The corrupt and/or incompetent Chancery Judge Mary Margaret McVeigh of Passaic County, New Jersey. She conspired with Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax Funding and other convicted felons to sign off on judgments of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction over land possession issues and without performing any hearings. Land possession judgments are adjudicated by the Law Division and not by the Chancery Court. She caused millions of dollars in damages by illegally evicting people from their homes; she also violated the anti-eviction act and the summary dispossess act of New Jersey.
/////////////////////-------------------------/////////////////////
////////////----------------//////////////////
////////////////////////-----------------------------/////////////////////////////////
//-------------------------//////////////////////-------------------
//-------------------------//////////////////////-------------------
MEET THE CORRUPT AND/OR INCOMPETENT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH. SHE CONSPIRED WITH OR WAS MISLEAD BY ROBERT DEL VECCHIO, AMERICAN TAX FUNDING AND OTHER CONVICTED FELONS TO SIGN OFF ON JUDGMENTS OF POSSESSION WITHOUT HAVING SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OVER LAND POSSESSION ISSUES.
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
Do you have anything to say to these serious charges?
Did you issue or facilitated the issuance of judgments of possession or writs or warrants of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction? A simple YES or NO would suffice. The public and victims need to know.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this inquiry. We want to make sure that unfounded allegations are not released into the media.
Sincerely,
Mary Brown
Crime Investigator
NOTE: As of today's date (3-7-2016), this judge has not responded to the accusations above.
//------------------------///////////////////////--------------------
@AssemblyNJ EXPLOSIVE!! CORRUPTION.
JUDGE MCVEIGH ISSUED ORDERS W/O SJCT MATTER JRSD http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html …
@aSSEMBLYNJ @NJSENDEMS @GovChristie SHAME,
SHAME, SHAME. CLEANUP THIS CORRUPTION OR INCOMPETENCY IN THE JUDICIARY
@NJSenDems RECKLESS JUDGE ISSUES
ORDER W/O SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION, CAUSES $$$$ DAMAGES https://twitter.com/allisonbrown262/status/698580455772286977 …
@Passaic_Sheriff
BREAKING!!! IS SHERIFF BERDNIK GOING TO RESIGN OVER THE DISCOVERED
LUCAS/D'AGOSTINO CONSPIRACY? http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/explosive-passaic-county-sheriff_8.html …
@GovChristie @AssemblyNJ @CivilRights @kevinjotoole SHAME!
CORRUPTION IN NEW JERSEY JUDICIARY. CLEAN IT UP! NOW!
@GovChristie @AssemblyNJ @NJSenatePres @kevinjotoole @CivilRights @USAO_NJ SHAME! THEY ISSUED JUDGMENTS W/O
HEARING!
@Passaic_Sheriff PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF
AND CHANCERY JUDGE IN LEGAL TROUBLE OVER VOID JUDGMENTS OF POSSESSION http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/explosive-passaic-county-sheriff_8.html
@GovChristie @AssemblyNJ @@NJSenatePres @kevinjotoole
GOVERNOR, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? THIS IS SHAME!!!
@WaynePatch Reckless Judge Margaret
McVeigh of #Wayne, #NJ under investigation for
illegal activities. BOMBSHELL! https://twitter.com/vfdsear/status/705402467316580352 …
////////////----------------//////////////////
Dear Judge De la Carrera/Mr. Feinstein:
I am an investigative reporter with Metro Forensics and I have been working on one of our Innocence Projects regarding "State v. Basilis Stephanatos". You are listed as the presiding judge and Mr. Feistein is the Defense Attorney.
We have discovered that significant amount of exculpatory evidence was not presented to the grand jurors and to this court. Recently, we discovered that Robert Del Vecchio filed false statements with the Passaic County Sheriff. These false statements were used to portray Mr. Stephanatos as a violent person during the grand jury proceedings and in briefings before this Court. Please see my correspondence below with the Sheriff.
I can assure the Court that I have fully investigated these statements and are completely false. I also gave information to the Sheriff to be able to retrieve that information from his records, as he seized Mr. Stephanatos' computers.
The biggest bobmshell is the discovery of the Ron Lucas false testimony. I discovered that he was not even at the scene of the alleged assault. As the Court can realize, this is a bombshell of gigantic proportions. I have advised Mr. Stephanatos that he should be afraid of his life, as these revelations show some very deep corruption within the Sheriff Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor's office and these are armed people and have already shot and killed many innocent people under suspicious circumstances.
Please read the information provided below carefully. I fully stand behind my reporting.
