Court imposes six months of outside supervision of sheriff sales

Sheriff Bilal appeared before Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick at a hearing on whether a special master should be appointed over the office’s processing of deeds after sheriff sales, under a 2003 consent order requiring deeds within 40 days of settlement. The judge imposed six months of outside supervision of sheriff sales: Bilal’s staff agreed to allow an outside person or group to monitor how auctions are conducted and report back to the court. The judge did not name the overseer or say when the supervision would begin.

At the hearing, deputy undersheriff Steven Wakefield acknowledged the office had withheld thousands of pages of records. Bilal, in civilian dress, sat silently before the judge and did not respond when asked by an Inquirer reporter for comment. Afterward, she said: “It’s better that we come together and make an agreement so we can continue working forward.”

“My order was very specific,” Patrick said of her May directive, which required a detailed accounting of all sales proceeds received and disbursed since January 2020. Daniel Bernheim, a lawyer for JSB Property Group, the real estate investment company whose March lawsuit alleged breach of the consent order, said: “This is in essence exactly what we were asking for.”