William Tucker

DAVID ALBERS

The former home of John and Mary Wadsworth on Gulf Shore Boulevard in Naples.

DAVID ALBERS

The former home of John and Mary Wadsworth on Gulf Shore Boulevard in Naples.

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NAPLES — After John and Mary Wadsworth of Old Naples died in 2004 and 2005, William L. Tucker approached their daughter to say he’d been a good friend of her father, loved their beach-front home and wanted to buy their properties.

Jamee Todd said she’d consider Billy Tucker’s $15 million offer for 777 Gulf Shore Blvd. N. and her beach house at 11 Seventh Ave. N., properties known as Westwinds and listed under the Gulf Shore Boulevard North address.

Todd gave him time to get the money together and Tucker made two offers last year. Both were rejected.

During the months that followed, Thomas Cronauer, the home’s caretaker, began noticing funny things going on. Tucker was hiding his car along Gulf Shore Boulevard and secretly entering the property. And others were visiting.

“... I was approached by strangers who stated that they were sent to the property by Billy Tucker, their real estate agent, with his assurances that they would be allowed to look around and would be allowed access ...,” Cronauer said in a sworn statement. “I informed the strangers that they were not authorized to enter the homes and that Tucker had no authority to market the property.”

Investment bank JPMorgan even approached Todd’s husband, attorney Thomas Todd, about financing for Tucker’s investors.

Thomas Todd e-mailed Tucker and his attorney to warn Tucker to cease and desist all marketing activities, pointing out that Thomas Campbell — a lifelong friend of Jamee Todd and John Wadsworth — was the exclusive agent for the property, listed with Premier Properties in Naples.

“Your representation is patently untrue and you have absolutely no authority to refer people to the property,” Thomas Todd wrote in an October e-mail, warning Tucker that he could face legal action for his “outrageous behavior.”

Tucker’s attorney at the time, Richard Cimino, said he’d advise his client.

But in February, Tucker sent a letter to a neighbor, Neil Whitesell, asking if he’d be interested in swapping his house with 777 Gulf Shore Blvd. N. “to be away from the noise and congestion” of the Beach Club parking lot. He added, “The parcels are exactly the same size!”

That prompted a Naples attorney to send Tucker and Cimino another letter, warning that Tucker didn’t represent the properties, demanding him to write a letter to Michael Watkins at the Naples Beach Club and Golf Hotel to say he doesn’t represent either, and threatening to report him to the Naples Area Board of Realtors and Florida Real Estate Commission.

By May, Jamee Todd, who owned the beach house, and the other property owners — her brother John Wadsworth and his wife, Bette Sue — had a buyer lined up. A closing was set for July 17.

Within days, Tucker slapped a mechanic’s lien on the property.

It’s known as clouding title — and it prevents any sale.

For the owners, Tucker’s lien was eye-opening. Attached were ads that Tucker placed in The New York Times and Naples Daily News showing Tucker had marketed their property as a private seller.

“Get into Prime Naples Real Estate. Last large beachfront property. Endless sunsets. Gorgeous beach, tropical breezes. Supports 22,000-sf residence or subdivide. Extraordinary investment in prestigious Naples, Fl.,” the ad from The Times read.

Ads in the Daily News this May and June were similar:

BEACHFRONT PROPERTY: Near Beach Club Hotel. Bill Tucker.

BEACHFRONT PROPERTY: Zoned for 2 houses. Near Beach Club Hotel. ONE OF A KIND! Bill.”

The lien was attached to his rejected sales contract and claims that he was still owed fees for his “real estate listing, referral, fees and 2 percent of the Realtor listing fee = $300,000 commission.”

But court files show the dispute was about to take another turn:

Tucker never had a contract. He’s not a Realtor, associate or agent — or a friend of the Wadsworths. He also didn’t have the millions to pay for such a deal.

Attorneys asked Tucker to sign a “release of liens,” warning him he had no right to the property. He refused to lift the liens.

“(You’re) crazy if you think I’m going to let this close,” Tucker told them.

In June, he filed another lien against the properties, a duplicate of the May 19 lien.

Companies that specialize in lifting such liens couldn’t help because the liens weren’t proper. Title companies refused to insure the properties for the buyer because the liens “are so poorly worded that the title company cannot determine the legal basis being claimed by Tucker.”

So Jamee Todd and the Wadsworths sued, branding Tucker’s illegal liens “extortion.” The lawsuit accused Tucker of engaging in criminal activities and said Naples police and the State Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit had been alerted.

When Tucker attached his expired sales contract to the lien, he didn’t attach a page that said it would be void if filed with the clerk’s office.

It wouldn’t be the first time 56-year-old Tucker got in trouble with the law.

