Fellow Americans:
On August 20, 2007 I drove from Corvallis to Eugene, Oregon and with almost a feeling of reverence I walked up the steps of the new federal court house and filed claims against James Hackett and the Linn Benton Housing Authority and the Benton County Commissioners for Retaliation. I had carefully prepared documentation of crimes and civil violations of law because I had witnessed great harm inflicted upon my child and other children and me.
Other adults were harmed too.
I witnessed Jim Gabbard gasping for breath upon returning home after the Linn Benton Housing Authority maintenance man waited around the corner in his truck for Jim to leave home. As soon as Jim left home the Linn Benton Housing Authority maintenance man would spray with chemicals that Jim had warned could cause him to have violent allergic reactions. Two times I asked the maintenance man why he was doing this to Jim and he told me that James Hackett had told him to hide and wait for Jim Gabbard to leave and then spray anyway.
Years later, when I read the "Final Investigative Reports" of my first claim that the government took out against James Hackett and the housing authority, I learned from the testimony of housing authority workers that James Hackett did in fact instruct Richard (the maintenance man) to hide and wait for Jim to leave and then go against the promises of reasonable accommodation that were made to Jim before he moved into his Pickford/Leonard residence.
I heard about Olivia Bloom who "sang like an angel" and took her own life after James Hackett terminated her housing voucher. There is a painting of her as an angel next to the image of the Nativity scene in the Old Wold Deli in Corvallis. She was African American and disabled and was forced to fill out more forms than other clients by James Hackett and finally she said she could fill out no more and James Hackett told her he would terminate her voucher if she did not comply. Rick Stewart said that he would happily go to Ms. Bloom's residence and help her with the forms. He was told to mind his own business and Olivia Bloom's voucher was taken from her along with her ability to have a place to call home.
I was aware that James Hackett had fired or "let go" of the workers in the housing authority that told him that he could not place violent criminals in housing around my child and sixteen other young children at Pickford/Leonard. One of these workers is Paulette Postell. She almost ran the Linn Benton Housing Authority for twenty years before Catherine Skeins hired James Hackett as executive director. Paulette Postell is an individual of sterling character. She informed Mr. Hackett that he could not allow the first pedophile to live at Pickford/Leonard because she had seen his criminal record. He had over sixty arraignments in Benton County before Mr. Hackett placed him in my house against the protest of Paulette Postell and Rick Stewart who was the housing inspector for fourteen years at the housing authority. Another worker told me that morally he could not work under Mr. Hackett because he witnessed that files were being falsified. He told me that even though it was a recession and he had children to support he had to quit when he saw what was going on.
I learned from Mr. Hackett that he knew that the first pedophile that he placed in my house was a stalker and he put him there anyway and then refused to remove him when he began stalking my child and we reported to him that we were living in fear.
When Mr. Hackett refused to remove the man from my house who was terrifying all of the children, I called Catherine Skeins to ask for help as she was the Chairman of the Board of the Linn Benton Housing Authority. She told me that she was the one who "found Mr. Hackett" and hired him. She said that he was an attorney and that he was good with money. I explained that he was allowing a pedophile to stalk my child and that the children at Pickford/Leonard were so terrified that they could not go outside. I told her I could not function as I could no longer sleep out of fear for my child. She told me that she was not going to do anything about my concerns.
Five years later I met her again when I went before the Board of the Linn Benton Housing Authority on January 18, 2005 asking for them to do something about the fact that James Hackett was filling units with dangerous criminals and giving them HUD vouchers. Again nothing was done and recently I saw the minutes that the housing authority sent to the federal court of that meeting and they were not an accurate account. They were a false statement of what occurred at that meeting. Luckily, I had read a statement that I also provided in a document to the Board at that meeting. A Corvallis Gazette Times reporter also recorded the meeting and I have that recording (a copy has been provided to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Sean Donovan and Deputy Secretary Ron Sims). I am going to provide the minutes that the Linn Benton Housing Authority created that are not truthful and the statement that I read at the meeting to the Obama Administration and to the Federal Court.
