Our Judicial System is broken...

[surepip]

5 years running now, and we have to assume it will continue on ad infinitum.

 

More than $1,250,000 in tax dollars has been paid by the BOC to Holland & Knight and Talley, Richardson & Cable to prevent us from having our day in court.

 

The judge ruled in our favor November 22, 2010:

"This Court further finds that this Defendant's claimn/counterclaim for attorney's fees, costs and expenses of litigation is not grounded in fact and is not warranted by existing law nor is it a good faith argument for extension, modification or reversal of existing law. This Court further finds that this claim is being imposed by this Defendant for an improper purpose to suppress these Plaintiff's right to petition government and to needlessly increase the cost of litigation of these Plaintiffs. This Court further finds that these Plaintiffs have been forced to incur unnecessary legal expense to defend this counterclaim of the Board of Commissioners of Paulding County."

 

And:

"The Court hereby grants the Plaintiffs' Motion for Sanctions by this Court against the Defendant, the Board of Commissioners of Paulding County and the persons who signed this verification for violations of O.C.G.A.9-11-11.1b"

 

"The Court Orders that a hearing will be conducted by this Court on the 26th of January 2011 at 9:00am to allow these Plaintiffs to offer evidence of the reasonable expenses incurred by these Plaintiffs because of the filing of the counterclaim by this Defendant contained in Paragraph [C] of the Wherefore Clause of the Defendant's Answer which has been made in violation of O.C.G.A.9-11-11.1b, at which time, this Court will determine the amount of reasonable expenses including reasonable attorney's fees to be awarded to these Plaintiffs from [names the commissioners of record at the time the suits were filed] in their official capacities, and Holland & Knight, LLP"

 

At the hearing on January 26, 2011, because of a clerical error on the judge's ruling [one of the 2 case numbers was left off the ruling even though we had filed 2 separate motions], the BOC attorney requested a separate, duplicate hearing be held before the Judge could fix the total amount for both cases after our lawyer spent 5+ hours on the stand reviewing our legal fees of more than $300,000 and showing where he subtracted out $70,000 in fees which were directed at the thirdcase against the developer. Everyone involved realized the clerical omission was a simple clerical error, but at the BOC attorney's insistance, another day in court, and the accompanying costs will have to be wasted so we can review the EXACT same information we already spent a full day in court doing. Basically the BOC lawyer questioned every invoice from our lawyer, who got paid $300,000 to win the ruling, yet at the same time, the BOC lawyer got paid more than $1,250,000 and the Judge ruled against him.

 

Nice logic, right ?

 

We were prepared to file additional motions the 1st week of February, but at the request of representatives from the BOC we delayed filing those and met with the BOC representatives [Todd Pownall and Tommie Graham] on February 22, 2011 to attempt to work out a settlement.

 

We made our position clear, and offered a bottom line proposal of our attorney's fees, plus HALF of what they had spent on their attorneys to stop us from having our day in court to settle everything.

 

Pay us off with HALF of what they spent to suppress our First Amendment Rights, and we would drop all of the buffer violations, destruction of the right of way, illegal siezure of 12-1/2' of our front property, and covering up for the developer with the Paulding County Water Department knowingly filing erroneous water contamination reports with the State EPD after the developer's contractor contaminated our water when they broke the line coming to our house [1 of 3 times no less].

 

We made it clear, and they accepted this, that we were not interested in bantering back and forth with low-ball; high-ball offers over time and that time was of the essence on the additional motions we were prepared to file whilst waiting for the Judge to set the 2nd hearing on what costs and attorneys fees he would order them to pay if we did not reach a settlement.

 

Twice since that meeting, the BOC has requested 2 more weeks by Jason Phillips from Talley, Richardson and Cable, asking that we not file the new motions. Twice we agreed.

 

Yesterday we got a ridiculous insulting low-ball offer of half our attorneys fees; and that the county would shut down the road in front of our house and put the right of way and cul-de-sac back where they had allowed the developer to bull doze it 5 years ago, and return the 12-1/2' of mud and gravel they let the developer take. Of course the 25 year old trees, flowers, etc. would still be dead and gone. And the developer has since lost the undeveloped property back to the bank.

 

So, we will file the new motions, await the 2nd hearing on what they have to pay in attorney's fees, and pour some more of our money and the tax payer's money down the drain. And wait for the Judge to rule on how much we are to be paid in attorney's fees while getting ready to take the cases into the courtroom where a jury can decide what our awards will be.

 

And for what it is worth, the BOC has paid Holland & Knight well over $1Million, and you can trace at least $250,000 of those funds that have gone from the Holland & Knight Committee for Responsible Government back to Paulding county politicians since these lawsuits were filed in 2006. Jerry Shearin, Hal Echols, Glenn Richardson, Howard Maxwell, and even Paulette Braddock have all received substantial amounts and still do from the various PACs and others who receive funds from Holland & Knight..

 

This is the root of the scam and racket they have established. Paulding tax money goes to Holland & Knight, to the tune of over $1Million Dollars, who in turns contributes Hundreds of thousands of dollars to political pacs and committees who in turn donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to various Georgia politicians and PACS who in turn donate thousands and thousands back to Paulding county politicians.

 

Nice gimmick, right ? You the tax payer are underwriting the candidates and PACs of choice of Holland & Knight, including Richardson's MMV Alliance.

 

And we continue to live in a house damaged by the developer's blasting, paying taxes on property we no longer own or have use of which is on the other side of the street because the county turned a blind eye and allowed the developer to simply take it, after having spent our life savings and income attempting to obtain our day in court to let a jury decide.

 

Part of our lawsuit is because the agreed to buffers granted to us by Planning& Zoning and approved by the BOC gave us a total of a 40' buffer.

To add insult to injury over all of this, Horton Homes, America's Builder, started a new house adjacent to our SE property line 2 weeks ago, and cut into the 25' buffer we do have in writing.

 

By the way....Kieth Wiener, the Holland & Knight attorney for the BOC stated in our hearing in March 2010, and I paraphrase; "Any citizen should be prepared to spend $500,000 or more in legal fees to be able to obtain their First Amendment Right to see redress against the government.".

 

 

Isn't that nice to know that you need to be prepared to spend half a million dollars or more if you choose to exercise your rights as granted by the First Amendment.

[lotstodo]

Sorry Pip. I guess at this point there is nothing to do but carry on the good fight. It's obvious that the county is beginning to realize that you might not go away, so stick it out. You deserve a day in court.

[bored]

Maybe we can get a pcom petition or picket going and get some attention.

[surepip]

We still, after 5+ years have had NO discussusions, or anything else concerning what is right, wrong, or irrlelevant.

 

Instead, we just keep dumping money down a bottomless black hole so the lawyers and politicians can get richer and richer,.

 

Just does not seem to be right,.