Tag Archives: Federal investigators

Chicago Lawyers? Phew!

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Oh how a little power over your neighbors turns people into freaks! The neighbor battle linked below looks like fiction, but it really is happening in a Chicago condominium.

Ellis Levin is a lawyer who’s represented several condominium associations. He’s also been fired by a couple of them. But the bitterness that goes on in the Thorndale Beach North high-rise is beyond belief.

Sigrid Ingold is the president of the board, a position she’s held for 19 years. She and Lawyer Levin are pretty tight, and condo owners say the bullying by Ingold and Levin is crazy.

Catherine McCarty got herself elected to the board in an effort to thwart the ongoing threats and fines liberally handed out to other condo owners. But now McCarty, herself, is being bullied by this pair of ‘nut jobs’. When a contractor suddenly appeared in the building to do some very costly repairs, McCarty questioned the board president about why other board members were never asked to approve or oversee the contract or the charges.

Suddenly, Lawyer Levin hit her with a notice of a $150 fine for harassing his good buddy, board president Ingold.

It happened again, when McCarty tried to talk to yet another contractor. This time it was a $450 fine plus more than 1500 bucks for legal fees. She refused to pay and is now facing a lien and possible confiscation of her home.

McCarty is demanding financial transparency. She’s demanding to know why president Ingold pays herself a $43,000 salary as a property manager. She wants to know why her association’s legal budget suddenly doubled after Levin was hired. She’s demanding an audit (there’s been only one audit on the building and that was eighteen years ago). Other condo owners are furious because it’s impossible to sell a unit if a buyer can’t see an audit of the association’s finances. Most are afraid to speak out for fear of getting a ‘Levin letter’.

Lawyer Levin used to be in the state legislature.

Now he’s is in the running to be elected as a Cook County Judge.

As I said in my headline…Phew!

http://tinyurl.com/lsuyecm

original source:

http://www.marinacityonline.com/news/levin0112.htm

Bieber Bashing!

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This one is actually kind of funny. Justin Bieber is apparently not well-liked by many of his neighbors. The singing sensation lives in the ritzy neighborhood of Calabasas, California, where homeowners pay $1000 a month in HOA dues.

But the teenager’s antics, including loud and late parties, driving like a maniac and threatening other homeowners are causing a neighborhood revolt. Neighbors have repeatedly demanded that HOA officials take some kind of action. Even Sheriff’s deputies are demanding that the D.A. charge Bieber with assault and battery.

Now, the revolt has escalated to the point that a number of homeowners are refusing to pay their thousand-buck-a-month dues until the HOA takes action.

It’s amusing. Not paying your HOA dues is a serious crime in HOA Amerika, even more serious than late parties, speeding and assault. So these neighbors have all decided to become even worse criminals than Bieber is.

Hypocrisy?

Yup.

http://tinyurl.com/lvcfc8t

original source:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/entertainment/neighbours-want-home-owners-association-to-act-against-bieber-596428.html

“Utopia: Kill All The Lawyers” -Shakespeare

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After more than 40 years as an investigative reporter, I’ve sat in hundreds of courtrooms and watched thousands of lawyers up close and personal. And I have many friends and two family members who are lawyers. But I make no secret of the fact that the legal practice is in desperate need of reform. Over the four decades I’ve watched defense attorneys lie their butts off in the courtroom. And I’ve seen the same thing from prosecutors. Sure, the Constitution guarantees that each accused suspect gets to have the best possible defense. But if that defense is an outrageous and provable lie, then something is fundamentally wrong with the American legal system.

F. Lee Bailey claims in his book, The Defense Never Rests, that he has never defended a guilty man. “If they’re guilty, I plead them out,” he says. “But when I take their case they’re all innocent.” OK, OK, I get that. Every suspect is innocent until proven guilty, but that begs the point. The entire world knew that O.J Simpson was guilty as sin. But through manipulation, distraction, and lies, Bailey and his phalanx of fellow attorneys got the contemptible Simpson off of his murder charge.

