Thursday, January 10, 2008

MY CONTINUING NIGHTMARE IN SHADOWCREST HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION

As posted on
http://ahrc.com/
2004

This will be much too long for any column, and even for one e-mail, so, I am just going to give you an overview of what has been happening in here, Shadow Crest Home Owners Association , in Cathedral City --next to Palm Springs.

It is a nightmare, with selective enforcement of the covenants: I planted a tree with provable verbal permission, and it is documented in a letter, from the previous board, but they continued to fine me, even when the old board vice president came to a meeting and said he had given me permission. There are at least three other home owners who planted trees without permission, but they have said nothing to them, nor have they been fined.

They have violated the law, and, I was not been able to speak in meetings for four months. Now I can speak but I am discredited before and after I speak, to the point board members, Jose Liceaga, and Johnj Weiser have told the homeowners in public meetings that I am "a drunk who lives on booze and pills, and have been arrested multiple time, owe association $10,000 and have filed multiple lawsuits against the association" -- all slander and lies.

One board member dragged me into court trying to find me a "vexatious litigant" and the judge denied his motion, and said "She is not a vexatious litigant!" -- But they continue to tell homeowners I am. (Later in a different court case based on lies of attorney Moreno, Kent Robbins, and Jose Liceaga I will be declared a vexatious litigant; I am working to have that dismissed.)

They have told the same lies to the police, making false police reports to have me removed from meetings telling them I cannot speak because I have a fine! -- (The police don't know the law of open meetings, and participation!)

I write an independent newsletter which reports what is said at meetings, and what homeowner rights are, and the board wants to shut it down.

I have been stalked by a board members Jose Liceaga, Kent Robbins and Jim Hooten, as have other women, and their children -- who have had to be in counseling because they fear these men so much. The board president, Jim Hooten pulled what looked like a gun on a group of children but because they didn't call the police until the next day, no report was taken by the Cathedral City Police Department. Sergeant Laura Hanlon came to my home and talked with these woman and their children, and knew the problem, but refused to give any help. (Hanlon later attended a board meeting and made the comment, "I can see the problem with president Jim Hooten, he use the word 'I' 52 times.")

Three weeks ago I was deliberately hit by board member, John Weiser with his car, while I was on foot, [Cathedral City Police refused to arrest him, even though they saw the bruise on my hip) and another board member, Jose Liceaga attempting to kick me in the face while I was in the pool. That is a story in itself -- how the judge turned that TRO court hearing into an HOA hearing. He said he had no idea of the Davis-Stirling Act, and so the board members took advantage of that, and deliberately perjured themselves on the stand, saying that The CC&Rs, the Davis-Stirling Act, and Open Meeting act all say 'She cannot speak because she has a fine.' The judge bought it, thought the only problem was I couldn't speak and told them to let my tree stay, and take away the fines, and threw out my restraining order, calling it bogus.

Now the board banded together, I believe using the advise in the CAI book, BE REASONABLE and have taken out bogus, void on the face TROs, lied and provably perjured themselves on the stand to get them, and now are calling the police at every chance, -- e.g., I went to the Annual Meeting today, and they called the police and they had me physically arrested, hand cuffed -- for "stalking" them. I ended up in the hospital because on the way to jail my blood pressure shot up to 250/118 so the paramedics transported me to the hospital from jail. But the officer went along and intending to take me to jail as soon as the I was released. Finally the doctor told him I would most likely have the same thing happen if I went to jail, so, the officer could do nothing but issu me a citation, adding he would ask the District Attorney to prosecute me for stalking!

On the back of all these Temporary Restraining Orders, the judge had crossed out "can't be in public places" and stamped it, but the board only showed the officer a part of the orderf, hiding the part with public places.

When we went into court to extend the time on one of these orders, and I told Judge Wells that I could not even step into the public street without them calling the police and making these false reports, claiming I was in violation of their TRO, he told all three of them that the TRO was with regard to their residence only, NOT to the public street. [The meeting was held at the public area of the pool in the association, and so I was not in violation of anyone's orders.]

One of these men Kent Robbins, who was put on the board at this meeting, allows his dogs to run off the leash, [against the CC&Rs of course!] and when his dog came at me, I said "Get your dog off me or I will kick it." He then walked up to me, within inches of my face, raised his fist, and said "if you touch that dog I will kill you!" I slapped his hand away, hitting him in the chin, and ran telling him I was calling the police. When the police came, he asked for a Citizens Arrest, said I just walked up and punched him with no provocation, and I was taken to jail, in handcuffs, and ended up in the hospital with blood pressure of 250/ over 130.

Kent Robbins is at least 6 foot 3 inchs, and weighs in well over 250 lbs.
I am 5 foot 2 inchs, and weigh considerably less than 250 lbs.

The District Attorney dismissed the case!
The board is still using this false arrest, telling people I was arrested.

Last May we discovered that the board was using invalid CC&Rs. We had suspected it for sometime, but actually saw them in use at this meeting where the board director, Jim Hooten read from them, and there are letters to that affect to the attorney, and the management company -- which were ignored. They were using CC&Rs that had been turned down by the homeowners, that gave them broad powers allowing them to to even come into our homes, and back yards. [These bogus CC&Rs, written by attorney Wayne Gurlanick, were for condos; we are 42 single family homes.]

When we received no letter that they had at least made a mistake, and it seemed they continued on using them, I filed a Declarative Junction, and asked for a Restraining Order. I did not ask for any money. However, I did not ask for Arbitration -- so Attorney, Bruce Moreno wrote a simple Demurrer, and charged me $4, 300 but there was no explanation in his Memorandum of Cost for how he arrived at that figure, and he actually went against the Corporation Code Retainer standards in doing so.