Very Truly Yours,
I am an investigative reporter with Metro Forensics and I have been working on one of our Innocence Projects regarding "State v. Basilis Stephanatos". You are listed as the presiding judge and Mr. Feistein is the Defense Attorney.
We have discovered that significant amount of exculpatory evidence was not presented to the grand jurors and to this court. Recently, we discovered that Robert Del Vecchio filed false statements with the Passaic County Sheriff. These false statements were used to portray Mr. Stephanatos as a violent person during the grand jury proceedings and in briefings before this Court. Please see my correspondence below with the Sheriff.
I can assure the Court that I have fully investigated these statements and are completely false. I also gave information to the Sheriff to be able to retrieve that information from his records, as he seized Mr. Stephanatos' computers.
The biggest bobmshell is the discovery of the Ron Lucas false testimony. I discovered that he was not even at the scene of the alleged assault. As the Court can realize, this is a bombshell of gigantic proportions. I have advised Mr. Stephanatos that he should be afraid of his life, as these revelations show some very deep corruption within the Sheriff Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor's office and these are armed people and have already shot and killed many innocent people under suspicious circumstances.
Please read the information provided below carefully. I fully stand behind my reporting.
Very Truly Yours,
Barbara Williams
Investigative Reporter
Metro Forensics
barbarawilliams33@aol.com
Investigative Reporter
Metro Forensics
barbarawilliams33@aol.com
////////////-----------------------------------////
Office
of the Passaic County Sheriff
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
Dear Sheriff Berdnik/Mr.
Maer:
I have just
finished reading the following news report.
I provide the link where the information was found:
Here is an excerpt from that report.
Re: FALSE POLICE REPORT LEADS TO
INCARCERATION OF INNOCENT HOMEOWNER IN PASSAIC COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
"Mary Johnson"
<johnsonmary456@yandex.com>:
Recipient: rberdnik@pcsheriff.org
Dear Passaic County Sheriff Richard
Berdnik:
This is an informant tip. Before
I start, I must tell you that this information is 100% correct and I give you
the right to arrest me if you find that I have misled you or lied to you in any
way.
I have obtained the following
information directly from the sources.
Apparently, in May or June 2011, a
person named Robert Del Vecchio, Jr of Passaic County, New Jersey (he is a
lawyer) lied to the Passaic County Sheriff about threats made to him by a
person named Basilis (or Basil) Stephanatos of Wayne, New Jersey (also in
Passaic County). Apparently, Del Vecchio said to sheriff's officer Ronald
A. Lucas that Basilis Stephanatos had threatened him with violence few days
prior to a scheduled eviction on June 28, 2011. As a result, Del Vecchio
asked that several sheriff officers (including Lucas who was a Sworn Law
Enforcement Officer) dispatch to the location of the Stephanatos' residence
located at 687 Indian Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07670.
Specifically, Del Vecchio told Lucas
that Basilis Stephanatos had told him that he "will beg to be instead
fucked in the ass by a 5-ft long rhinoceros dick" if you try to evict him
from his residence.
These accusations of threats of
violence that Del Vecchio made were false. According to information I
obtained, Basilis Stephanatos never threatened Robert Del Vecchio with physical
violence because he never had any contact or communication with him during that
time.
Here is what happened:
In 2008, Robert Del Vecchio put a lien
onto Basilis Stephanatos' residential property for unpaid taxes that
Stephanatos was disputing due to alleged over assessment of his residence (in
fact, after the seizure of the Stephanatos' propety, Del Vecchio sold it for
$330,000 which is the fair market value of the property. However, the property
was assessed by Wayne Township at $475,000. This is about 40 percent
greater over-assessment and thus no taxes were legally owed by Basilis
Stephanatos- tragic, tragic, tragic situation).
In any event, around December 2008,
Robert Del Vecchio, Jr. (he was a lawyer for American Tax Funding, Inc.) sent a
letter to Basilis Stephanatos , notifying him that a lien has been placed onto
his property. Then on December 26, 2008, Basilis Stephanatos sent a
letter to Robert Del Vecchio demanding that the lien be removed. Basilis
Stephanatos wrote that he is filing a criminal complaint and other reporting to
the media. He basically threatened Robert Del Vecchio with legal action
and not physical violent threats.
This is what Basilis Stephanatos wrote
to Robert Del Vecchio in the December 28, 2008 letter:
"This
is not a threat – it is real. After you see what we have in store for
your client, you will beg to be instead fucked in the ass by a 5-ft long
rhinoceros dick for the rest of your life.
