Woman arrested in Raleigh property fraud case after yearlong delay

Dawn Mangum was taken into custody out of state and brought back to North Carolina last week, more than a year after a Wake County judge ordered her arrest in the Raleigh deed fraud case tied to Dr. Craig Adams’ $4.5 million home.

Mangum pleaded not guilty at the May 28 hearing and was ordered to Central Regional Prison in Butner for a forensic evaluation. The case has moved slowly since September 2024, when Mangum was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense, turned herself in, and saw her bond raised from $100,000 to $150,000. Adams said the disputed warranty deed he found was dated Aug. 12, 2024, and included the phrases “recording prepared: Dawn Mangum Estate” and “when recorded return to: Dawn Mangum Trust.”

The allegation goes to the heart of how deed fraud can work. A false deed does not need to look obviously fake to create damage. Once it is recorded, it can cloud title, complicate financing and force the true owner into court to prove the property still belongs to them. Wake County officials have said the Register of Deeds must record documents that meet statutory requirements and is not required to verify whether a deed is legally valid at the moment it is filed, which helps explain how suspicious-looking paperwork can still enter the public record.

Adams later filed a civil lawsuit, and a judge ruled the deed transfer fraudulent. But the criminal case shows why homeowners in Wake County are being urged to pay attention to recording alerts, not just mortgage statements and tax bills. Wake County launched a new land-recording platform and updated fraud alert system in April 2025, and residents can sign up for document-recording alerts that flag filings against their property. Property owners often cannot simply reverse a recorded deed and may have to go to court to clear title, a costly process that can linger long after the first fraudulent filing.

The Mangum case has also landed in the middle of a policy push at the North Carolina General Assembly. Lawmakers advanced House Bill 535 in 2025 to penalize fraudulent deeds and strengthen title-fraud protections, a sign that the state sees deed theft as more than an isolated scam. For Wake County homeowners, the warning is immediate: a deed filed in the public record can cause damage before anyone realizes it should never have been there.