I just dismissed the case, unfortunately "with prejudice" [I checked the wrong box] and then wrote a Motion to Tax Costs. Moreno then filed a Response and charged $2,000 dollars, and said he put 10 hours into writing his 4 page Personal Declaration. When we went before Judge Christopher Sheldon [who has been publicly disciplined for not doing his job -- he was jogging up and down the back stairs rather than sitting on the bench during hearings!] I don't believe he even read my motion, and never made Moreno explain his costs, and awarded him the $6,350 - for two very simple documents, that other attorneys have told me is unconscionable. (Came to discover later Shadowcrest was suspended as a corporation, making this another void judgment, and could not legally defend this case. Still working on having that overturned as well.)

The attorneys put a lien on my home the day after they sent me a letter giving me 30 days to "pay in full, or they would take legal action." They did not even wait for me to respond -- although I did write a letter asking for a payment plan - - they told me they did not need to give me a payment plan nor did they need to give me 30 Day Notice when they were filing the lien.

Moreno said in his legal papers, that the board had already paid, yet it was nowhere in our end of the year audit. I asked, "where is it they have paid?"

January 1, 2004 I made a request to see the books and the records, and all that I am entitled to under AB 104. They made a meeting time, broke it the morning of the meeting, then the attorney made a meeting time, but when I got there the only thing they gave me was the copies of the last two meetings, and a one page, "End of October Budget, where it says they paid the money in full that month. [attorney Moreno lied!]

They still are refusing to let any homeowner see what they have a right to see under AB 104.
Yesterday at the Annual Meeting the property manager Jim Lewis said, "Unfortunately, there are contradictions between AB 104 and Corp Code, and until those are worked out, we can't show you anything!" This of course was an absolute lie!

Then Jose Liceaga, Treasurer told the people that, "The legal fund is $11,000 short because of 'you know who' but we are working on foreclosing on her to collect the money."

They then went on to ignored other people who had sent in application to be considered for the board at the election, and therefore got the board members the attorneys and property management wanted -- the tyrants have total control now.

At least two of us know that there is fraud and collusion, but how to prove it. I have been to the police and filed a complaint, but it was incorrectly written by Sergeant, Laura Hanlon and the District Attorney rejected it.

I went to the District Attorney and they told me it needs to be done again with proof, but how do I get the proof -- except for what the attorney wrote, and what the doctored budget states, and what we suspect -- if we can't see the records? Cathedral City Police, mainly Earl Moss has refused to rewrite the complaint, or to even look at the evidence.

They have slandered me in letters, in public meetings, and only one homeowner who attended the Annual Meeting would even talk with me.

When the police arrested me at this Annual Meeting, the board members, and their cohorts all applauded.

So, that is my story in a nutshell, up until now. There is a lot more.

The association attorney has hinted that he wants to settle with me, for all of the above, but I have no money for arbitration, nor for an attorney. He told me the association is "not responsible for the board member hitting me with his car -- that is a personal matter -- nor is the association responsible for the slander, the lies, and the stalking, false police reports, they have made, etc."

How do I find a low cost arbitrator -- who isn't connected with CAI?

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

THE SURGEON GENERAL OUGHT TO POST A WARNING

Homeowner Associations Are Dangerous To Your Health

As Posted on
http://ahrc.com/
July 2, 2003

The Surgeon General ought post the following warning: Homeowner Associations are dangerous to your physical, mental and financial health. This particularly if you speak out against an association board, or the management company and their unfair and illegal policies.

Shadowcrest Homeowner's Association board president, Jim Hooten just decided one day to begin to use invalid CC&Rs and Bylaws that had never been approved by the membership. This is clearly a breach of contract with the association membership.

Then he set up a bogus "Hearing" stating I had planted a tree without written permission. It was a replacement tree, and I did have verbal permission. I was not able to speak at this kangaroo-court type hearing. Jose Liceaga, Treasurer who conducted the hearing, called it "a trial" but I was not able to present any witnesses, and, I was denied the right to any evidence, particulary that ALL trees planted in my community were done so with written permission. He then fined me $50.00 and in so doing took away my voting rights in the community until I paid it.

No other homeowners who have planted trees without written permission, including trees at the home of board member Jill Reed, have had the same treatment; this is clearly selective enforcement of the covenants, a form of discrimination against me that has come about after I began to speak out against the board's often unfair, and sometimes illegal activities, such as bringing and defending legal actions when suspended as a corportion.

Board President, Jim Hooten allegedly -- well, according to several children -- pulled out what looked like a gun, and holding it with both hands pointed it at them. He later said it was a cell phone. But, why did he hold a cell phone with both hands, the way one would hold a hand gun, and point it at them?

One board member, the secretary, John Wieser a relative by marriage of a drug gang family that moved into our association] has allegedly slandered me to many of the other board members, and homeowners after I spoke out against the activities of one of his relatives, who was later arrested for drugs, weapons and burglary, and sent to prison.

Recently the board treasurer, Jose Liceaga attempted a battery on my person. I filed a police report and intend to seek a TRO against him.

I continue to be denied access to our membership list by Albert Asssociation Management for the purpose of campaigning for a new board. Although a member of CAI, they are NOT a member of the National Board of Certification for Community Managers. Nor am I able to review our association documents held at this management company. This is clearly a violation of CA CORP CODE.

