One of Ron Weinalnd's jurors revealed how Ron was able to buy three BMW's. If you are in the market for three BMW's, here's how to get them on the same credit application. Notice at the end how he conveniently lost his memory and blamed BMW. It's always the other guys fault since no true prophet of God could EVER make a mistake.
Juror#215 says:
Trial tidbit of the day:
The Mystery of the BMW Credit Application
This was a particularly interesting subset of the trial testimony and evidence. When Mr Weinland purchased the three BMWs in 2007, he really only had to fill out the credit application for the first one; when he purchased cars 2 & 3, the BMW Store printed out pre-filled out credit applications from the data stored in the computer system from what he filled out the first time, and the Weinlands just had to sign them.
That first application was hand-written, filled out by Mr Weinland himself, but listing Laura as the primary applicant and Ron as a co-applicant. When you get down to the “income” section of the application, Gross Income is listed as $175,000, and Other Income as $60,000+ (just like that, with the + symbol on the app after 60K). However, two things are clear- First, that the credit application was obviously faxed back and forth, as the usual text that appears at the top of any faxed page is shown at the top of it. Second, that the $175,000 written in the Gross Income space is written with a different pen and in a different handwriting.
The prosecution called as witnesses both the BMW salesperson (now retired), and another person from the BMW Store who I believe worked in or with the Finance Department at the time. The prosecution asked them why another person would have filled out the Gross Income field in the application. They both stated that if one or more required fields of the application is returned to the store blank, either the salesperson or the finance manager would call that customer directly and get the details to fill in that field over the phone. It is perfectly legal for someone at the BMW Store to fill in the Gross Income on a credit application as long as they have received verbal confirmation from the customer as to the accuracy of the information. To fill in this field without consulting the customer is illegal, and they would not do that.
So, it was resonable to deduce that Mr Weinland had faxed the credit application back with a blank Gross Income field, and that someone at the BMW Store had called them directly to let them know that the $60K+ in the “Other Income” field wasn’t going to cut it, and they needed to provide their real income if they wanted to get that new BMW. It was also reasonable to deduce that someone in the Weinland household had given them that $175,000 figure, since they really wanted that car.
When Mr Weinland himself took the stand, the prosecution, on cross-examination, showed him this credit application again, and asked him where the BMW Store got that $175,000 figure for Gross Income. He claimed to not know WHERE that number came from, and implied that the BMW Store em
I think I will head down to the BMWdealer tonight and go shopping.
