Milwaukee landlord charged; forged documents, theft, mail fraud

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee landlord is charged in connection to defrauding his tenants and forged documents to illegally garnished wages.

Landlord George Sessler has a bit of a reputation; previously, he was accused of collecting more than just rent. The prosecution filed 18 charges against Sessler, most of them felonies, including forgery, mail fraud, and theft.

"The fact that these charges came through is huge here," said Riad El-Azem, Legal Aid Staff attorney.

EL-Azem is an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. He was helping two tenants who living in a northwest side apartment building after they learned their wages were being garnished by Sessler. The landlord was seeking more than $3,000 from both, but El-Azem said there was no court record or proper notification.

Riad El-Azem

"I started noticing more inconsistencies every time I looked a little deeper," said El-Azem.

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El-Azem said something didn't add up, and the documents looked suspicious like they would be photocopied repeatedly. He believed the papers were false.

"At that point, I became very suspicious," said El-Azem.

El-Azem went to the District Attorney's Office and launched an investigation. According to a criminal complaint, Sessler had tried to garnish more than $7,000 from his two former tenants using old paperwork that had been forged. The complaint said he dropped that paperwork off with their employers. Now this attorney wants to spread the word about Sessler.

"Who knows if there’s potentially more victims of these crimes out there," El-Azem said.

FOX6 News called several numbers listed for Sessler and couldn't reach him. The legal aid attorney said if your wages are garnished after an eviction, seek out legal services to help figure out if it's legit.