Judge Katherine Feinstein Threatens: 'You Won't Be Able to Sue That Unscrupulous Roommate!'

At yesterday's press conference in San Francisco as referenced in my last post, it was interesting to note the Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein included with the news of layoffs and severe cutbacks in court services a statement about suing roommates:

"Our citizens will have to wait for years to peacefully resolve their disputes," Feinstein said. There will be "nowhere to go to sue an unscrupulous roommate, get a divorce or sue a reckless driver who injured you in a car accident."

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12Sav)

 "'Our citizens will have to wait for years to peacefully resolve their disputes,' Feinstein said. There will be 'nowhere to go to sue an unscrupulous roommate, get a divorce or sue a reckless driver who injured you in a car accident.'" - Massive Cut to Court Budget Stalls Most Civil Cases - Bay Citizen

"Our citizens will have to wait for years to peacefully resolve their disputes," Feinstein said. There will be "nowhere to go to sue an unscrupulous roommate, get a divorce or sue a reckless driver who injured you in a car accident."Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12Sav)

I find that statement interesting since back in 1999 I was a victim of someone wanting to make me out to be an unscrupulous roommate in order to obtain one of the best lease deals in San Francisco.  I had lived there 3.5 years and eventually was on the lease as a joint tenant. I learned the police were being called onto the property while I was working the late night shift in 1998 at Morrison & Foerster LLP,  working long hours sometimes until 5:00 a.m. in the morning.

My story below is an example of how the court is actually encouraging dysfunction in our culture to generate income for its business enterprise:

It's public record a self employed former roommate, Joyce Cassells, had been court evicted in San Francisco five times in five years, declared bankruptcy twice in 12 years (1995 & 2004), and was evicted from the well respected Progress Foundation where she put into her own words her mental health issues, conflicts and complaints about people. (See PDF)  Ms. Cassells was also evicted by the Mary Beth Inn for non-payment of rent.  In spite of not paying $850 a month rent an entire year, Ms. Cassells contested that eviction as well.  Shortly thereafter filing for bankruptcy, somehow Ms. Cassells was able to obtain three consecutive student loans totaling $90,000 which enabled her to go on a rampage of tax payer funded police and court services to take over the lease to the property where I lived.

The late LGBT author Betty Fairchild, who at the time was 78, and myself didn't ever run to the police for whatever caused us distress such as when this roommate  kicked in the front door and broke off the chain, locked out Ms. Fairchild so she had to go to the back door, harassed Ms. Fairchild to move with little stickers on her door that said "get a life", entered Ms. Fairchild's room while she was on vacation to tamper with her VCR damaging it, turned up the heater on warm days, replaced toilet seats with flimsy plastic temporary ones without consent, put her crazy looking unframed finger painting artwork in the hallway without discussion.

Instead of running to the police, Ms. Fairchild as the leaseholder contacted her lawyer who did not do his job. Since the case wouldn't generate any money for him, the lawyer gave bad advice by suggesting asking Ms. Cassells to move might cause legal difficulties. This was completely false since at the time Ms. Cassells only rented a room not having had any lease agreement.

When Ms. Cassells first moved onto the property in 1996 she brought attention to herself by harassing the landlord to provide paint materials for her two rooms.  The landlord thereby sent us all letters threatening to potentially evict us since the deal was so incredible we were receiving.  Three years later after Ms. Fairchild moved from the property where she had lived 12 years and after the landlord sold the building, Ms. Cassells began a manipulative campaign to make me look like a bad tenant, contacting the neighbors, the new building owner and continually calling the police over petty matters.  At the time there was an extreme housing crisis in San Francisco in 1998-99 that caused me to remain in a tremendous deal where I only paid $325 a month rent.
 

One evening I came home to find my dishes had been removed from the shelves where a cryptic handwritten note said "I pay 70% of the rent and you therefore only have 30% of the common area space" totally unlawful harassment.  Ms. Cassells. got in my face that evening where I yelled at her prompting another call to the police.  The police were called in that evening where Ms. Cassells obtained favor with the police for her bullying activities. I later learned the police came onto my property without hesitation for any petty matter when I wasn't home where they'd record the alleged incidents with their little ticket notation system.

The police continued to be called without my knowledge for such things as moving in my fish aquarium, replacing the kitchen carpet, and allegedly smearing shoe polish on the bathtub and leaving feces on the toilet.  Ms. Cassells complained to the police over my allegedly not flushing the toilet.  One day a college student I was helping with research using my computer witnessed Ms. Cassells talking to a local foot police officer about "missing rags and light bulbs" and couldn't believe it.

In spite of the fact my lawyer had disclosed to the court Ms. Cassells had been evicted five times in five years and was trying to obtain the entire lease fraudulently, it still backed her up due to all the police visits to the property.

So, when the San Francisco Superior Court sided with this person and many of her petty complaints against me forcing me to move with a 3 foot restraining order, I say it's best that the court no longer be encouraging these kind of lawsuits. Especially those kind of cases where lawyers rely on people's student loan funds and/or credit cards to pay them in which their clients later declare bankruptcy for free legal services.

My other experiences with courts such as in Walnut Creek demonstrated the courts are attempting to entrap people to generate income for the local legal community.  They aren't disputing outrageous lies in accepting cases by paranoid schizophrenic cyber stalkers who have no evidence to back up their claims, making their victims guilty based on perjury.  I was later able to obtain a $25K  judgment against this guy in 2010, no thanks to the court or legal system based solely on my hard work and witnesses testimony.

My experience has been the courts are encouraging people to be dysfunctional and complain which is why the little comment by Judge Feinstein "you wont be able to file a lawsuit against an unscrupulous roommate" speaks of their marketing campaign to attract business for themselves.  People should be able to resolve their roommate issues without court intervention that's draining on the tax payers in every respect of the word.  This roommate accused me in her attorney's extensive litigation of "lacking common sense" and went on about her alleged genius peer approved intelligence. The R.O. litigation must have cost a few thousand dollars.

"The lease on Lincoln Way included 3.5 bedrooms, two fireplaces, a backyard with patio and motorcycle parking enclave, two car garage, kitchen pantry and high coffer ceilings being next to Golden Gate Park near shopping and Muni public transportation to downtown.  The rent was $1,250 at the time I was forced by the court to move."

When the court is encouraging people to come into court to lie or exaggerate minor conflicts in order to justify itself and generate income for the local legal community, you know it's a corrupt system that needs to be dismantled in one form or another.  The court made me a scapegoat to Ms. Cassells problems.

"SF has the biggest budget of any city its size in the ENTIRE COUNTRY. Last week I commented that the sane, taxpaying, responsible citizens of SF appeared to be stirring. I hope it continues. This article is nothing but the usual tripe of "let's close the Washington monument to balance the federal budget" BS. Don't let 'em scare you into higher taxes. You already pay the highest anywhere. Demand efficiency, folks! Or at least some smaller levels of typical government inefficiency." Commenter -  S.F. Courts Warn Of Budget Disaster - SFGate.com

My audio on the experience I had living with Ms. Cassells from 1996-1999.  (MP3)