Section 17 — How 560ac Reached Justin
Section 17 — How 560 Acres of 50% Trust Land Reached Justin
The tract: Section 17-1S-49W (NE¼, E½NW¼, S½) — ~560 acres, Washington County. Owned ½ by the JHF Trust and ½ by Lewis Frenzl personally, free and clear, until 2015.
The short answer to "which transaction pushed it over the line": the 11/30/2023 PR Deed (REC#883505) is the completed theft — that is when title actually moved to Justin with no consideration. But it was only possible because 7/9/2021 (REC#878394) set the table and 8/2/2021 (REC#878518) quietly erased the only recorded trace of the Trust's stake. 2021 is the concealment; 2023 is the taking.
The chain, in order (all documented)
| Date | Instrument | REC# (WaCo) | What it did |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/17/2015 | Deed of Trust — Section 17 mortgage | 862063 | LCF (as Trustee) + LCF (personally) mortgage Section 17 for $335,000 to Northstar Bank. Proceeds funded the Imhofs' purchase of the adjoining Dressel land. Trust got $0. |
| 4/17/2015 | Subordination (Trust) | 862065 | Trust subordinates all its Section 17 interests to NSBC, with a false recital that "the JHF Trust will benefit" and "acknowledges receipt of valuable consideration." No benefit/consideration to the Trust was ever produced. |
| 1/27/2017 | Third Farm Lease | 866668 | 20-year lease (to 12/31/2032), rent degraded to $20/acre dryland (down from $30); Trust keeps paying 100% of irrigation/repairs. (This is the 2017 JHF lease — REC#866668, recorded in WashCo.) |
| 7/9/2021 | Deed of Trust — TBK consolidation | 878394 | $850,000 loan. Borrowers: Justin, Jamie, Lewis, and the JHF Trust — jointly and severally. Section 17's Trust half pledged as collateral alongside five Imhof parcels. The "Permitted Prior Encumbrances" rider — which would have put the Trust's 50% claim on the lender's record — was omitted. Section 15 due-on-sale + "Successor in Interest" language builds the path for a later transferee to step into the collateral quietly. |
| 8/2/2021 | NSBC Full Release | 878518 | The 2015 Northstar Section 17 mortgage ($336,000 max principal secured per REC#862063; ~$335k proceeds to confirm against the 2015 note) is satisfied/released — with no credit, payment, or accounting to the Trust for its pledged half. Release requested by TBK Bank as successor to Northstar (Tracey Delinger, VP), executed by the Public Trustee; no LCF signature. See 2026.06.16 REC#878518 — The Northstar Release Explained. |
| 11/30/2023 | PR Deed of Distribution | 883505 | Justin, as PR of Lewis's Estate, deeds the entire 560 acres to himself individually "as the person entitled to distribution." The Trust's 50% is swept in as if it were 100% Estate property. No consideration to the Trust. |
| Dec 2023 | §1031 exchange (Estate↔Trust) | — | The exchange that Justin engineered between the two entities he controlled says nothing about returning the Trust's half of Section 17 — confirming there was never any intent to make the Trust whole. |
Why 7/9/2021 is the hinge (the part never connected before)
Title did not move in 2021. Nothing in the TBK transaction conveyed the Trust's interest. What 7/9/2021 did was three things that made the 2023 taking both possible and invisible:
- It weaponized the Trust's own asset against itself. The Trust's free-and-clear half of Section 17 went from a protected beneficiary asset to collateral for $850,000 of debt that overwhelmingly benefited the Imhofs — and the Trust was made jointly and severally liable for the whole $850,000, not just its share.
- It deleted the Trust's footprint from the record. Omitting the Permitted Prior Encumbrances rider meant the lender's file — the document a future title examiner would pull — showed no JHF Trust 50% claim on Section 17. Combined with the 8/2/2021 NSBC release (which closed out the only recorded instrument that named the Trust on this tract), by late 2021 the paper trail of the Trust's ownership had gone quiet.
- It pre-built the exit. The "Successor in Interest of Borrower" definition contemplated a party taking the land without assuming the obligations — exactly what a PR-deed-to-self accomplishes.
So when Justin signed REC#883505 on 11/30/2023, there was nothing left on the record to stop him: the Trust's claim wasn't on the lender's file, the 2015 mortgage that once named the Trust was released, and he sat on both sides (PR of the Estate and Trustee of the Trust). 2021 made the Trust invisible on this tract; 2023 conveyed the now-invisible interest to himself.
Charging consequence: the completed theft of the Trust's half (the over-the-line act) is 11/30/2023 (REC#883505). The 7/9/2021 maneuver is the predicate/concealment — relevant to intent and to the course of conduct (it shows the 2023 deed was planned, not inadvertent). This also answers O-3: there was no earlier conveyance in 2021; the 2021 event was the pledge + release that set up the 2023 conveyance.