A year ago June I had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. The board members and the employees of Albert Association Management are well aware of this, yet they continue to inflict upon me intentional emotional abuse by selectively persecuting me when I have asked that they do the right thing. I can only suspect that their reasons are clearly to inflict more stress upon me knowing what the consequences to my health may be.

I do have recourse against this board through the filing of a lawsuit. However, that is like suing yourself, and the only ones to benefit will be our two attorneys: Jeffrey French and Wayne Guralnich, both in Palm Desert, CA, whom we pay, but who only protect our board, and then in turn can sue us?

They attorneys will most certainly continue to line their pockets with more and more of our association money.

I have continued to bring this to the attention of Jim Battin, Senator for our district, who has never acknowledged one of my letters to him regrading this problem; the Desert Sun, who did publish one Letter to the Editor on the HOA problem on June 5, 2003, and to the Palm Springs Village Voice who has been kind enough to publish a letter of mine also.

Living in Shadowcrest is almost the equivalent of living in a Nazi-like, German concentration camp under a camp commander of Adolph Hitler. Oh, death may come slower, but they are counting on it.

CINDY UKEN'S YELLOW JOURNALISM

Yellow Journalism is a pejorative reference to journalism that features scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists;loosely defined as "not quite libel".

As published on
http://AHRC.com
June 19, 2004

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia's Stunt and Cindy Uken's Yellow Journalism/ Homeowner requests fair news reporting by the Desert Sun

The following is a letter to Ciny Uken, the opinion editor of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California from homeowner, Sharon Stephens; Cathedral City, CA

Dear Cindy Uken,
Re:
Your "story"
PHONE, FAX OPEN DOOR TO WOMAN'S 'HARASSMENT'

What a slanderous and slanted piece of commentary this is!!! And, you didn't even ask me for my side of the story.

You are a journalist?

Then there are the FACTS: Bonnie Garcia , my local State Representative, was not in court on Thursday. However, she will be on July 19, at 8:30 AM to answer to this blatant SLAPP suit.

Garcia didn't file for these 8 Restraining Orders, using taxpayer's money of over $2,000 until after I said I would "not vote for her, and would tell everyone what she did to me.

Now Garcia is using individuals from my homeowner association as her witnesses.

These are men named in my cases against the homeowners association for battering me and other illegalities. These men are her "witnesses"; even though they are being sued right now, and have cases pending in the District Attorney's office for battery. Great guys to associate with Bonnie!

As for the Cathedral City Police, they filed a Restraing Order against me when I demanded an investigation into the Bonnie Garcia incident, where two officers went to Garcia's office and slandered me to her staff. I have a witness. They want me to "shut up" about this incident, and, what better way?

ALL of the phone calls I made were to make a legitimate police report, and the dispatcher continued to hang up on me, refusing to take the report, or to connect me to an officer who would take the report.

Wonder if the Desert Sun will allow me to answer this piece of Yellow Journalism? I doubt it, they have continuously refused to do stories on real homeowner association problems.

The readers of the Desert Sun need to ask, WHY you sensationalize "stories" that refuse to present both sides of the issue?

~Sharon Stephens


ME, ASSEMBLYWOMAN BONNIE GARCIA, AND THE GOLF CART PARADE

As published on AHRC.com

EVENT AT THE PALM DESERT GOLF CART PARADE
How Afraid of Me is Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia?

I saw her walking with purpose, down the street, eyes straight ahead, makeup exaggerated but flawless, dressed all in black with a headpiece studded with a beaded design and feathers in a Mardi Gras theme – my local representative Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R).


She did not stop, nor look from side to side in her very direct route in my direction, nor did she speak with anyone. I suspect because there is no one in Palm Desert who can benefit her in any way, politically or otherwise, and so she went straight to the Indio Police golf cart parked directly in front of our golf cart, on the parade route of the annual Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade, on November 7, 2004.

I belong to the Red Hat Society, Desert Stars, a bodacious sisterhood of women, over fifty, who thrive on playing "dress up" in red hats, purple cloths and all the costume jewelry one can pile on. I had worked for days, along with four other women to decorate our purple golf cart to look like a very humorous smiling woman, topped with a huge red hat spilling over with construction paper flowers, a red boa, and even a red handbag. After five hours of waiting, fifteen women in full regalia were thrilled when I walked back from the judge's stand with the trophy for Third Place in the Humor category.

The Red Hatters are truly a respite for me from the real world of being an advocate for HOAs (Homeowner Associations), court battles, lawsuits, insurance claims for battery and abuse, and trying to keep up with my home.I watched Ms. Garcia arrive on the scene, not talking to us, but to the police officers. No one in our group paid her any mind, until, when she moved within three feet of me and I turned and said, "I am Sharon Stephens," and then said to the group, "This is Bonnie Garcia."

She seemed a bit taken aback meeting me face to face.At that point, considering she has a restraining order against me, and has put me on a "threat list" in Sacramento as some sort of "terrorist!" -- without never having met me -- I wondered at why she did not just turn around and walk away. Rather, she walked right into the group of woman, who now recognized her from her ongoing, multifarious political television ads, and up to our golf cart and posed in front with several of us for a photo shoot. I now have several photos of "me and Assemblywoman, Bonnie Garcia."

Then she said, "I am feeling claustrophobic," and grabbed a woman standing beside her and said, "I will take a photo with you." She then left abruptly, again walking with purpose, down, and across the street to her own decorated golf cart several yards away, speaking to no one.

Last year, December 2003, I had approached the office of Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia for some support with problems within her district in Homeowner Associations. I asked to make an appointment with Ms. Garcia twice, but was told, "She is too busy." It is disgracefully true that Ms. Garcia has a reputation for "doing the least for the constituents in her district."

