Jodie Foster's Father Faces More Charges

A pretrial hearing date of Nov. 29 was set Thursday for the father of actress Jodie Foster, Lucius Fisher Foster III, of Sherman Oaks, who is accused of conning San Fernando Valley investors out of more than $130,000 after promising to build them low-cost modular homes.

The 89-year-old-building contractor was charged last week with 17 counts of grand theft and seven counts of contracting without a license—all misdemeanors, according to Deputy City Attorney Don Cocek.

That complaint was amended Thursday to include four additional counts of
grand theft representing further victims, and Cocek said at least three more
charges would be added at the Nov. 29 hearing.

Foster is accused of bilking at least 24 people out of $5,000 down payments on 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom homes made from 40-foot Chinese shipping containers on single-family lots, the prosecutor said.

If convicted, Foster could face up to one year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine for each count of grand theft and six months behind bars for each count of unlicensed contracting, Cocek said.

Foster, who is free on his own recognizance and representing himself, took
issue Thursday with the use of the word "victims" to describe those named in the complaint.

"They were people buying houses from me,'' he told Judge Gregory A. Dohi, adding that "there is no theft going on.''

Foster insisted he would eventually make good on each of the homes, which he advertised as costing $85,000 each.

"I want to get this done," Foster said. "If I have to go to jail, I'll go to jail—and then I'll get back to work. ... I think I owe the world something. I'm going to finish these things one way or another.''

Dohi set a pretrial hearing for Nov. 29, with trial expected to start the following day. But the judge encouraged Foster to resolve the case before Nov. 30.

Foster made contact with the alleged victims through his Modernistic
Properties website, referrals from Realtors and postings on Craigslist,
according to the City Attorney's Office.

Alleged victim Gerry Ramirez, of Compton, said outside court that Foster
had told him of his familial relationship to the Academy Award-winning
actresss "as validation and to build credibility.''

Ramirez said he previously won against Foster in Small Claims Court,
"but he doesn't want to pay."

Each alleged victim gave Foster a deposit of $5,000 toward the home purchase and received a contract stating the house would be completed by a certain date, Cocek said.

After the completion dates passed, Foster gave various excuses "but no
house was ever built," the prosecutor said.

Criminal charges were filed after the City Attorney's Office discovered during an investigation that several civil judgments had been levied against Foster by prior victims who had been unable to recover their deposit for work that was never performed, officials said.

—City News Service