Well, I’ve been predicting for months that George Zimmerman would never get convicted in the murder of Trayvon Martin. At the most, I’ve been predicting a hung jury.
Folks, now I’m not so sure I was right. It turns out that Zimmerman’s defense attorney is dumber than a box of rocks.
From many media sources quoting the opening statements, Zimmerman’s lawyer started with the following knock-knock joke:
“I know how this may sound a bit weird in this context under these circumstances. But I think you’re the perfect audience for it as long as you — if you don’t like it or find it funny or appropriate, that you don’t hold it against Mr. Zimmerman, you can hold it against me. I have your assurance you won’t? Knock, knock. Who’s there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? Alright, good, you’re on the jury.”
The jury didn’t laugh.
Zimmerman, I’m telling you now. Your attorney is the biggest loser on the block. You’re facing second degree murder charges, my friend. You’re facing years in the slammer. The facts may ultimately show that you were actually on your back defending your own life when you fired that gun, killing Trayvon Martin. But the jury won’t remember any of those facts. They will, however, long remember that knock-knock joke. Zimmerman, my man, fire your lawyer and start representing yourself. You couldn’t do much worse.
Homeowners Associations everywhere should be trembling at the thought of the kinds of lawsuits they’re going to be facing. If Zimmerman is convicted, it’ll be a national symbol of the disgrace known as Homeowners Associations. It’ll be a symbol of the reality that people living in those precious gated communities are living under a false pretense of security. Zimmerman’s HOA has already paid out at least a million dollars to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.
If Zimmerman is found not guilty, he’ll have all the excuse in the world to sue his own HOA for not supporting him in his time of need. After all, he was the neighborhood watch captain. If he’s found guilty, then every HOA in the country will become a magnet for lawsuits.
Regardless of the outcome of this case, it’s going to be a grim time to be a member of a Homeowners Association.
I recently spent eight long days in Wichita at the federal courthouse observing the pre-trial hearing of an HOA lawsuit where a Homeowners Association board member attacked and severely beat a homeowner with a crow bar! These six photos, taken at the hospital, show the viciousness of the attack.
It seems the homeowner discovered work being done on a neighbor’s condo that also happens to belong to the mother of an HOA board member. While others had been on a long waiting list to have their work orders completed, the board member opted to make his mother’s condo top priority over everyone else. The homeowner took his camera and phone to the nearby common area and proceeded to document this “special treatment.”
The board member saw him taking pictures while looking out his condo window, grabbed a crowbar from his garage and started clobbering the camera holding homeowner. The homeowner did not fight back. Obviously, one man was taken to the hospital by ambulance and the other went to jail!
Surprisingly, the District Attorney declined to press charges. The injured homeowner proceeded to file a civil suit in federal court. And as bizarre as this sounds, the HOA members, not their insurance company, are paying all the legal bills because the board member claims his actions were part of his “official duties” as a board member. The legal bills are already estimated at more than $200,000 and the case hasn’t even gone to trial yet!
The homeowner who was beaten began sending emails expressing his anger and frustration with the board of director’s conduct. He did not send any to the defendant. He admitted to the judge that it wasn’t one of his better moments when he attached the somewhat crude “Revenge Song” by Miles Betterman. The HOA board’s legal team actually played that YouTube song in the courtroom, claiming it amounted to a “death threat” to a board member. Give me a break!
The board is seeking a court-ordered injunction to take away this HOA member’s First Amendment rights to communicate with his neighbors. The board also created an HOA “no call” list and they fine this homeowner $100 for every email he sends. The U.S. Constitution be damned!
The community is divided with supporters and haters on both sides. This community has been plagued with lawsuits causing property values to plummet. Even more dramatic, the HOA members have installed security cameras aimed at every nook and cranny of this neighbor’s condo. They even have them installed in their cars!
One other interesting note: While being interrogated about life in this Kansas Homeowners Association, the board member on the stand was asked about a suicide committed by a female resident of the HOA. The woman reportedly had told neighbors she could no longer take the harassment from this particular board member. She hanged herself from a tree right next to the entrance sign to this HOA. I was stunned: When questioned under oath about this tragedy, the board member chuckled.
Dear Readers, let me take you by the shoulders and shake you until you totally understand the madness that’s happening in American HOA neighborhoods!!! “Love thy neighbor” is a completely dead commandment when it comes to life in an HOA!
Insanity!