That same month we had a Press Conference in my home with a Desert Sun News reporter, along with Pat Cooper, Senator Denise Ducheny's aide, a documentary film producer, and several homeowners from various HOAs in the area. We invited Ms. Garcia. She had an aide, Candy, call the night of the meeting, asking for directions, and saying, "I will be there," however, she never did make it. Nor did she call to apologize for not coming. It was at this meeting that we addressed primarily the problems of unconstitutional non-judicial foreclosures in HOAs, and, as a result the roots for the February Housing Committee Hearings in Sacramento were formed, and Bills were passed in the Senate to do away with this criminal and inhumane practice, however, for HOA advocates it was disheartening when it was vetoed by Governor Arnold Swartzenager.

It is wretchedly true, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia has done nothing about HOA problems in her district.

On November 6, 2004, it was reported in AHRC News that in Desert Hot Springs approximately 150 liens were filed on the mobile homes in Desert Crest Park, against senior citizens in their 70's and 80's. One resident reports that each homeowner had to pay about $9,000, of which $6,000 went to the law firm of Peters and Freedman. The total bill is estimated at about $1,350,000. At least 50 seniors sold their homes at fire sale prices to local realtors in order to be able to pay the judgment. It is estimated that the realtors were snapping up $40,000 homes for $20,000. If correct, that would be another $1,000,000 lost by the seniors. Sadly, 20 seniors died during this heart breaking process.The seniors, in previous months had gone to every possible government office for help - the District Attorney, Secretary of State, Department of Corporations - Assemblywoman Garcia - their Senator at the time, Jim Batten - however, not one single agency did a thing to help.

In January, 2004 I again approached the Assemblywoman's office, and was given an appointment on the 29th of the month with Mary Brhel, another aide to Ms. Garcia. Prior to attending the meeting with Mary Brhel, I had an appointment directly next door at the Cathedral City Police Department with Captain Kevin Connor, and Sergeant Charles Robinson. They had called me in on a ruse, as I would discover months later, telling me they were doing an investigation of a complaint I had made against Sergeant David Hatfield for false arrest, abuse of process and abuse while in custody.

The Cathedral City Police Department has had a vendetta against me since 1999 when I reported a popular officer, Glenn Haas for not doing his job, in fact, literally "selling out" our homeowners in Shadow Crest HOA, to an HOA attorney and board members. Haas then set out to discredit me in every possible way to his fellow officers. An attorney told me, "You complained against 'The Boy's Club' and they will get you!" Over the years that has certainly proved deplorably true.

When I left this "investigation" I told Connor and Robinson I was headed over for an appointment in the Garcia Office.

Meeting Mrs. Brhel was like meeting a stern Boot-Camp Sergeant. It seemed very difficult for her to be friendly. When I explained I wanted help with HOA problems, mentioning that Hispanics were the most foreclosed on group of people in California, she curtly replied, "YOU won't get very far with that one; they don't live in HOAs!" I mentioned the seniors in Desert Crest and she ignored that. I said I wanted to discuss problems in HOAs in general, but she refused to let me address the problems of HOAs in general. Rather she wanted to hear, and insisted I tell her my "personal" story! So, I told her all about Shadow Crest, and the problems we were experiencing, including my false arrests, stalking and battery by board members, perjury, false and illegal fines, and of course the attempts made on two families for non-judicial foreclosure. She was rightly, and truly shocked, as are most who hear these stories of out of control HOA boards, unethical attorneys, and greedy management companies. She asked for the names of all of them in Shadow Crest, and for the management company owner. I gave them to her. Mrs. Brhel finally warmed up to me and we talked of other advocacies, past and present, and when I left she asked if I wanted a bouquet of flowers sitting on the floor beside a desk; she congratulated me on being an advocate, and said she would speak to the Assemblywoman.

Three days later, when I didn't hear from Mrs. Behrl, I called the Garcia Office. She was most abrupt and rude, stating; "You have caused all sorts of problems for the police and other government agencies, and have been arrested multiple times so I have put you on a threat list in Sacramento!" She then hung up the phone on me, after telling me, "never call back!"I was shocked!

A close acquaintance, and HOA advocate Madelene Patterson, was so stunned by how I had been treated that she called the Garcia Office and was told by Chief of Staff, Richard Harmon, in a most condemning voice, "We had a couple of officers in here who gave us the run down on Sharon Stephens!"

Now, don't you wonder at who these two officers were?

The Garcia Office refuses to give up the names. So, the conspiracy began between the Garcia Office staff, the Cathedral City Police Department, my HOA Board of Directors, and stretched all the way to the District Attorney's office. Why? To "save the officers" who went to the Garcia people and slandered me. Obviously when I told Captain Kevin Connor and Charles Robinson that I was going to the speak with the Garcia people, they thought I was going to complain about the police; they were going to make sure I was discredited, now to the outside world, so as to not be believed.Never once was the Cathedral City Police Department mentioned to Mary Brhel, except to say, Sergeant Laura Hanlon knew what was going on in Shadow Crest and had promised to help us.

Later, Sergeant Charles Robinson had me falsely arrested, and then worked in a conspiracy with Shadow Crest Board of Directors, and Deputy District Attorney, Gianguzi to try and have me sent to jail. The judge threw out all of their bogus filings.

All the while, Charles Robinson, Danielle Pasqual, Laura Hanlon, Melissa Holcomb, Judy Williams, and even Council Member, Greg Pettis were working in a conspiracy with the Garcia Office to get restraining orders against me, with the ultimate goal of having me put into jail. All to save police officers from discipline.