Mary Christmas
and Happy the New Year."
So, Stephanatos never threatened Del Vecchio with
violence (he only wrote about legal action) and certainly this was 2.5 years
prior to the June 28, 2011 incident.
Lucas then testified during the Grand Jury that Stephanatos
was a violent person and that he had threatened Del Vecchio few days prior to
the June 28, 2011 incident.
I was told that you should have the Stephanatos' letter
in your possession, should you want to confirm its authenticity.
Apparently you seized all his computers in 2011, so you should have a copy of
it.
I hope I have been helpful.
Thank you for your great service to our county.
Very Truly Yours,
Mary Johnson
As you know, filing false police
reports is a criminal offense in New Jersey (and in most states). Here is the criminal statute.
N.J.S.A. 2C:28-4. False Reports to Law
Enforcement Authorities
- Falsely incriminating another. A person who knowingly gives or causes to be given false information to any law enforcement officer with purpose to implicate another commits a crime of the fourth degree.
Do you have any comments to make to
these reports? Are you going to file
criminal charges against this Robert Del Vecchio, Jr.?
What about the Ron Lucas alleged
conspiracy to frame this homeowner? The
news report above provides some very significant details regarding what Lucas
did to frame him and then testify during the Grand Jury that Basilis
Stephanatos had threatened Robert Del Vecchio with violence – which turns out
to be false.
I am also reading that these
prosecutors, Walter Dewey and Peter Roby (I copy them on this comment request)
have been using the false statements of Lucas and Del Vecchio to support
charges against Basilis Stephanatos and to depict him as violent person. Which accusations appear to be false, from
what I can see. So, the Grand Jurors
were presented with intentionally false statements and lies from Del Vecchio
and Ron Lucas (who was not even at the scene) and they end up indicting
Stephanatos. Good Lord!
Sheriff, you seem to have some major
issues on-hand.
Are you going to present these
findings to a judge/jury
or are you going to suppress them and hide them from the courts as you did with
Stephanatos’ emails/phone records? Based
on this report, you never even gave a chance to this guy (Stephanatos) to defend
himself!!! Nice going!!
Any comments? This is bad publicity
for the Passaic County Sheriff. You need
to make it right. Or perhaps, you can hide this info
and attack the victim instead (Basilis Stephanatos).
Barbara Williams
Investigative Reporter
barbarawilliams33@aol.com
Investigative Reporter
barbarawilliams33@aol.com
CC:
Passaic
County Administration Building
401 Grand Street
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Main Number: 973-881-4800
Fax: 973-225-0155
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Main Number: 973-881-4800
Fax: 973-225-0155
Valdes, Roby, Dewey
////////////////////////-----------------------------/////////////////////////////////
Re: FALSE POLICE REPORT LEADS TO
INCARCERATION OF INNOCENT HOMEOWNER IN PASSAIC COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
"Mary Johnson"
<johnsonmary456@yandex.com>:
Recipient:
Dear Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik:
This is an informant tip.
Before I start, I must tell you that this information is 100% correct and I
give you the right to arrest me if you find that I have misled you or lied to
you in any way.
I have obtained the following
information directly from the sources.
Apparently, in May or June 2011, a
person named Robert Del Vecchio, Jr of Passaic County, New Jersey (he is a
lawyer) lied to the Passaic County Sheriff about threats made to him by a
person named Basilis (or Basil) Stephanatos of Wayne, New Jersey (also in
Passaic County). Apparently, Del Vecchio said to sheriff's officer Ronald
A. Lucas that Basilis Stephanatos had threatened him with violence few days
prior to a scheduled eviction on June 28, 2011. As a result, Del Vecchio
asked that several sheriff officers (including Lucas who was a Sworn Law
Enforcement Officer) dispatch to the location of the Stephanatos' residence
located at 687 Indian Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07670.
Specifically, Del Vecchio told Lucas
that Basilis Stephanatos had told him that he "will beg to be instead
fucked in the ass by a 5-ft long rhinoceros dick" if you try to evict him
from his residence.
These accusations of threats of
violence that Del Vecchio made were false. According to information I
obtained, Basilis Stephanatos never threatened Robert Del Vecchio with physical
violence because he never had any contact or communication with him during that
time.
Here is what happened:
In 2008, Robert Del Vecchio put a
lien onto Basilis Stephanatos' residential property for unpaid taxes that
Stephanatos was disputing due to alleged over assessment of his residence (in
fact, after the seizure of the Stephanatos' propety, Del Vecchio sold it for
$330,000 which is the fair market value of the property. However, the
property was assessed by Wayne Township at $475,000. This is about 40 percent
greater over-assessment and thus no taxes were legally owed by Basilis
Stephanatos- tragic, tragic, tragic situation).
