By David Harry

Staff Writer

South Portland Police Detective Steven Webster said there was one snag in an alleged attempt to sell a home on Paddock Place last March.

“The problem being the actual homeowner was not selling the residence,” Webster wrote in his synopsis of the investigation of Michael Hamlin that is the basis of an indictment against Hamlin for Class C theft charge.

Hamlin, 50, who faces a June 29 arraignment in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland, was indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury last week. He allegedly accepting a $2,900 check as a deposit for the sale of a house he did not own, according to court records.

Now in Cumberland County Jail in Portland, Hamlin was completing a 14-year federal sentence for weapons violations when he allegedly tried to sell a home owned by Donald Bragdon to Mary Thomason, an Essex, Mass., resident looking to move to Maine.

Hamlin also is listed on the Maine Sex Offender Registry because of convictions for unlawful sexual contact and sexual abuse of a minor.

Webster’s report said Hamlin was living in a halfway house in Portland and had listed a home in Biddeford on Craigslist that attracted Thomason’s attention. When the Guinea Road property was not suitable to Thomason, Hamlin allegedly offered to sell her Bragdon’s home.

Police were alerted to the potential fraud when a South Portland City Hall employee told them she had been contacted by Thomason regarding Bragdon’s home and whether it was in foreclosure. Because the employee knew Bragdon and his home was not on the market or in foreclosure, she called police, according to Webster’s report.

Court records and police investigations in South Portland and Biddeford show Hamlin did not own either home he was trying to sell. While Thomason told police she was told the South Portland home had been foreclosed, tax records in Biddeford indicate Hamlin paid an $814 lien on land and a home at 52 Guinea Road and police said Thomason viewed an adjacent, vacant house at 54 Guinea Road.

Tax records show the properties are owned by Christie Petit and her mother. Petit said she learned of the attempted sale after getting a phone call from a potential buyer. 

Petit said she contacted Hamlin, who claimed ownership of the home because he paid the tax lien. According to Biddeford Tax Collector Christine Doyon, paying an outstanding lien does not transfer ownership of the property.

Biddeford Police Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk said Hamlin’s alleged attempts to sell the Biddeford home have been referred to York County District Attorney Mark Lawrence for possible charges.  

According to Webster’s investigation, Hamlin was operating under the aegis of his Kingdom’s Presence Ministry, a registered nonprofit Hamlin said he established during his prison term to help poor and homeless people.

Through the ministry, Hamlin paid liens on homes and then tried to buy the property from owners “at a seriously reduced rate,” Webster’s report said.

Court documents show a promissory note written under the nonprofit heading and signed by Hamlin and Thomason noted $2,900 as part of a down payment for the South Portland home to be sold to Thomason for $50,000. Hamlin was to have produced a mortgage deed for the home by June 15, and Thomason was to pay $800 a month for the home.

Court records show Bragdon told police the home is his, was not for sale, and he had been practically forced out by an associate of Hamlin’s named Kim Ballard. At the time the promissory note was drafted, the ministry agreed to loan Ballard $12,500 for mold removal at the home because “a diligent search” for the owner responsible for the problem had not located Bragdon.

In his interviews with Webster, Bragdon said he became involved with Kim Ballard, then known as Kim Hiott, in February 2009. Bragdon told police she moved in with a child, and refused to leave when the relationship soured. He moved out instead, living with friends or sleeping in the cab of his tractor-trailer as Hiott fought the eviction order Bragdon obtained.

Bragdon told police Hiott eventually opened his home to Daniel Ballard, an associate and son-in-law of Hamlin.

Ballard, who married Hiott early this year, owns a Portland upholstery shop and allegedly rented space to Hamlin to store supplies for Kingdom’s Presence Ministries, according to police. It was at the upholstery shop that Thomason wrote the $2,900 check that is the basis of the theft indictment, she said. 

In her statements to police, Kim Ballard said she was unaware of illegal activity and blamed Hamlin for the idea to sell Bradgon’s home. Her husband called himself “a silent partner” in the nonprofit Hamlin operated.

Cumberland County District Attorney spokesman Tamara Getchell said a possible case against the Ballards remains under investigation and review. 

While in jail awaiting a court date, Hamlin’s bail was reduced to $500 cash and he told court officers he is suffering from hepatitis-C. He was granted a medical examination June 9, according to court records, but results of the exam were not included in his files.