STUART — A Martin County jury tomorrow will likely begin deliberating the case of former Jensen Beach pastor Rodney McGill and his wife, Shalonda McGill, accused of orchestrating a real estate scheme that ended in more than $1 million in foreclosed property from three unwitting investors.
After a week on the other side of the witness stand, the former pastor and real estate investment pitchman took the stand in his own defense Monday, telling a jury that unscrupulous mortgage brokers were the ones to blame for an alleged mortgage scheme that ruined the credit of the women he and Shalonda helped invest in local properties.
The women called into Rodney McGill’s “Fast Lane” radio show during McGill’s “Fab 5” promotion, one that promised five callers a guaranteed $50,000 payout. The women testified last week that they ended up buying property Shalonda McGill formerly owned at inflated prices, and the homes later went into foreclosure after the McGills reneged on promises to make payments for them.
“Why would I want to mess up these ladies’ credit for them to call in and say stuff about me?” McGill said. “I love them ladies. They were beautiful people.”
McGill called mortgage broker Isabel Rosario back to the stand, where he asked her to write her name five times on one sheet of paper, which he entered into evidence.
The two quibbled over loan documents and faxes as McGill tried to refute Rosario’s claims that Shalonda McGill gave her the files already filled in with falsified information.
“You’ve got to be careful now, I’ve been studying,” McGill warned Rosario at one point.
McGill also had an opportunity Monday to confont Florida Department of Financial Services Detective Ted Padich, the lead investigator in the case.
Shalonda McGill, who had previously planned to take the stand, opted on Thursday not to testify in her own defense.

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