Jim Troutman commits suicide after CAI lawyers file abusive lawsuits and Orange County Judges repeatedly make unjust rulings

September 22, 1994

By Peter Amherst

The funeral mass for James Troutman will be held at Blessed Sacrament Church, 14072 Olive St, Westminster, California on September 22, 1994 at 10 a.m. Phone number for the church is (714) 892 4489.

His friends say that this quiet, unassuming man who repaired radios for the California Highway Patrol, had an incredible influence on all he touched.

He fought tirelessly for the rights of homeowners, seeking to realize a vision where everybody could live in their homes in peace and freedom.

He fought with insight and profound feeling against the lawyers who sought to turn homes into financial prisons for homeowners.

He endured the hate and vilification of a small group in order to be elected to the board of his homeowner's association, so that he could see his dream of a free and proud America enshrined there. He won by the largest number of votes.

He paid out of his own pocket for homeowner advocates to travel to Sacramento to fight special interest bills which attacked the integrity of the American home. This year, he went there himself at his own expense to lobby against such bills.

He was continually helping others in countless ways, from posting a bond for a friend who was summarily jailed because he refused to answer a judge's question which improperly invaded his privacy, to installing a T.V. antenna for another friend.

His generosity was immediate, unconditioned, and always given with his inimitable smile and a twinkle dancing in his eyes.

Eventually, his own home became embroiled in the legal octopus which are homeowner associations. He watched with increasing sorrow and dismay how the legal system of the country he loved so much, trampled mercilessly on everything which he held so dear.

He longed for the pristine cleanness of the high mountains, to cast his fishing rod into the carefree, happy streams as they tumbled down the rocks. He had a dream of America that had neither polluted lands nor polluted minds.

For this great American, it all became too much on the afternoon of September 17, when, not being able to take the pain any more, he sadly took his life. If he had a fault, it was that he felt too deeply, loved his country too much, and wanted to restore it to the freedom and joy for which it was founded.

The vision of this "unordinary" man has so touched those around him that a special program will be devoted to him on the radio show HOMEOWNER FORUM, KIEV, AM , at 7.30a.m. on September 28, 1994.

Though Jim may have gone to the mountains and streams which he loved, the vision which burned deep within his soul lives on, and the torch has been passed to other hands.

This ordinary man has left an extraordinary legacy.

May God rest his soul.

RELATED LINK: • THE AGONY OF THE LOMA VISTA HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION - AHRC News Services

NOTES: Jim Troutman and his wife and several activists met with San Juan Capistrano Assemblymember Bill Morrow and called him several times asking him to get the law enforcement involved to investigate the fraud and corruption at Jim's HOA. Jim informed Morrow that Loma Vista Homeowner Association (Board member Jean Carpenter and others, Manager: Marquis Management, Lawyers Fiore Nordberg, Walker Wolfe-Willis) had spent over $500,000. of their reserves financing Fiore lawyers for a lawsuit. It was illegal then to use maintenence dues to finance lawsuits. In addition the board, lawyers and managers were hiding books and finances from the owners and charging them unaffordable dues to continue funding the lawyers. Morrow refused to get involved and instead worked in the legislature to protect the lawyers and foreclosure industry interests.