The $146,000 — and why JWI's "split of the mortgaged amounts" math is illusory
What the documents show (Ch.2): In spring 2021 a tornado destroyed the irrigation pivots on Section 5 (baseline ground, T1S-R50W) — which the JHF Trust owns 100%. E-Z Irrigation (Wray) invoiced $146,000 (two Zimmatic pivots + tires, 6/29–6/30/2021). The Trust paid it in two pieces:
| Date | In/Out | Amount | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7/9/2021 (stmt) | — | — | baseline balance $11,454.10 (same date as the TBK loan REC#878394) |
| ~8/2021 (8/10 stmt) | deposit IN | $100,000 | memo "secure" / "Scura" — Lewis's investment (per Landon) → balance $111,454.10 |
| ~9/2021 (9/10 stmt) | deposit IN + Check #1050 OUT | $46,000 in / $100,000 out | $46k from LCF Farm Account; $100k → E-Z Irrigation → balance $57,454.10 |
| ~10/2021 (10/8 stmt) | Check #1051 OUT | $46,000 | → E-Z Irrigation → balance back to $11,454.10 |
Confirmed by the account ledger (2026.06.15 JHF Trust Account Ledger — Chronological Backbone): the Trust balance went $11,454.10 → $111,454.10 → back to exactly $11,454.10. The Trust's own money was never touched. The whole $146,000 was carried by Lewis — $100k from his "secure"/Scura investment + $46k from his Farm Account — and all of it went to E-Z Irrigation for pivots on Section 5, which the Trust owns 100%. Justin (the lessee) then collected the 2021 USDA disaster subsidy ($50,837) for himself; the Trust got $0. The Trust bought the pivots; the tenant pocketed the disaster money.
Why JWI's "$146k = split of the mortgaged amounts" still doesn't reconcile
Your memory — "$146k of Lewis's own money" — is borne out: the balance returning to baseline proves Lewis funded the entire $146k personally. The contested point is HOW those funds were received and disbursed — specifically the exact source/instrument of the $100k "secure"/Scura deposit (an annuity draw? a Secura policy? a separate investment account?). That document is the last piece; the net effect (Lewis paid $146k, Trust paid nothing) is already proven by the ledger.
JWI's "$146k = an appropriate split of the mortgaged amounts" is false accounting regardless:
- The $146k went into the Trust's OWN 100%-owned land (Section 5) — a capital improvement to a Trust asset. That is not a benefit flowing from the Imhofs to the Trust, and it is not a credit against anything the Imhofs owe the Trust.
- The mortgage benefit ran the other way. In 2015 the Trust's Section 17 collateral secured $335,000 that went to the Imhofs' Dressel purchase. In 2021 the Trust was put on the hook jointly and severally for $850,000 that overwhelmingly benefited the Imhofs. Calling $146k of Trust-land pivots a "split of the mortgaged amounts" nets a Trust expense against a Trust-funded benefit to Justin — it double-counts in Justin's favor.
- They are two unrelated ledgers treated as one: (1) what the Imhofs owe the Trust for using the Trust's collateral/land, and (2) what Lewis personally spent improving the Trust's own ground. JWI's framing collapses them so a $146k expense Lewis paid "cancels" a mortgage debt that benefited the Imhofs — it has nothing to do with it.
RESOLVED 2026-06-29 — the $100,000 "Secure" deposit (8/4/2021) was Lewis Frenzl's own money, transferred from his own account into the JHF Trust account (per Landon; Bates JWI000400–JWI000403). With the $46,000 from his Farm Account, this confirms Lewis personally funded the entire $146,000 and the Trust contributed nothing — there is no Trust-funded benefit to net against, so JWI's "$146k = split of mortgaged amounts" defense is fully illusory. The $146k "how" is closed.
Aggregation value contributed by Section 17
- Trust's half of Section 17 — on a conservative 60% LTV, the $335k 2015 loan implies ~$558k value ⟹ Trust half ≈ $279,000, taken with no consideration (REC#883505). The tract was never appraised after Lewis's death because Justin omitted it.
- This is a discrete taking completed 11/30/2023 and folds into the ICAv2 Count 2 aggregate and the stacked-charge timeline.
To-do
- ☑ $100,000 "Secure" deposit RESOLVED (2026-06-29): Lewis's own money from his own account into the Trust — Bates JWI000400–JWI000403. $146k "how" closed.
- ☐ Pull NSBC payoff statement behind REC#878518 to confirm no credit to the Trust on the $335k release.
- ☐ Confirm whether any 2021 conveyance of Section 17 exists (O-3) — record so far says no; 2023 is the operative transfer.