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David J. Stern Fraudclosures | Open Letter to PBC Chief Judge Peter Blanc RE The Courts Belong to the People of Florida
May 9, 2011
Lisa Epstein
607 Gazetta Way
West Palm Beach, FL 33413
Chief Judge Peter Blanc
Fifteenth Judicial Circuit
201 N. Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach, Florida 33431.
RE: The Courts Belong to the People of Florida
Dear Judge Blanc,
On May 6th 2011, many Floridians, including myself, were barred from entry
into courtroom 9D in Florida 15th Judicial Circuit Civil Court in West
Palm Beach, Florida. These Floridians were pro se defendants in
foreclosure proceedings, foreclosure defense attorneys, and court
observers. A pleasant court staffer politely informed us that the
courtroom was “too crowded”, and directed us to another courtroom if we
wished to observe foreclosure proceedings.
The proceedings were court arranged, court scheduled, and court planned
case management conferences for the imploded foreclosure mill, The “Law
Offices” of David J. Stern. As you are well aware, Mr. Stern wrote to the Chief Judges across Florida informing of his intent to abandon 9,000 pending foreclosure cases. This letter started a volley of very public letters
between you and Mr. Stern. The end result; a court devised solution to
aid and smooth the transition of Mr. Stern’s cases to new counsel by
devoting four days in May to Stern case management eulogy conferences,
250 cases per session, two sessions per scheduled day.
As a citizen activist in the foreclosure fraud crisis, I was deeply interested in attending, observing, and documenting these proceedings. I contacted you last April,
warning of the current and looming negative impact on the judiciary of
foreclosure fraud, land record fraud, and judicial refusal to
acknowledge and sanction foreclosure mill violations of many rules of
procedure. You responded by correctly informing me that “the courts must
remain independent and impartial.” The Court’s catering to Mr. Stern’s
professional and financial dilemma, brought about by his firm’s well
documented, pervasive, professional misconduct diverged from your stated
inability to intervene in tens of thousands of pending cases to
initiate a court review and/or investigation of the now fully
acknowledged widespread fraud upon the courts, foreclosure fraud, and
land record fraud. The pampering of live and fallen foreclosure mills is
alarming when one learns of the recent disturbing disclosure of court
dependence on foreclosure plaintiffs to fund 64% of the Florida court operating budget.
Are justice and special concessions meted out in proportion to the
amount of the operating budget a litigant is slated to fund, “you get
what you pay for”?
Florida’s courts, at ground zero of the foreclosure crisis, are
squandering the opportunity to be a shining light of American justice.
Refusing to allow a single Floridian family to be dispossessed by
misleading statements, outright falsehoods, and/or fraudulent, unauthentic, often photo-shopped documents
would have protected the integrity of Florida’s judiciary. Simply
enforcing Florida’s laws, rules of civil procedure, attorney
professional conduct rules, rules of evidence, intent of the foreclosure
verification rule, service requirements, ex-parte hearing criteria,
etc., and sanctioning repeated plaintiff willful disregard for all of
these hallmarks of fair litigation might force the foreclosing entities
to weigh the consequences of foreclosure fraud against other more
reasoned approaches are beneficial, as opposed to harmful, to Florida’s
families, communities, and economy.
Barring that, may we at least not be barred from observing in Florida
courts as the crisis continues to unfold? As Justice Canady stated in
his November 17, 2010 on point letter and administrative order
to all Chief Judges, “The courts of Florida belong to the people of
Florida. The people of Florida are entitled to know what takes place in
the courts of this state. No crisis justified the administrative
suspension of the strong legal presumption that the state court
proceedings are open to the public.” Justice Canady continued, “the
chief judges shall ensure that the judges they supervise and the staff
who report to these judges….are not violating the rights of Floridians
by improperly closing judicial proceedings to the public.”
Sincerely,
Lisa Epstein
cc: Chief Justice Charles T. Canady, Florida Supreme Court
www.4closureFraud.org
Letter to PBC Chief Judge Peter Blanc RE The Courts Belong to the People of Florida
Case Management "Rocket Docket" Style
Case Management Conference on May 13, 2011 (previous and current David Stern cases)
Case Management Conference on May 24, 2011 (previous and current David Stern cases)
Case Management Conference on May 26, 2011 (previous and current David Stern cases)
Case Management Conference on May 31, 2011 (previous and current David Stern cases)
»
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it's a farce
...but that's because the Law is a farce, the judicial system is a farce, the lawyers are useless scum and the whole pile of crap is a f..... clown show
you could rule on 98% of court cases from a home laptop with written evidence and the judge bantering too and fro a question and answer session between both parties in a few hours. Instead we choose vast court buildings stuffed with courtiers rammed with fee-feeding snakes, sorry lawyers, who wrack up bills faster than a bankrupt TBTF bank taking months rolling on to years
...and did i mention yet the whole shambolic legal system is an absolute farce?!!