Every Board meeting should be recorded so that the housing authority -- that is spending millions of dollars of tax payers' money -- is accountable for their actions and inaction.
The recording memorialized the testimony of my daughter's math teacher telling how my daughter almost died and how horribly she was affected by the actions of the pedophiles and violent felons. Richard Holmes can be heard stating that what happened to us should never happen to anyone. Another mother from Pickford/Leonard told of the eight felons she could remember and the fear she had for her twin daughters. She told of how she had asked for help from Jim Moorefield and how he would not help. She called Pickford/Leonard a "dumping ground for criminals."
At the end of that recording the Chairman of the Board of the Linn Benton Housing Authority, Rhoades, can be heard stating several times that I had provided ample proof of "gross mismanagement of Pickford/Leonard" by the housing authority.
James Hackett, the Linn Benton Housing Authority, the Benton County Commissioners (who have oversight of the housing authority according to Oregon Revised Statutes 456), Corvallis Neighborhood Housing Services which is now Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, Jim Moorefield, Barbara Dalman, and the Benton County Health Department refused to remove the first pedophile from my house that was actively harassing my child.
Corvallis Police Detective Mark Posler advised me to ask for a stalking protective order from the Circuit Court and we had to be part of twelve proceedings to get a life long order that also evicted the pedophile from our house.
Detective Posler was extremely kind. He brought the paper work to my house and encouraged me to fill it out. I waited one more month hoping that one of the agencies responsible for this low income housing would remove the man that was harming our children. I even met with a woman that I learned provided housing for the mentally ill and she told me that this man should be institutionalized and she could not place him with her other clients as it would not be fair to them.
From 2000 through 2004, Chief of Police Gary Boldizsar met with Jim Moorefield twice to ask that felons not be placed around children at Pickford/Leonard. On one of those occasions Jim Moorefield said that Caterina Rosenfeld had nothing to say about who was placed at Pickford/Leonard. Chief Boldizsar responded that although that might be true, Jim Moorefield did have a say.
James Hackett and the Linn Benton Housing Authority then placed and HUD funded eight other dangerous felons with long criminal histories at Pickford/Leonard including a registered predatory sex offender who had tried to sodomize a young girl and was never to be around young girls.
I learned that this individual was a registered sex offender when two of the other mothers at Pickford/Leonard knocked on my kitchen door at ten at night and told me to go to the Benton County website and look up the pedophiles with life time registrations. The man who lived in a HUD funded unit next door was on that website with the address of the house next door and the date that affirmed that James Hackett and the Linn Benton Housing Authority were the property management company.
My daughter lost half of her lung capacity from the pyrethrum sprays that Mr. Hackett told his workers to apply around our house after I had secured promises from him that these toxins that cause risk to children with a propensity toward asthma would not be applied.
I had reported the corruption of the Linn Benton Housing Authority to every possible governmental agency I could think of that might have some oversight and provide relief. Once when I went before Linda Modrell, Annabelle Jaramillo, and Jay Dixon, who were the Commissioners for Benton County, Oregon, I provided them with a list of forty agencies and individuals from whom the mothers at Pickford/Leonard had requested help.
When my own commissioners would not help I sought help from Linn County Commissioner John Lindsey and he wrote letters to the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing in Washington, D.C. who was Floyd May claiming Retaliation against me and seeking help.
Floyd May would not help.
I learned over time that the entire Fair Housing and HUD OIG system was a house of cards where thousands of federal employees are paid and praised to uphold the political dictates and IRS tax deals with housing developers across America.
State Senator Frank Morse tried to help and asked the counsel for the Oregon State Legislature to read Oregon Revised Statutes 456 to learn who did have oversight of James Hackett. He wrote to me that the Benton County Commissioners were clearly the oversight authority and could clean up the housing authority. The Benton County Commissioners refused to help the children of Pickford/Leonard. They wrote to me that they had no oversight. Their county counsel told me I was "delusional."