A sixty-nine [69] page document sent to me by the Cathedral City, Deputy City Attorney, Kendall Burkey, several months later, proved the conspiracy began in February 2004, after the ruse of the "investigation." When I asked for "an investigation into the Bonnie Garcia incident." I was then served with a bogus TRO, [temporary restraining order] by Kendall Burkey and CCPD, and from that point forward then treated as though there was a TRO in place. I was not allowed to make any police reports. I was hung up on consistently by dispatchers, particularly Sandra Hatfield and Danielle Pasqual, threatened with arrest by Sergeant Patton, and other Watch Commanders if I tried to come into the police department, and, everyone at the department was sent a memo by Judy Williams, "Do not speak with Sharon Stephens!" Williams told me, "We will take no police reports on Shadow Crest!" She added, "The only time we will come for you is if you are be killed, or need an ambulance!" My Civil Rights were totally taken away from me.

All to save the two police officers that went to the Garcia Office and slandered me.

The behavior by the police continued: violations of my civil and constitutional rights were blatant. I was falsely arrested again and abused while in custody by Glenn Haas, and then falsely arrested again for not "stepping up on the grass quickly enough!" [I had just been battered by a board member, Jose Liceaga; he went free even though I asked for a Citizens Arrest as soon as the police arrived. I was ignored as the victim.]

Police Officers refused to write police reports for me for criminal behavior by board members, and even for any one who knew me. Two women are witnesses to this behavior and have suffered because of the police vendetta against me. Even the office of Bonnie Garcia refused to return phone calls to a Shadow Crest woman in desperate need of help for her children.

For months I asked for an investigation, even going to City Council, and when I finally "demanded an investigation into the Garcia incident!" both the police department and Garcia's Office, conspiratorially filed for TROs against me on the same day. Both filled with perjury, claiming I was "a threat and dangerous…"The Garcia Office went so far as to speak with Cindy Uken of the Desert Sun and libeled me in her column, stating I had "walked into the office with a jug of brown liquid and threatened them" [no police report and no witnesses?] and, that they "had to put in a $4,000 security door because of me." [In fact, the office was built with that door.] And, that "Bonnie Garcia had spent all day in court with me. " [Bonne Garcia never came to court!]ALL of these statements, printed in the paper, were perjurious and libelous LIES!

Bonnie Garcia has done nothing to correct this story, or to clear my name. She never talked to me, but continued to tell people I was "obsessed with her, and a dangerous threat!"She reported me to the Highway Patrol, and Investigator Olavie came and interviewed me, and found me to "not to be a threat!" I have the interview on tape. That made no difference to Bonnie Garcia. When a Restraining Orders were granted in court, to both the police and to Ms. Garcia, against me, through more provable perjury on the stand by Mary Brhel, and police officers, under oath, I was truly cut off from being granted my civil rights and treated as a terrorist criminal by both the police and Garcia's office.

Cathedral City Police refuse to write any police reports for the criminal behavior of their own officers, nor will they write any for the criminal behavior of Shadow Crest Board members.

I do not have equal protection, as granted under the law.I have been in the hospital three times due to the emotional duress, even at one point thinking to just take my own life –it seemed easier than fighting lies, perjury, false arrests, treatment as a terrorist, libeled in a gay newspaper, and in the Desert Sun, slandered, and maligned in public, and all the while fighting the illegalities of my Homowner Association board, and the attorneys, and management company.

I have been battered – even hit deliberately by a board member in his car, while I was on foot, with no repercussions for him, or any board member for these batteries. All of the board members show up in court and support each other in their lies to get bogus restraining order. And, now I have illegal liens against my home, and there has been embezzlement and extortion in Shadow Crest with these liens.

There is no help from those hired to help: NO help from the police; NO help from my Assemblywoman, Bonnie Garcia; NO help from City Council – and, so far, NO help from the District Attorney's office.

Now, I have been left with no choice but to bring lawsuits against both, Cathedral City Police Department, and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia for abuse of process, slander, libel, harassment, intentional infliction of emotional duress, and more. All have lost their immunity from lawsuits by the breaking of the law.

As I walked the parade route along side the golf cart, waving to the applause, I saw Bonnie Garcia walking in the opposite direction, on the other side of the street, alone, and looking directly at me. I suddenly felt a pang of empathy for her and her aloneness. I choose to believe the look on her face was perhaps remorse. Could it be that she sees I am not the person I was made out to be by the Cathedral City Police, and her aide, Mary Brhel, who obviously saw an opportunistic "publicity stunt" in the making. Does she maybe wonder that perhaps she ought to have looked into the allegations herself? Or, perhaps is it that she truly does recognize how much harm she has done to me?

I believe that deep within the soul of most people is the desire to reconcile, and though loving an enemy is not easy, it is necessary to building, and retaining our own character."Forgive them they know not what they do" ought to be kept within our hearts and minds always.

One parade watcher commented later to a reporter, "I thought it was really nice; the way the community comes together."

Our float winning the Third Place Trophy in the Humor category had a touch of irony for me on this day. Can it be that if we would all just laugh, seeing the humor in life, and come together, we might just have a chance at being the people we all have the potential to be? Imagine what we could accomplish.

POLICE WATCH/ U.S. Civilian Review Board

Cathedral CityPolice Department
68700 Avenida Lalo Guerrero
Cathedral City, CA92234
Fax:(760) 770-0399Phone:(760) 770-0300
Employee #1 Involved : Chief Stan Henry
Employee #2 Involved : Sgt. Charles Robinson

The Cathedral City Police Department personnel, starting with Chief Stan Henry, have been responsible for ruining my physical and mental health, my name and my reputation, stolen $100,000 and my home -- all to protect two police officers. The City Manager, Don Bradley, and every member of the Cathedral City Council are just as responsible for allowing this rogue police department this injustice.

