Doubling Down With the Derricos: Dad Deon Charged With Real Estate Fraud in 2014
Deon Derrico has a dark past. Come Tuesday, Doubling Down With the Derricos premieres on TLC, and introduces fans to yet another large family of 16. Deon and Karen dance their troubles away with their brood of 11 kids as they await the birth of three more on the show’s season 1. But, the family patriarch Deon who’s quite popular locally for having fathered natural quintuplets, has been charged with 16 counts, including 10 felonies in the past. But did the father of 14 get his name cleared? Keep reading to know.
Doubling Down With the Derricos caught everyone’s attention right from the release of its trailer. A new member in TLC’s large list of even larger families, the show is based on the lives of the Derricos from Las Vegas. Karen, 40, and 49-year-old Deon Derrico juggle between their family of quintuplets, triplets, and two sets of twins with three more on the way. Doubling Down With the Derricos’ premise has Karen moving into a hospital at 24 weeks to have a safe delivery, while Deon plays superhero dad to his little bunch. The real estate investor and his stay at home wife have created headlines in the past when they gave birth to their now six-year-old set of five. But soon, Deon Derrico got embroiled in a major controversy for apparently swindling two homeowners – and maybe more.
In April 2014, Doubling Down With the Derricos’ Deon was charged with forgery, theft, and false representation according to a criminal complaint filed by the Nevada Attorney General’s Office as per this story by Las Vegas Sun. Derrico was accused of taking over properties that were flipped during the recession through quitclaim deeds in which the embattled owners would sign over their names. A quitclaim, for reference, allows a homeowner to grant their property to someone else. The homeowners in Deon’s matter had no idea of transferring any property to the reality TV star because he allegedly forged their signatures on the quitclaim deeds. The Doubling Down With the Derricos dad was accused along with his partner Olujuwon Devin Bryant who notarized these deeds by two homeowners, one of whom, according to his wife, was dead at the time at the deed. However, things started looking positive for Deon in 2018, when even after four years, no more victims came forward, making the case fizzle out. In April 2018, Deon was cleared of most charges, excluding two, which were dropped later in August, but his partner Bryant pleaded guilty for notarizing the fake deeds and was duly fined.
Back then, Deon had claimed that he was attacked because he came from the well-known family. “You can be totally innocent but can be made to look like someone else,” the Doubling Down With the Derricos star was quoted saying amidst reports of him writing a book. In a recent interview with Review Journal Deon revisited his tumultuous experience while talking about his TLC show. The father said that more than 10 production companies had gotten in touch with him to give the Derricos their series in 2013 after the birth of the famed quintuplets. “I had a bogus criminal case that came up,” said Deon about the allegations which had put his reality TV career on hold. A day after the senior Derrico said goodbye to his legal matters, producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi approached him, and their conversations directly lead to Doubling Down With the Derricos.
The TLC show has Deon put on an invisible cape as he takes on the highly strenuous task of playing a doting dad to 14 children. Be it managing the finances which run up to $3,500 for groceries alone, or doing a headcount in birth order as he drives the little Derricos to school, his role as a father compliments Karen’s resilience as a mother. Perhaps Doubling Down With the Derricos is what he earned for standing by the truth amidst all the torment that tried to tarnish the family’s happiness. The past is in the past for the Derricos as they await a whole new wave of fame and love from the fans.
Doubling Down With the Derricos premieres Aug. 11 at 10pm EST on TLC.
Source: Las Vegas Sun, Review Journal