.
The trial will continue Thursday morning at the Nenana Courthouse.