NARRATIVE: I am 66 years old and live on Social Security.I have lost everything and need justice to be done.

Following is a limited Time Line: It shows conspiracy, misdonduct, abuse under color of law, and a void on the face restraining order that was taken out against me to keep me from making police reports and complaints.

There is absolute proof of a criminal conspiracy between Cathedral City Police Department, Riverside County District Attorney, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, The Cathedral City Attorney, and board members of Shadowcrest Homeowners Association.

The proof is in their 65 page Memorandum of Costs, which corresponds to this Time Line, and is documented in the void on the face restraining order INC 043437 - ROBINSON et al v. STEPHENS (Riverside County Superior Court, Indio, CA). This bogus order was taken out against me, when I asked for an investigation into two police officers, believed to be Sergeant Charles Robinson, and Captain Kevin Connor who slandered and demonized me to the Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia. As a result I have been unconscionably and illegally charged $100,000 in order to destroy me and to protect these two police officers. This is the most unethical and unconscionable thing, under color of law, any person in law enforcement can do.

THE PROOF of conspiracy is written in their own words in their Memorandum of Costs.
THE PROOF of the void on the face restraining order is documented in the law of the State of California.

I was preparing to go into Appeal Court when I was falsely arrested by District Attorney Investigator Twiss while having another void order dismissed in court, and therefore my Appeal was dismissed. However,"an appeal has no effect on a void on the face judgment" so I ought to still be able to take this into court and have it dismissed and have my money returned to me.
An appeal will not prevent the court from at any time lopping off what has been termed a dead limb on the judicial tree -- a void order. MacMillan Petroleum Corp. v. Griffin (1950) 99 Cal. App. 2d 523, 533 [222 P.2d 69]; accord:People v. West Coast Shows, Inc. (1970) 10 Cal. App. 3d 462, 467 [89 Cal. Rptr. 290]; Svistunoff v. Svistunoff (1952) 108 Cal. App. 2d 638, 641-642 [239 P.2d 650]; and see: 6 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed. 1971) Appeal, § 7, pp. 4024-4025.)

From my NOTES: I put together the following limited Time Line to correspond to the Memorandum of Costs . There is a more complete one in the case file in court:

JAN 29, 2004: I am called into Cathedral City Police for an "investigation” into a false police report and arrest being conducted by Sergeant Charles Robinson and Captain Kevin Connor, who had refused me help many times in the past with the drug people in my homeowner association. I told them I had an appointment that same morning at the Office of Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, which is next door to the police department, I kept that appointment with Mary Brhel, [married to ex-Deputy District Attorney Martin Brhel) aide to Garcia, and spoke of the problems in homeowner associations, trying to gain support to change some of the laws that encumber people. We had a good discussion; she complimented me on being an advocate, and gave me a bouquet of flowers when I left. She said she would call me in a couple of days.

FEB 2, 2004: Mary Brhel did call. She tells me two Cathedral City officershad been in to visit her and had told her such terrible things about me that she had put me on a ‘Threat List’ in Sacramento, and then hung up on me, refusing to tell me the names of the police officers. That meant I was now considered the next thing to a terrorist, and could not attend any meetings in Sacramento regarding homeowner problems. Later, her story would be confirmed when her Chief of Staff, Richard Harmon told another Homeowner Advocate, Madeline Patterson, the same thing. In retrospect, I can see that the police thought I was going to talk about them, and they took it upon themselves to discredit, and demonize me so that I would not be believed.

FEB 2, 2004: I immediately called Judy Williams, the Cathedral City Administrative Secretary to Chief Stan Henry, and requested an investigation. She hung up on me.

FEB 3 2004: What was happening, secretly, behind my back: The very next day, after I called and requested an investigation into the two officers who went to the Garcia Office, was the beginning of a provable conspiratorial “investigation” against me with The City of Cathedral City, Cathedral City Police Department, Chief Stan Henry, Captain Kevin Connor, Captain Holcomb, Sergeant Charles Robinson, and Assistant City Attorneys, Kendall Berkey and William Medlan, who started a Memorandum of Costs, all trying to make it seem I was making a false police report, that I was "crazy" (I didn't find this out until October 2004)

I also went to City Council, where only one member, Bud England agreed there needed to be an investigation into the two officers. However, the investigation never happened, and, has never happened to this day.

FEB 11, 2004: Cathedral City Police Chief, Stan Henry had me served with a bogus TRO, that never went through the courts, (abuse of process). And, as is documented in the Memorandum of Costs, all police officers were told by Captain John Holcomb not to take any calls from me, or even to talk to me. They were then behaving as though there was a “real”TRO against me. Yes, that information is in the Memorandum of Costs. In other words they were not allowing me to make either police reports or complaints, and not even taking any phone calls from me. Sergeant Patton threatened me twice with arrest if I went to the police department to make any reports or complaints. When I made a complaint by mail it was ignored by Chief Stan Henry.
All of this to protect two police officers!

FEB 25, 2004: The one time I happened to catch Secretary, Judy Williams in her office, she said, The only time we will talk with you is when you have a 911 medical emergency, or someone is killing you. WE will not take any police reports regarding your homeowner's association! and then hung up on me. This has proved to be true to this day. I later learned in the Memorandum of Costs that they had conspired against me with the Shadow Crest Homeowners Association board members, and Mary Brhel.