Finally, Phyllis Wagoner, who is Congressman Peter DeFazio's aid in Eugene, told me that her office believed that Mr. Hackett was trying to defame me because I had reported his violations of federal law to many agencies and that I should file a claim through the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in Seattle for violation of my Fair Housing Rights, so I did.
Congressman Peter DeFazio also wrote a letter to James Hackett and to the Linn and Benton County Commissioners indicating that they had oversight and included a copy of the federal statutes that were enacted to protect children in federally funded housing. These federal laws state that it is illegal to federally fund housing for registered sex offenders, methamphetamine drug users, and anyone who makes it impossible for other tenants to have a home free from harassment.
The United States Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity took a claim out against James Hackett and the Linn Benton Housing Authority in April of 2005. Federal mandates make it so that such claims must be investigated within 100 days. James Hackett and Donna Holt-Cook lied to Fair Housing Investigator Ife Asantewa under oath. They provided a letter to her that they had sent to me indicating that they were contacting my witnesses which included Police Chief Gary Boldizsar, my daughter's doctor, my health-care providers, Senior Judge Robert S. Gardner, and others. They indicated to her during their interviews that EACH of the witnesses were contacted. They testified that my witnesses were not qualified to substantiate my claims.
The housing authority had not contacted these individuals.
In June 2005 Howard Rhoades (chairman of the board of the Linn Benton Housing Authority) offered me $230,000 if I would sign a paper that James Hackett had prepared on which it was written that I would "quit spreading false accusations about James Hackett." I told Howard Rhoades that I could not sign that paper because every word that I had said about James Hackett was true. That meeting was in the presence of Federal Investigator Ife Asantewa and Madeline Rubin.
Fair Housing found my claims to be "without cause" based on Mr. Hackett's and Ms. Holt-Cook's lies under oath.
Now a fascinating part of this is that when I spoke with the Fair Housing investigator she told me that she had told Mr. Hackett that the mistake that he made was in not contacting my health-care provider. So Fair Housing knew that James Hackett had lied about the contacts and yet based the dismissal of my claims on his lies anyway.
I appealed my claim to Washington, D.C. and it was remanded back to Seattle and never investigated. My Administrative claims through the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity were the same as the claims I filed in the federal court in 2007 and they were both still open with the federal government when I filed in the court so the statute of limitations was tolled for those claims.
Benton County District Attorney Scott Heiser told me to bring my concerns to the FBI or to the Office of U. S. Attorney Karen Immergut. I drove to Portland and met with Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Caldwell and Ms. Immergut wrote a letter to HUD in Washington D. C. memorializing my visit and my belief that James Hackett had committed fraud in the Fair Housing investigation.
Washington D.C. did nothing.
I also met with the FBI and provided them with proof that James Hackett was violating federal law by HUD funding a registered sex offender and a methamphetamine dealer and other violent felons at Pickford/Leonard. The FBI told me that they did not want to "step on HUD's toes." They said that I should contact the OIG Office for HUD and ask them to investigate.
When I met with HUD's Office of Inspector General Special Agent Charles Grace and Corvallis Police Chief Gary Boldizsar on January 27, 2006 to voice some of these concerns, Agent Grace said that possibly the Seattle Office was covering this up for "political reasons." Two weeks later Agent Grace's boss told me that Agent Grace had reported that Chief Boldizsar had said that nothing was going on in that neighborhood.
I have an Affidavit from Chief Boldizsar in which he declares that he reported legitimate crime concerns to Agent Grace in that meeting.
At that point I called Special Agent James Beaudette who was head of OIG's agents for the West Coast and he told me to write to his Special Agent Tony Meeks, so I did toward the end of March 2006 and provided a copy of that letter to the Corvallis Police Department.
On April 7, 2006 my daughter was assaulted by a Corvallis Police Officer in front of me. False police reports were filed by the police and I was arrested and charged with interfering with the peaceful duties of the police.
When I first walked up to where my daughter was held by the police, Officer Lisa Trimble had a gun held to my daughter's face. Lisa Trimble did not even file a police report and two other officers that were involved in my arrest have lied repeatedly that they were not present.