The civil arena is just as corrupt. How else could lawyer Senator John Edwards earn 40 million dollars in his pharmaceutical malpractice case? That forty million bucks came right out of the pockets of the common man who has to buy prescription medicine. It led pharmaceutical companies not to release new medications which could have saved thousands of lives.

This perspective leads me to link you to a recent story from the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. The writer wonders about the rash of Kentucky lawyers who’ve committed suicide in recent months. Although suicides are rarely tallied by profession, the reporter discovered that since 2010 fourteen lawyers in that state took their own lives. And across the country, the number of lawyers who kill themselves is way above the national average among all other occupations.

Suicide is tragic. It will always be tragic. But one wonders if some of the guilt and depression among those in the law might be eased if all lawyers honestly believed their profession was always ethical and above reproach.

http://tinyurl.com/161

original source:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130602/NEWS01/306020065/Rash-of-Kentucky-lawyer-suicides-concerns-colleagues?odyssey=underbox%7Ctext%7CHome&nclick_check=1

Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman

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George Zimmerman goes on trial this week for the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman was the security watch captain for the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association when he reported that Martin was taking a late night walk through his gated neighborhood in February 2012. A police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to get involved, but a few moments later Zimmerman fired a handgun and killed Martin, who he said had attacked him. Zimmerman had multiple abrasions on his face which appeared to back up his story of being attacked by Trayvon Martin.

The judge in the case has ordered that the defense may not introduce photos from Martin’s cell phone that show him smoking dope and flashing a handgun a few days before he was killed. The judge has also disallowed testimony that Martin had been involved in previous fights. Some of those facts may still find their way in front of the jury. Finally, Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law supports those who use deadly force when they’re afraid of death or serious bodily harm.

A few observations from this longtime investigative reporter: I’ll be roundly criticized for this, but I predict Zimmerman will not be convicted. The jury will either be hung or it will find Zimmerman not guilty. Yes, the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association recently forked up a million dollars in a settlement with Martin’s family, but that was just a routine and legal extortion scheme which essentially ensures that all the lawyers get paid. Trayvon Martin’s family won’t see much, if any, of that settlement money.

If I’m wrong about any of these predictions, I’ll go off and sulk in a corner of my bedroom. And I won’t even complain about the chastisement that will surely follow. But folks, if you really want to analyze how the average HOA court case resolves itself these days, just look at the craziest of all possible outcomes. It’s a sad fact of life, but more times than not, in our current legal system, that’s what you’ll inevitably see.

George Zimmerman: Not guilty.

And homeowners in the Retreat at Twin Lakes HOA have yet to see the massive special assessments they’ll be hit with to pay for this debacle.

Wanna buy a home in the Retreat at Twin Lakes HOA?

Me neither.

There goes the neighborhood.

more information:

http://tinyurl.com/kxswtns

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/07/18832092-jurys-look-into-trayvon-martins-past-has-its-limits?lite

More Legislative Good News

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Yes, the tide is turning. On October 1st, a new Maryland law takes effect to prevent predatory Homeowners Associations and Condo Associations from artificially running up legal bills in order to lien and foreclose on homeowners over petty matters. Why any decent or honest lawyer would advise his HOA clients to run up fake legal bills of $200,000 over a fine of $225 is astonishing. That’s a lawyer who shouldn’t just lose his license, he should be taken to a nearby field and shot!

The practice of law in this country is sullied with a dark black stain and is in desperate need of radical reform. “Out, out damned spot!” And as a tormented Lady MacBeth discovered, some stains can’t be removed except by burning. Is there any question that a certain coterie of lawyers in this country seem to be trying to burn down their own profession? Whatever happened to ethics?

Priests take a vow of poverty when entering the ministry. Why not lawyers? Predatory lawyering in America is astonishing to other countries around the world. It’s a national embarrassment.

Enough of my rant. Linked below is the new Maryland law.

http://tinyurl.com/lqdjujw

original source:

http://www.marylandhomeownersassociation.info/Site/Condo_HOA_News.html

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