Four [4] months after being to the Garcia Office, Mary Brhel, files for, and is granted eight [8] bogus, void on the face restraining orders, (Case INC 043179 ) Riverside County Superior Court, Indio, CA for which she had no witnesses and no police reports to back up her absolutely outrageous lies. Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia allowed for this to happen, never once speaking to me as to whether it was true. (As docmented in Memorandum of Cost, Ms. Brhel is provably coached by Attorney, Kendell Berkey to file at the same time as Robinson files against me.)
Commissioner J.M. McCoy, in Riverside Superior Court, Indio has agreed to drop this void on the face restraining order if I have Mary Brhel and Richard Harmon properly served, and I am working on doing that.
Assistant Cathedral City Attorney, Kendall Berkey has provable, through subordination of perjury, conspired with Mary Brhel to file these eight bogus restraining orders against me -- four [4] month after I had been to the Garcia Office. It is documented in the Memorandum of Costs, and in court records.
Penal Code 127. Every person who willfully procures another person to commit perjury is guilty of subornation of perjury, and is punishable in the same manner as he would be if personally guilty of the perjury so procured.
Also recorded:Berkey's communication with Desert Sun newspaper reporter,Cindy Uken who writes a totally libelous article against me. {SEE: my posted blog article by Cindy Uken)
APRIL 5 2004 Finally I was just fed up with the police not talking to me, and being put off on making a report. So, I called the number for dispatch, and asked again for a report to be taken. Dispatcher, Danielle Pascual, at the insistence of her Watch Commander, Sergeant Charles Robinson, continued to hang up on me. Every time she would hang up, I would call back. I wasn't keeping count , but it was about 30 times.
Sergeant Charles Robinson, arrests me saying I was making harassing, obscene/threatening calls to 911, [I never called 911] which was a blatant lie, but it was used to falsely arrest me.
Even if I had of called 911:
Penal Code 653m. (a) Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to telephone calls or electronic contacts made in good faith [such as making a police report]
Penal Code 653 y. Calling 911 is an infraction, and no one is arrested.
When I later made a request for the 911 tapes Cathedral City Police, of course could not produce them. When I asked for the police report on this inciedednt, I was not allowed to have it until July 2005 and then the report was changed to show I was not making harassing phone calls.
In court, under oath, Dispatcher, Danielle Pascual did admit I was only trying to make a police report, [being the victim of two officers who went to the Office of Bonnie Garcia] and she told the judge she was capable of taking police reports on the phone.
APRIL15, 2004: Sergeant Charles Robinson took all of the HOA board members from Shadow Crest Homeowners Associatin to meet with Riverside County, Deputy District Attorney, Charles Gianguzi, trying to get me arrested, and in jail, using my HOA members -- all of whom had lied to get void on the face Restraining Orders against me to keep me out of Board Meetings, because I began to speak out about the crimes I had learned of in the association. --I learned of this covert meeting, and the CCPD/ DA plot when I was served with orders that I had violated court orders.
The judge denied all of their requests to arrest me; I received the court decisions in the mail.
MAY 28, 2004: I am served with a TRO and restraining order request from Sergeant Charles Robinson, Dispatcher, Danielle Pascual, Records keeper Melissa Holcomb, wife of Captain Holcomb, and Secretary to the Chief, Judy Williams. On the same day I am served with eight [8] restraining orders from the Office of Assemblywomen Bonnie Garcia, four months after I was in her office; all are granted.
AUGUST 3, 2004. In spite of the provable perjury by Danielle Pascual, in particular, under oath, Judge Hawkins gives the CCPD what turns out to be a void on the face restraining order he calls a slippery sloop decision. (The false police report is never introduced into the case, and CCPD still refused to give me a copy.)
When I finally received the Memorandum of Costs from The Cathedral City, City Attorney, Kendall Berkey she had documented the events and names of every person the Cathedral City Police Department, and Cathedral City Council had conspired with over several months, racking up more and more money each day, but proving nothing against me. Soon, this bogus investigation, that proved NOTHING but their own entangled conspiracy with a cost of 100,000 is collected while I am incarcerated in June of 2006.
Cathedral City continually used this bogus Restraining Order as a battle-axe against me to make sure I got no police reports on these incidents, and guaranteeig the two officers will never be investigated; I am still not allowed any police reports.
All I had asked for was that the police to do their job and investigate the event at the Garcia Office, and, to treat women fairly in Shadow Crest Homeowner Association.
Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241Conspiracy Against Rights Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242Deprivation of Rights Under Color of LawTitle 18, U.S.C., Section 245 Federally Protected Activities
NOTE: Twenty-seven [27] Cathedral City Police Officers filed, and won against Chief Stan Henry and his administration for violations of civil and constitutional rights as well as labor problems, so, this administration is well versed in abuses of rights. FEDERAL COURT EDCV 02-965, CV 04 02931
NOTE: There is a very similar case to mine that was won in court, on an appeal, as the judgment was void on the face for not meeting statutory criteria: CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Pamela J. SORGES, Defendant and Appellant. Cal.App. 4 Dist., June 11, 2004 [E033692]; APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Bambi J. Moyer, Temporary Judge. Pursuant to Cal. Const., art. VI, § 21.) Reversed with directions. Pamela J. Sorges, in pro. per., for Defendant and Appellant. Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Dennis W. Dawson, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and David M. Tiede, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. OPINION McKINSTER.

HOW PRIVATE PROPERTY SAVED THE PILGRIMS

Excerpted and adapted from The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages, by Tom Bethell. Copyright Tom Bethell. )
When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead.

