Category Archives: lawyers

Reflections on Flags

      5 Comments on Reflections on Flags

Flag etiquette is a touchy subject in this country. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that burning the American Flag is a protected form of speech under the First Amendment. Still, we hear calls from elected politicians that displaying the Confederate Flag is not protected speech.

The beginning of the Confederate War was never about slavery, it was about the massive tax burden being imposed by the North against southern businessmen. The slavery issue arose two years into the Civil War and at that point the Stars and Bars and slavery were forever linked.

But the original flag, the one that George Washington commissioned, was never about slavery, either. It was about this country’s brash argument that it wanted to be free from foreign rule and oppressive taxes. Yes, George Washington owned slaves. So did many others of the country’s founders. So did the Cherokee Indians, for that matter.

So how is the American Flag any less a symbol of slavery than the Confederate Flag? The two flags are just red, white and blue pieces of cloth stitched together. And now professional rabble rousers are insisting that anything Red, White and Blue be torn down and assigned to the dustbins of history.

The two flags represent culture. There are good and bad things in every culture. But believing that Americans are too stupid to make up their own minds about important cultural issues is Political Correctness run amok.

Flee from political correctness, that apple barrel of hypocrisy and prevarication which is sitting and fermenting and waiting to poison the discussion and the common sense that most Americans have.

Now, we have a very real situation taking place in a Southern Colorado neighborhood. A Hispanic man hung a flag upside down as a show of disrespect because of the racism he feels in his community. He says he feels harassed by the HOA’s management company.

Whew! Don’t we all?

There’s a craziness afoot in American neighborhoods. There’s an intolerance that’s as insidious as a cluster of cancer cells. Let’s get rid of it. Leave the flags alone. Leave our First Amendment alone. If someone has the bad taste to display a flag improperly, just walk away and let him be. What a nice place this would be if we just gave each other some space. Forgive, forget, and get on with life.

(link to El Paso County flag story)

 

Wild Corruption In Nevada!!!

      No Comments on Wild Corruption In Nevada!!!

OK folks! I’ve been an investigative reporter for forty years. And during that time thousands upon thousands of documents have been released to me. Oh, there’ve been two or three that were held back, but always because of some extraneous circumstance usually relating to a name a prosecutor or a judge wanted held back for personal or political reasons. And we usually found a higher judge who ordered the documents released.

But Damn it! Political reasons don’t apply here! Personal reasons don’t apply.  Nevada homeowners lost hundreds of millions of dollars when this organized crime ring crashed Homeowners Associations all over Nevada. Property values there still haven’t recovered. It wasn’t just a few dozen homeowners who were hurt in this monstrous scam. Millions were hurt. Taxpayers paid for this years-long investigation. Families went broke. Many lost their homes. Lives were lost. People killed themselves.

Who are you trying to protect by illegally keeping these files secret? A scummy judge who was able to escape indictment? Perhaps a scummy bigtime politician who, with his son, have become multi-millionaires investing in phony land deals based on illegal insider knowledge about housing trends in Nevada?

You found 100 “people of interest” in this case, but didn’t prosecute them because you thought it would be too expensive? Isn’t that a sneaky way of letting your friends and political boosters off the hook? Wouldn’t a thorough vetting of this whole slimy affair be a way for you to crawl out this greasy morass?

Federal Judge Mahan, there’s a lot you ought to be ashamed of including the awesome lack of meaningful prison time you handed out to these mobsters.

Now, you should be ashamed of letting your political cronies talk you into not releasing documents that you feel might shame your pathetic state and your miserable bench even further. I’ve learned over the years that when something doesn’t smell right, you start looking for the source. Something real close to where you’re standing, Judge Mahan, doesn’t smell just right.

(crooked lawyer gets ten years for swindling homeowners)

 

 

Chikungunya Virus In Our Neighborhoods

      5 Comments on Chikungunya Virus In Our Neighborhoods

Bouncing around the HOA warrior network right now is an interesting email from future Congressman Andy Ostrowski. He’s concerned that our political impact will be diluted because only 20% of Americans live in HOA gulags. He says to get any rational national reforms enacted we need to appeal to 80% of the voters. Reading the current Science News article on the Chikungunya virus gave me an inspiration. If it’s too juvenile a corollary then please forgive me.

