Voice of Homeowners Threatened with Extinction

April 14, 2008

By Jan Jackson (View author info)

What would you do if you and your husband were in the middle of fighting the good fight against the tyranny of your homeowners association (HOA) and its lawyer, and the following happened:

The setting is a hospital where your husband is recovering from a heart condition. He misses a deposition while hospitalized. Peters & Freedman, the law firm for your HOA, had been notified of your husband's hospitalization but they went into the Orange County, California Superior court anyhow seeking $5,000 in sanctions because your husband missed a deposition while he was hospitalized. California Judge James M. Brooks then summoned your husband to his courtoom and ordered him to pay Peters & Freedman the $5,000 in sanctions. (Keep in mind that Peters and Freedman are members of the Community Associations Institute, aka "the CAI", a national organization whose lawyers-lobbyists are believed by informed HOA homeowners in every state to be their worst enemy, their belief resting on many years of legal "irregularities" toward many, many HOA homeowners in California).

Well, when that happened to a husband in California, the husband and wife filed a formal complaint against Judge Brooks with the California Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP) and Judge Brooks received a formal public admonishment for saying -- upon hearing that the husband failed to appear for his deposition due to his heart condition and hospitalization -- "I wonder what's going to happen when we put you in jail. Your little ticker might stop, you think?"

Because of that remark by Judge Brooks about the California husband, and many other such remarks over the years to other plaintiffs in California who appeared in his courtroom, many public admonishments were given to Judge Brooks by the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP), the statutory body in California that oversees judges. The CJP had finally decided that he had violated ethics rules requiring that judges act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, that they must appear to be patient, dignified and courteous, and they must uphold order and decorum in proceedings. Last week, Judge Brooks stipulated to the issuance of another admonishment, and agreed to retire from the bench in order to forego formal proceedings and the possible imposition of higher discipline (see www.metnews.com/articles/2008 for the full story about Judge Brooks, his unethical courtroom behavior, and the CJP).

Seem unbelievable that a Judge in an American court of law would get away with such judicial nonsense for so many years? Send Elizabeth McMahon an email ( www.ahrc.com ) and ask her if it really happened. She will tell you that it did, and she knows whereof she speaks because it happened to her husband Arnold.

Elizabeth has been the editor and publisher of a very large and successful web site known as the American Homeowners Resource Center (AHRC) for the last eighteen years. The web site which is currently being "attacked" by the California law firm of Peters & Freedman. They are trying to shut down her web site. Many if not most informed homeowners believe that the purpose is to prevent AHRC homeowners from writing about the terrible things that happen to them as HOA homeowners, In particular they believe that law firm wishes to conceal what may be legally questionable actions against HOA homeowners, especially in the area of foreclosures, and to keep RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act of 1970) investigations from reaching authorities and the public. The Peters & Freedman law firm is a member of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) HOA foreclosure lawyers. They have been the subject of at least one RICO lawsuit by a homeowner. There have been several media articles about them, and also investigations by class action lawyers.

Think all of the above is absolutely outrageous? Wait until you read about Judge Monroe and something called "void judgments" (a judgment which has no legal force or effect). The McMahons believe that Judge Monroe clearly issued a void judgment because he had no jurisdiction to do so at the time. Another California judge, Clay Smith, ruled and issued another void judgment. The McMahons believe that Peters and Freedman are using Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association in California (where Elizabeth and her husband Arnold used to live) to "front" their lawsuits to shut down AHRC, a public service, networking, communications and publishing website.

What a helluva HOA mess out there in California, eh? But you know what? California's HOA problems are really not much different than any other corrupt state in these United States these days. State legislators have been observed in apparent collusion with CAI lawyers-lobbyists to pass HOA bills which are then signed into law by their state's Governors. Those laws mandate that any new developments in their states must be HOAs. HOAs that, many times if not usually, rapidly become little dictatorships run by controlling-type personalities who become members of HOA boards of directors, along with their power and money seeking (often CAI) HOA lawyers.

Stay tuned for more in the continuing horrendous saga of the attempted takeover of AHRC.com by the Peters & Freedman lawyers.

Read what the media has to say: • ANTI-FORECLOSURE WEBSITE IS THREATENED WITH FORECLOSURE - AHRC.com at risk of shut down by powerful realty interests

Mediachannel.org appeals to its readers and the independent media community to publicize this issue, appeal to the local press to cover it and to civil liberties groups to defend them. This is an issue of economic justice and free expression in the context of a national foreclosure crisis.