There are three configurations of property rights: state, communal, and private property. Within a family, many goods are in effect communally owned. But when the number of communal members exceeds normal family size, as happens in tribes and communes, serious and intractable problems arise. It becomes costly to police the activities of the members, all of whom are entitled to their share of the total product of the community, whether they work or not. This is the free-rider problem, and it is the most important institutional reason tribes and communes cannot rise above subsistence level (except in special circumstances, such as monasteries).

THE COMMUNAL EXPERIMENT :

The Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod in November 1620 with 101 people on board. About half of them died within the first few months, probably of scurvy, pneumonia, or malnutrition. It is not easy for us to grasp the hardships that the first settlers in this country experienced, even in New England, where the native American Indians were relatively friendly.

By the spring of 1623, the population of Plymouth can have been no larger than 150. But the colony was still barely able to feed itself, and little cargo was returning for the investors in England. On one occasion newcomers found that there was no bread at all, only fish or a piece of lobster and water. “So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery,” Bradford wrote in his key passage on property.

Having tried what Bradford called the “common course and condition”—the communal stewardship of the land demanded of them by their investors—Bradford reports that the community was afflicted by an unwillingness to work, by confusion and discontent, by a loss of mutual respect, and by a prevailing sense of slavery and injustice. And this among “godly and sober men.” In short, the experiment was a failure that was endangering the health of the colony.

Historian George Langdon argues that the condition of early Plymouth was not “communism” but “an extreme form of exploitative capitalism in which all the fruits of men’s labor were shipped across the seas.” In this he echoes Samuel Eliot Morison, who claims that “it was not communism . . . but a very degrading and onerous slavery to the English capitalists that was somewhat softened.” Notice that this does not agree with the dissension that Bradford reports, however. It was between the colonists themselves that the conflicts arose, not between the colonists and the investors in London. Morison and Langdon conflate two separate problems. On the one hand, it is true that the colonists did feel “exploited” by the investors because they were eventually expected to surrender to them an undue portion of the wealth they were trying to create. It is as though they felt that they were being “taxed” too highly by their investors—at a 50 percent rate, in fact.

But there was another problem, separate from the “tax” burden. Bradford’s comments make it clear that common ownership demoralized the community far more than the tax. It was not Pilgrims laboring for investors that caused so much distress but Pilgrims laboring for other Pilgrims. Common property gave rise to internecine conflicts that were much more serious than the transatlantic ones. The industrious (in Plymouth) were forced to subsidize the slackers (in Plymouth). The strong “had no more in division of victuals and clothes” than the weak. The older men felt it disrespectful to be “equalized in labours” with the younger men.

This suggests that a form of communism was practiced at Plymouth in 1621 and 1622. No doubt this equalization of tasks was thought (at first) the only fair way to solve the problem of who should do what work in a community where there was to be no individual property: If everyone were to end up with an equal share of the property at the end of seven years, everyone should presumably do the same work throughout those seven years. The problem that inevitably arose was the formidable one of policing this division of labor: How to deal with those who did not pull their weight?

The Pilgrims had encountered the free-rider problem. Under the arrangement of communal property one might reasonably suspect that any additional effort might merely substitute for the lack of industry of others. And these “others” might well be able-bodied, too, but content to take advantage of the communal ownership by contributing less than their fair share. As we shall see, it is difficult to solve this problem without dividing property into individual or family-sized units. And this was the course of action that William Bradford wisely took.

PROPERTY IS PRIVATIZED
Bradford’s history of the colony records the decision:


At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number.

So the land they worked was converted into private property, which brought “very good success.” The colonists immediately became responsible for their own actions (and those of their immediate families), not for the actions of the whole community. Bradford also suggests in his history that more than land was privatized.

The system became self-policing. Knowing that the fruits of his labor would benefit his own family and dependents, the head of each household was given an incentive to work harder. He could know that his additional efforts would help specific people who depended on him. In short, the division of property established a proportion or “ratio” between act and consequence. Human action is deprived of rationality without it, and work will decline sharply as a result.

Under communal land stewardship, Bradford reports, the community was afflicted by an unwillingness to work, by confusion and discontent, by a loss of mutual respect, and by a prevailing sense of slavery and injustice.

William Bradford died in 1657, having been reelected governor nearly every year. Among his books, according to the inventory of his estate, was Jean Bodin’s Six Books of a Commonweale, a work that criticized the utopianism of Plato’s Republic. In Plato’s ideal realm, private property would be abolished or curtailed and most inhabitants reduced to slavery, supervised by high-minded, ascetic guardians. Bodin said that communal property was “the mother of contention and discord” and that a commonwealth based on it would perish because “nothing can be public where nothing is private.”

Bradford felt that, in retrospect, his real-life experience of building a new society at Plymouth had confirmed Bodin’s judgment. Property in Plymouth was further privatized in the years ahead. The housing and later the cattle were assigned to separate families, and provision was made for the inheritance of wealth. The colony flourished. Plymouth Colony was absorbed into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in the prosperous years that lay ahead, nothing more was heard of “the common course and condition.”


Friday, January 4, 2008

THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS

When I first read this, years ago, I was so impressed that I never forgot it and searched for it everywhere, then found it on the Internet, of course! Remembering it, even partially, at times of my greatest trials in life, gave me great comfort. So, although I am sure you also have heard it before, I just wanted to share it here.

THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
LOVE THEM ANYWAY.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
SUCCEED ANYWAY.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
THINK BIG ANYWAY.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
FIGHT FOR A FEW UNDERDOGS ANYWAY.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
BUILD ANYWAY.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU HAVE ANYWAY.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001