Bertina Jones addressed a rally organized by Occupy D.C. to persuade mortgage giant Freddie Mac to let her stay in her house in Bowie, Md.

In what was easily its most visible demonstration since it was largely removed from McPherson Square earlier this month, Occupy D.C. was back protesting Monday, but this time with a very specific purpose—to prevent a Prince George’s County woman from being evicted from her home after it was foreclosed upon by the federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

About three dozen demonstrators rallied outside a building at Seventh and D streets NW, where Freddie Mac has a small satellite office, to protest on behalf of Bertina Jones, a Bowie resident whose house was foreclosed upon in September 2010 shortly after Freddie bought the mortgage on her home from Bank of America. Jones first fell behind on her mortgage payments in 2008 shortly after losing her job as an accountant. She asked the bank to modify the terms of her mortgage through the Home Affordable Modification Program, but says this did not happen due to repeated clerical error. As a result, she and the protesters involved in Occupy Our Homes D.C. said, the foreclosure process went ahead. The income-inequality movement caught wind of Jones’ case through the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which has been representing her for about a year.

But the way it proceeded was full of irregularities and even some law-breaking, protesters said today. In attempting to restart her mortgage payments in 2009, Jones sent Bank of America checks totaling more than $12,000, but the money was returned because the bank could not find records of her application for a modified loan. While this was going on, Shapiro & Burson, a Virginia law firm specializing in foreclosures was named a “substitute trustee” over Jones’ mortgage. However, Maryland law requires that any such appointment be certified and supervised by an attorney licensed to practice in the state. Shapiro & Burson was accused last March of executing foreclosures on more than 1,000 Maryland homes using forged signatures, but the case was dismissed in December.

Outside Freddie Mac’s office Monday, Jones told the crowd she had followed Bank of America and Freddie Mac’s instructions to the letter but to no avail.

“They gave me a loan modifier, and then snatched it back,” she said. Another leader of the group, the Rev. Graylan Hagler of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Northeast D.C., said the goal of the protest was to “close this building down.”

“Not only Freddie Mac,” he said. “We’re going to make every tenant uncomfortable.”

About half a dozen Metropolitan Police Department officers were stationed outside the building, with protesters marching in a circle outside the front door. Some demonstrators carried a “golden calf” sculpture that looked similar to the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. After a short while, the group walked toward the building’s loading dock on D Street NW, where eventually security guards agreed to let Jones and Hagler deliver a petition circulated by Occupy Our Homes D.C. urging Freddie Mac to allow Jones to remain in her house and resume making payments on the mortgage.

Jones and Hagler returned a few minutes later and said that while it “feels good” to take action, the response they received was hardly satisfactory. While empowered by her newfound activism, Jones, 73, added her situation wasn’t free of embarrassment.

“For them to steal $100,000 in equity, I was ashamed,” she said. “Other homeowners need to come down here, especially from the P.G.” Nearly one-third of all home foreclosures in Maryland are in Prince George’s, and while Jones said she was not accusing home lenders of racist practices, she pointed out the heightened effect the foreclosure crisis has had on the majority-black county.

Occupy D.C. was aware Monday’s rally was at a satellite office of Freddie Mac. The group is planning a visit tomorrow to the lender’s headquarters in Tysons Corner, Va. Jones, for her part, said she’s continuing on with Occupy Our Homes not just for her own cause but for her neighbors’, too.

“I’m not [Mitt] Romney with a bag of money,” she said.

Shortly after the rally disbanded, Jones got a bit of positive news: “We contacted Ms. Jones and are working with her and Bank of America toward a positive resolution,” a Freddie Mac spokesman told the Post.