The details of what led up to the lawsuit are outlined in the complaint and an emergency motion to discharge liens filed by Naples attorney Ed Koester in Collier Circuit Court on June 30.

The lawsuit includes sworn affidavits from caretaker Cronauer, owner Jamee Todd and others; Tucker’s liens and ads; as well as letters and e-mails over several months from attorneys and the Todds to Tucker and his attorney, and Tucker’s letter to nearby property owner Whitesell.

“Tucker is simply attempting to extort money from the owners by way of his interference with an $11 million contract that is scheduled to close in two weeks,” the emergency motion said.

Legal papers accused Tucker of being a flipper, pretending to be the Wadsworths’ close friend and a Realtor so he could broker a $15 million deal to “flip” the property — immediately selling it to someone else for a profit.

The motion asked that a judge lift the liens to allow the sale to proceed. It noted that even if Tucker were a Realtor, which he isn’t, he never had any authority to market the property. It also pointed out that although the liens were patterned after mechanic’s liens, they didn’t meet the legal requirements under state law.

A day after Tucker was served with the lawsuit, warning that he’d be responsible for the plaintiffs’ legal fees, he signed the release.

The lawsuit, before Collier Circuit Judge Hugh Hayes, hasn’t been closed yet, but the $11 million sale closed on July 17.

A deed filed with the Clerk’s Office shows it was sold to Randal Bellestri of Michigan, a developer and president of Odyssey International Inc. and Global Tooling International Inc., which he sold this year, remaining president, in a $314 million deal. The deed suggests he intends to develop the property.

Records show that in 2006, he purchased a $3.87 million home in Pelican Marsh in North Naples.

“We’re glad he (Tucker) released his liens before the court had to have a hearing,” Koester said. “We certainly expected to prevail at the hearing.”

Tucker called it a mistake.

“It was just a giant misunderstanding, a lack of information,” Tucker said recently, adding that he’d been seeking buyers. “We had made an offer and we weren’t aware they had already accepted someone else’s offer.”

“I didn’t know that I was excluded,” he added. “I thought I had the right to bring others onto the land. I was going to put together a group of investors to try to buy it.”

Tucker said he checked the Multiple Listing Service under residential lots and saw it wasn’t being marketed, so he thought he could sell it.

When attorney Kevin Coleman, Koester’s partner, told him it was listed under homes, exclusively with Premier Properties, Tucker said he agreed to back off — although the lawsuit contradicts Tucker’s claim.

Tucker said no one responded to his ads, “not even from The New York Times.”

Asked whether he intended to flip the property, Tucker said, “Well, who knows what we would do in this real estate market?”

“I had my chance to come up with $15 million, but I couldn’t do it,” Tucker said. “They’re nice people. Once we figured out what was going on, I was happy to sign off on it. I didn’t have a leg to stand on. It got a bit nasty for a while there, with police and ordering me not to trespass. It’s hard to believe because I just got the (Naples) Community Services Board award for community service.”

Asked what he thought of being portrayed as a villain in the lawsuit, Tucker said he never read it, but considered the lawsuit “high-pressured intimidation.”

He also admitted he wasn’t a close friend of Wadsworth, but had met him when he took photos for him after a hurricane so Wadsworth could file an insurance claim.

“I never knew them personally, like they were old family friends,” he said.

Naples officials said the “award” Tucker mentioned was only a certificate of service all members receive after their service and Tucker had just finished an unexpired three-year term of a member who had left the board. City Council appointed Tucker, the sole candidate for the volunteer board, on June 13, 2007. He was reappointed in June after no others applied.

About 10 days ago, however, City Manager Bill Moss mailed him a letter saying he’d been informed that Tucker’s home at 1243 Solana Road, his homesteaded property, is outside city limits and that under city code, he must be domiciled within city limits to serve on the board.

“I therefore advise that we must accept your resignation from the Community Services Advisory Board effective this date,” Moss wrote.

In September 2004, court records show, Tucker was arrested and prosecuted on felony charges, six counts each of grand theft and uttering a forged instrument after a Secret Service investigation into $26,208.95 stolen from two bank accounts belonging to his mother, Jane Tucker of Gulf Shore Boulevard North.

Bank surveillance videos showed it was her son and Naples police Detective David Parr investigated.

At his mother’s request, the State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges 10 months later.

What happened to the Todds and Wadsworths could happen to anyone.

“You have to have absolutely no proof whatsoever,” Collier Clerk of Circuit Court Dwight Brock said of filing a lien. “All you have to do is present that form and file it in public records and you have clouded that property. There’s nothing to prevent you from filing. Even though it’s rare, it does happen.”

Officials with the county Economic Crimes Unit said the complaint against Tucker is being reviewed.