I cringe to think of the special assessments these HOA homeowners are going to have to fork over when the dust clears. If this homeowner wins a sizeablelawsuit over the crowbar beating or the invasion of his privacy….put a fork in it…this HOA is done!
This story is so sickening, that I’d like to close with the only amusing part of the pre-trial hearing. It involved the HOA attorney and happened on Day 2.
The HOA attorney is very large with a girth that rivals that of Governor Chris Christy. Can you envision that image? While standing at the lectern and questioning a witness his suspenders came loose letting his pants drop down to the floor on one side while he was gripping the other and still questioning the witness. The judge didn’t see it, but those of us in the gallery sure did! Priceless! I nearly burst my lungs trying to keep from laughing out loud!
(Editor’s note:)
Please help this story go viral. Every homeowner in America should read it. Send it to everyone on your email list and ask them to do the same. Send it to your friends, and make the same request to keep it moving throughout our country.
I’m including a link to the song that was actually played as evidence in this Federal Court of law in the case described above. If you are easily offended DO NOT click on the link. If, however, you do listen to the song, just keep in mind that it was introduced into the U.S. District Court record by a well-known Kansas Homeowners Association and its attorneys and is now part of the official court record. Actually, this song could eventually become the national anthem for the anti-HOA movement. Bizarre.
Steam is rising from the ears of homeowners rights advocates in Arizona over a supposed ‘jam-down’ of a last minute bill controlling Homeowners Associations. At first glance it looked as if there was a little for everybody in the bill, but analysts are saying a lot of people got hoodwinked. Either Governor Jan Brewer, herself, was hoodwinked…..or more likely, she was the Hoodwinker-in Chief because she signed it into law.
More to come as we count the wood ticks in the picnic basket.
A neighborhood in Pendleton, Oregon is furious with a homeowner who’s begun flying his flag upside down as a protest against President Barack Obama. The upside down flag is recognized internationally as a symbol of distress.
Oregon has long been one of the most left-leaning states in the country and it’s full of Homeowners Associations. The surprising thing is that an Oregon neighborhood is protesting any display of the American flag at all, right side up or upside down. While this blogger takes no public position, left or right, on politics, he still believes that American citizens have a Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. And historically that means freedom of expression, even if the way a belief is expressed nauseates others.
We’ll see what happens in this case. But this kind of display of the American flag usually ends up in lawsuits, liens, foreclosures, or even violence.
Our Supreme Court has recognized that citizens have a right to desecrate Old Glory. That couldn’t happen in some countries. I find it interesting that in certain totalitarian regimes like Cuba it’s impossible to fly the flag upside down. It looks the same either way. That has to have been an intentional design by a country that didn’t want its citizens putting out calls of distress.
If an official flag is ever designed to fly over HOA Amerika it will also have to have a design that can’t be flown upside down, sort of like the all-white flag of surrender.
Actually, he was only a potential juror who was tossed out of the jury pool when defense attorneys discovered some prejudicial FaceBook postings.
But this goofball, Jerry Counelis, had apparently posted a comment that said, “Justice for Trayvon” two weeks before George Zimmerman was arrested for Martin’s murder. Then he lied about it during voir dire.
When Counelis was ousted from the jury pool he came back into the courthouse and tried to get into the jury room. He was yelling that his anonymity had been taken away from him. And this is the kind of nut case who could have gotten onto the jury? Dear Lord God!
Counelis was finally arrested and jailed for trespass. His mug shot will ensure that he has no anonymity. Ever.
Zimmerman was an HOA crime watchman for the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association in Sanford, Florida. He says he shot and killed Trayvon Martin after the teenager attacked him. Zimmerman was on a cell phone talking to police when the shooting happened.
This Homeowners Association has already paid Martin’s family more than a million dollars to settle a lawsuit against the HOA. But homeowners there haven’t begun to see the real costs of their gated neighborhood zeal. If Zimmerman is found ‘not guilty’ (as is probable), he’ll have a heck of a lawsuit against his own HOA. They put him at risk. They didn’t support him when he got into trouble while serving his official crime watch duties.
I would not want to be a member of that HOA when the special assessments start arriving.
That’s one HOA that could be going down the drain.
![images[7]](http://neighborsatwar.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/images7.jpg)
Well, I’ve been predicting for months that George Zimmerman would never get convicted in the murder of Trayvon Martin. At the most, I’ve been predicting a hung jury.
