By JOHN T. WARD
A former Red Bank lawyer was arrested Wednesday on a theft charge for fraudulently putting the ownership of a Middletown property in his own name, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced late in the day.
Alexander Iler, 38, of Middletown, who maintained a law office on Broad Street, is alleged to have forged the signature of a purported seller on a deed, making himself the buyer, said Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.
An investigation by the prosecutor’s office uncovered evidence that, last December, Iler fraudulently took ownership of a property in the Locust section of the township, filing a deed with the Monmouth County Clerk purporting to show he paid $575,000 for it, when in fact no such transaction had been authorized, Gramiccioni said.
Iler, who was disbarred in July over the same allegations, then took out more than $1 million in mortgages on the property, according to the charges.
He faces a chrage of second-degree theft. Superior Court Judge Richard W. English ordered Iler held on $250,000 bail at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, without the option to put down the customary 10 percent. If convicted, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, Gramiccioni said.
Here’s the deed in question: Spangenberg – Iler Deed