Good lawyers make clients more money than they charge... obviously some legal situations are sure monetary losers for clients (e.g. criminal defense), but in general, a good attorney will punt/notify the client when a matter is likely to cost more in legal fees than it will generate in awards... Once the client is well aware of all the potential pitfalls, etc., if the client chooses to move forward, it's on the client.
But yes, I see it every day... there's an emotional issue that causes people to want to litigate (will dispute for example) where the legal fees end up being as much as the estate in dispute... pretty sick, but it happens... and I believe often times in these situations the attorneys end up taking advantage of clients in these emotional states.
However, not all attorneys are the same... (and some make for damn sure to document client interaction/notifications for CYA purposes).
Besides the Lords and Ladies, there was no shortage of courrupt Judges in line for the guillotines in the French Revolution.
Perhaps members of the Judiciary in Florida, and in the U.S.A. in general, skipped their history classes?
Puzzling; as if they think this can go on forever.
If a majority of the Judiciary cannot correct the malfeasance most will lose their heads, like the Lords and Ladies of France.
This is the tragedy of selective preferential justice; eventually the baby goes out with the bathwater and the good die with the wicked.
The people who think courts belong to the "little people" are gravely mistaken.
I've been packing a bar card since 1969, and I am afraid I agree. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the Western world and its mostly "little people."
Bar puppet, The prison incarceration rate is 33 to 40% IDENTIFIED illegal aliens. Many in prisons have not yet been identified or have used fake birth certificates to gain citizenship or residency status. Many incacerated after conviction in jails are NOT identified, as they have fraudulent paperwork or the people in sanctuary cities like San Francisco, do not input the illegal alien status.
So 1/3 to 1/2 or more, of those incarcerated in prisons and jails are ILLEGAL ALIENS.
And the prison population is almost all male. The male population is out of control and should pay higher taxes than the female population for use of cops, courts, public lawyers, jails and prisons.
Hell hath no fury like a man scorned.
The public unions are huge business.
I would say bankruptcy law and foreclsoure law ill provide at least 20 years of work for bankers lawyers and young aspiring law school grads.
RE will continue to decline for another 9-12 years...good to see even some GS and DB anaysts finally see that.
The 'investors" who are buying to rent are getting a surprise when the tenant moves out after $18,000 in damages...Good luck collecting from the evicted.
Epstein, Stern, fraud, banks, corruption.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7fB06S8Bq8
Folks, we can't have spectators coming in here and seeing so many cases go uncontested.
They might become suspicious and start trying to locate the borrowers.
Why is this person bothering to write to the Judge? After the e-mail exchange previously posted, the only place to communicate with is the judicial ethics committee... And I would think it would be fair to cc the Judge... play time is over.
The downside is that she would end up in his court... but, the plus side is that she wastes no more time... I'm not sure disbarment would be an available remedy, but I strongly suspect it would help curb many unwanted and, frankly, unconscionable judicial practices.
Further, if you know what cases are getting transferred, it harm from not knowing the proceedings seems fairly small... letters to all the defendants of those cases would go a long way to protecting them... or at least letting them have the information to make an informed decision.
I think Florida's Judicial Ethics Committee is hiding in a Tora Bora cave with Jeffrey Stephan.
Chief Justice Canady sent This Memorandum on 11/17/2010 to all chief judges in Florida's twenty districts regarding open courts. The language seems plain enough to me.
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The courts of Florida belong to the people of Florida. The people of Florida are entitled to know what takes place in the courts of this state. No crisis justifies the administrative suspension of the strong legal presumption that state courtproceedings are open to the public.
Today I have sent to the chief judges of Florida's twenty judicial circuits a supervisory memorandum - a copy of which is enclosed - setting forth my administrative directive on this matter. Under that directive, the chief judges shall ensure that the judges they supervise and the staff who report to those judges, as well as bailiffs and employees of the clerks of court, are not violating the rights of Floridians by improperly closing judicial proceedings to the public. The chief judges shall promptly exercise their administrative and supervisory authority tocountermand closures or impediments to access that are inconsistent with Florida law.