During the in-house investigation of that incident, one of the witnesses was questioned by the police lieutenant and the first thing that Lieutenant Dave Henslee told that young man was that I had two "lawsuits against the city" that he was "not going to go into." The only claims that I had at that time were the two claims that Fair Housing of the United States Government had taken out against James Hackett, the Linn Benton Housing Authority, and the Benton County Commissioners.
My long time rock, and the only person in government in Corvallis that had helped over the years, Chief Boldizsar, could no longer speak with me.
My arrest was on Saturday night and I went to the office of the President of Oregon State University toward the first part of the next week because I was a student and did not want to be forced out of the university because of a false arrest. As I sat in the president's office I noticed someone in the chair next to me who was turning their head sharply away from me and staring at the wall. I asked if I knew him as he appeared familiar. He turned and said "yes" and I saw that it was Corvallis' City Manager Jon Nelson also waiting to see the president.
Years before (2003) when I called Jon Nelson to ask to speak about the illegal and dangerous placements being made of criminals around seventeen children at Pickford/Leonard he tried to talk me out of speaking before the City Council. Corvallis subsidized that housing that was violating federal statutes enacted by Congress to protect children from pedophiles and other dangerous felons.
I visited the Benton County District Attorney's office three times with requests for pictures from the assault. D.A. Scott Heiser came out of his office and told me that he did not have the pictures. I told him that I watched Lisa Trimble take the pictures with a digital camera and that I was going to continue to speak the truth about this case loud and clear.
Scott Heiser said: "This case is not about the truth."
I had a wonderful Corvallis attorney for a time and he took notes while talking to Scott Heiser on the phone where he wrote "she is a thorn in Scott's side because of housing" issues.
Scott Heiser resigned shortly after that.
I ran into the new Benton County District Attorney, John Haroldson, in the Corvallis Goodwill Store and he introduced me to his wife and then added,
"I want you to know that it was not my idea to take these charges out against you."
Benton County forced me to go to court about twenty times over a two-and-one-half year span before I insisted on an out-of-town judge and attorney.
I met a wonderful attorney from Salem and the first time that she came to Corvallis to meet me we sat on a bench outside of the Courthouse to talk. She told me that the D.A.'s assistant Chris Stringer had met her and told her a few minutes before that I was insane. I remember the look in her eyes as she searched my eyes when we first met and then after the case was over she said she had never seen anything like the "war" between me and the county.
One of my witnesses for federal court called my cell phone number and got the Benton County Sheriff's Department's answering machine.
For years I was met and accompanied by sheriff's cars or police cars as I drove in Corvallis. Verizon Wireless wrote to me that most likely my location was being monitored by the GPS on my phone and this was not legal.
Retired State's Supreme Court Judge George VanHoomison came to Corvallis from Portland and I was found "Not Guilty" of interfering with the peaceful duties of the Corvallis police before a jury and against the lies of police officers.
I sought help from the governor's office.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski's office told me that my allegations about James Hackett and the Linn Benton Housing Authority were so serious that the only way that I would get resolve was to file a federal lawsuit -- so I did. (I learned recently that Governor Kulongoski's administration had a quiet plan to empty the State Hospital and sprinkle counties throughout Oregon with "group homes" housing registered sex offenders in neighborhoods with children. This is hidden under the guise of mental health and addiction. Some of the individuals housed in these homes are predatory and extremely dangerous.)
I was told on August 20, 2007 that the computer picked Judge Michael R. Hogan to preside over my case. I knew nothing of this man.
I requested a jury trial.
I left the brand new multimillion dollar court house feeling like finally Justice would be served. I felt deeply grateful that in our wonderful country a single mom who cared deeply for children and had witnessed the actions and inactions of a corrupt housing authority, an unwillingness to assume oversight by the Benton County Commissioners, a failing HUD system, and city and county officials who were covering for each other, could represent herself and finally be heard in the United States District Court.
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Wishing Star Foundation
P.O. Box 2515
Corvallis, Oregon 97339