Chikungunya is a nasty virus that’s made its way from Southeast Africa and Asia to America. It’s a horribly painful disease that can leave an infected victim with massive joint pain that lasts for years. If it infects babies 20% of them can become permanently disabled. In a matter of weeks it can infect hundreds of thousands of people, even up to 20% of the region where it’s spreading.

The virus spreads through mosquitoes and now for the first time it’s hopped from one species of equatorial mosquito to the tiger-striped mosquito that can be found in many parts of America. Now, if only 20% of the population gets infected, should the other 80% be concerned? Absolutely, say scientists at the Centers for Disease Control.

The HOA virus is another nasty disease that only infects about 20% of the population in this country. It’s spread by lawyers and is rapidly mutating and hopping to other hosts like property managers, Realtors, judges and low-level politicians. This disease is another one that’s spreading rapidly. Should the remaining 80% of homeowners be concerned? Absolutely.

The remaining 80% tell themselves, “I’ll never get infected. I’ll never live in a Homeowners Association. I’ll never have to deal with a relative’s estate that’s located in an infected zone.” Yet a simple job change, the desire to move to a warmer climate, any number of life’s challenges can put you into right into the middle of a zone where the HOA virus is epidemic.

Yes, absolutely, the 80% should be concerned.

(Science News article on runaway Chikungunya virus)

 

 

 

Civil Forfeiture

      1 Comment on Civil Forfeiture

I’m quite sure HOA warriors like George Staropoli and Evan McKenzie have written about this subject. But it’s really kind of spooky to chart the parallels between Civil Forfeiture laws and seizure of private property by Homeowners Associations.

Civil forfeiture laws are a horrendous holdover from the American Civil War and prohibition. They allow police the power to seize vehicles or property of people suspected of carrying on some kind of illegal activity. in the 70s and 80s police began seizing private homes that were suspected of being crack houses. At no time were the police required to prove guilt. Many times a homeowner who unknowingly leased his house to bad people ended up with no rights, no house, and no way to get it back.

In the 1980s Congress allowed police agencies all over the country to keep what they seized, even if there was absolutely no proof that a crime had been committed. Try to board a plane with too much cash in your wallet or purse the money? It can be legally seized. When do you get it back? In most cases, never. All the cops have to do is claim they suspected the money was involved in some kind of crime. No proof of guilt was needed. What rights do you have? You have the right to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit to get it back. Anything else? No. No due process, no way to prove your innocence. The money simply disappears into what’s little more than a police slush fund.

It’s stunningly evil. In a country where the Constitution created rights to protect citizens against the government, justice has been turned on its ear.

Across the country, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of homeowners have been victimized in much the same way. Wrong kind of window shades or a kid’s toy left out overnight? A big fine, then a lien, then forfeiture of your house. Your rights? You get to hire a lawyer and sue to try your stuff back. The boards of Homeowners Associations have absolutely the same power of civil forfeiture as the cops. And the money they seize also goes into HOA slush funds, or into the pockets of embezzlers.

What have we done to ourselves, folks?

(link to booklet on civil forfeiture)

http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/pdf/Forfieture-Booklet-FINAL-Full.pdf

Are We Winning? Hunter’s Run Decision Says We Are!

      No Comments on Are We Winning? Hunter’s Run Decision Says We Are!

I never thought I’d see this day. But doesn’t it seem to you like more and more Homeowners Associations are losing big court cases involving fines, judgments and legal fees?

There’ve been several in a row where the feds came down hard on HOAs that overtly or passively discriminated against families with children or handicapped members.

The latest is an Indiana family that moved from their home and rented it out without asking HOA permission. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the fines and the lien the Hunter’s Run HOA filed on the family were illegal. More than that, the lien was invalid and a slander against the homeowner’s property title making the home unsaleable. Now the Hunter’s Run HOA will have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to this family to make them whole.

I would bet dollars to donuts that members of this HOA didn’t have a clue their bully board’s actions were going to lead to huge assessments against every homeowner.

See this as a victory, folks! Homes in Hunter’s Run have lost all their value. They can’t be sold. The equity is gone. What fool would buy a home in an HOA where the board was stupid enough to lose this kind of case?

The tide is turning, and you and I are finally having an impact!

(the losers in Hunter’s Run HOA)