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Chief Justice Canady's memorandum in all likelihood stemmed from former 4th DCA Rocket Judge A.C. Soud's rather chilling statements which I'll purloin from Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone 11/10/2010 article "Invasion of the Home Snatchers"
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The extreme randomness of the system is exemplified by the last case I see in the rocket docket. While most foreclosures are unopposed, with homeowners not even bothering to show up in court to defend themselves, a few pro se defendants — people representing themselves — occasionally trickle in. At one point during Judge Soud's proceeding, a tallish blond woman named Shawnetta Cooper walks in with a confused look on her face. A recent divorcee delinquent in her payments, she has come to court today fully expecting to be foreclosed on by Wells Fargo. She sits down and takes a quick look around at the lawyers who are here to kick her out of her home. "The land has been in my family for four generations," she tells me later. "I don't want to be the one to lose it."
Judge Soud pipes up and inquires if there's a plaintiff lawyer present; someone has to lop off this woman's head so the court can move on to the next case. But then something unexpected happens: It turns out that Kessler is supposed to be foreclosing on her today, but he doesn't have her folder. The plaintiff, technically, has forgotten to show up to court.
Just minutes before, I had watched what happens when defendants don't show up in court: kerchunk! The judge more or less automatically rules for the plaintiffs when the homeowner is a no-show. But when the plaintiff doesn't show, the judge is suddenly all mercy and forgiveness. Soud simply continues Cooper's case, telling Kessler to get his shit together and come back for another whack at her in a few weeks. Having done this, he dismisses everyone.
Stunned, Cooper wanders out of the courtroom looking like a person who has stepped up to the gallows expecting to be hanged, but has instead been handed a fruit basket and a new set of golf clubs.
I follow her out of the court, hoping to ask her about her case. But the sight of a journalist getting up to talk to a defendant in his kangaroo court clearly puts a charge into His Honor, and he immediately calls Cooper back into the conference room. Then, to the amazement of everyone present, he issues the following speech:
"This young man," he says, pointing at me, "is a reporter for Rolling Stone. It is your privilege to talk to him if you want." He pauses. "It is also your privilege to not talk to him if you want."
I stare at the judge, open-mouthed. Here's a woman who still has to come back to this guy's court to find out if she can keep her home, and the judge's admonition suggests that she may run the risk of pissing him off if she talks to a reporter. Worse, about an hour later, April Charney, the lawyer who accompanied me to court, receives an e-mail from the judge actually threatening her with contempt for bringing a stranger to his court. Noting that "we ask that anyone other than a lawyer remain in the lobby," Judge Soud admonishes Charney that "your unprofessional conduct and apparent authorization that the reporter could pursue a property owner immediately out of Chambers into the hallway for an interview, may very well be sited [sic] for possible contempt in the future."
Let's leave aside for a moment that Charney never said a word to me about speaking to Cooper. And let's overlook entirely the fact that the judge can't spell the word cited. The key here isn't this individual judge — it's the notion that these hearings are not and should not be entirely public. Quite clearly, foreclosure is meant to be neither seen nor heard.
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Many people do not know that there is a "Government in the Sunshine " Law in Florida that states that when money and property are stolen from the people of Florida by the Courts or Legislature, it must done in an open manner, in open proceedings.
CW
In related news:
ALTA CEO Now Chairman of MERS
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May 6, 2011 -
NAILTA has confirmed through the American Land Title Association (ALTA) that ALTA's CEO, Kurt Pfotenhauer, recently became the Chairman of the Board for MERSCorp, Inc. and its controversal subsidiary, MERS, Inc. (MERS). MERS is the mortgage recording registry that ALTA and the banking industry helped create back in the 1990's. Since it's creation, MERS has helped turn the foreclosure crisis upside down. MERS has been in the news for months after revelations over its structure and its questionable legal efficacy arose in courtrooms across the United States. Several state supreme courts have recently held that the registry improperly foreclosed on homeowners and lacks legal standing to prosecute foreclosure actions. The registry has also been the subject of scorn from county recorders who believe that MERS acted as a conduit to syphon county recorder fees from local governments and, in turn, allowed banks and mortgage entities involved in MERS to profit from the troubled registry. The registry has also come under fire from the land title industry, including NAILTA, NALTEA and others, who believe that the MERS registry destroyed the time-honored tradition of unity between the note and mortgage (i.e. once they are separated -- as they are in the MERS registry -- the mortgage is no longer enforceable).
Pfotenhauer is no stranger to the mortgage industry having cultivated a long career lobbying for the Mortgage Bankers Association prior to his ascension to CEO for ALTA.
What does this mean to the title insurance industry? Plenty. The titular head of the title insurance industry is now the Chairman of the Board of one of the most controversial and troublesome failures of the housing and mortgage collapse. The conflict of interest issue is inescapable.
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There ya go. The fraud's all patched up...all systems go!
business as usual in court -
No suprise that the bankster tentacles reach into the judiciary.