In any event, around December 2008,
Robert Del Vecchio, Jr. (he was a lawyer for American Tax Funding, Inc.) sent a
letter to Basilis Stephanatos , notifying him that a lien has been placed onto
his property. Then on December 26, 2008, Basilis Stephanatos sent a letter
to Robert Del Vecchio demanding that the lien be removed. Basilis
Stephanatos wrote that he is filing a criminal complaint and other reporting to
the media. He basically threatened Robert Del Vecchio with legal action
and not physical violent threats.
This is what Basilis Stephanatos
wrote to Robert Del Vecchio in the December 28, 2008 letter:
"This
is not a threat – it is real. After you see what we have in store for
your client, you will beg to be instead fucked in the ass by a 5-ft long rhinoceros
dick for the rest of your life.
Mary
Christmas and Happy the New Year."
So, Stephanatos
never threatened Del Vecchio with violence and certainly this was 2.5 years
prior to the June 28, 2011 incident.
I was told that
you should have the Stephanatos' letter in your possession, should you want to
confirm its authenticity. Apparently you seized all his computers in
2011, so you should have a copy of it.
I hope I have
been helpful.
Thank you for
your great service to our county.
Very Truly Yours,
Mary Johnson
//-------------------------//////////////////////-------------------
//-------------------------//////////////////////-------------------
Passaic County
Administration Building
401 Grand Street
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Main Number: 973-881-4800
Fax: 973-225-0155
401 Grand Street
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Main Number: 973-881-4800
Fax: 973-225-0155
Dear
Ms. Valdes:
There are news releases in the media that suggest that the Chancery Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh has been issuing or allowing to issue "judgments of possession" and "writs of possession" although she never had subject matter jurisdiction over land possession issues. The Passaic County Sheriff would then execute these void judgments and writs, causing harm and injury to residents of this county.
What is a real explosive bombshell, is the fact that no hearings of land possession were ever held by this Judge. These are some very, very, very, serious, serious, serious allegations.
There are news releases in the media that suggest that the Chancery Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh has been issuing or allowing to issue "judgments of possession" and "writs of possession" although she never had subject matter jurisdiction over land possession issues. The Passaic County Sheriff would then execute these void judgments and writs, causing harm and injury to residents of this county.
What is a real explosive bombshell, is the fact that no hearings of land possession were ever held by this Judge. These are some very, very, very, serious, serious, serious allegations.
A judgment is
void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when the court has no authority to
adjudicate the controversy. See Bank v. Kim, 361 N.J. Super. 331, 339 (App.
Div. 2003) (mortgage foreclosure judgment void in violation of bankruptcy
automatic stay). Here, the Chancery court had no subject matter
jurisdiction over the property possession issue and thus any order issued by
that court was void, a legal nullity. Therefore, the sheriff was
enforcing a void (and fraudulent as well) court order.
Are you aware of these charges? From what the news reports say, this Judge (Margaret Mary McVeigh) has been refusing to respond. The Sheriff Berdnik also has not been talking and has directed the matter to you.
Perhaps you can shed a light into this situation. Any responses to the subject of illegal or void judgments of possession issued by the Chancery Judge McVeigh without any hearing?
I am attaching some of the news releases, FYI.
I look forward to your reply. This is a very serious matter, as you understand.
Sincerely,
Are you aware of these charges? From what the news reports say, this Judge (Margaret Mary McVeigh) has been refusing to respond. The Sheriff Berdnik also has not been talking and has directed the matter to you.
Perhaps you can shed a light into this situation. Any responses to the subject of illegal or void judgments of possession issued by the Chancery Judge McVeigh without any hearing?
I am attaching some of the news releases, FYI.
I look forward to your reply. This is a very serious matter, as you understand.
Sincerely,
Allison
Brown
allisonbrown26@aol.com
allisonbrown26@aol.com
/////////////////////-------------------------/////////////////////
Hon. Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh,
P.J.Ch.
Superior Court of New Jersey
Paterson Courthouse
Annex, Room 250
65 Hamilton Street
Paterson, New Jersey 07505-2018
Phone: (973) 247-8168
FAX: (973) 247-8172
Hon. Mary C. Jacobson
Assignment Judge
Mercer County Courthouse
P.O. Box 8068 Trenton, NJ 08650-0068
609-571-4000
Dear Chancery
Judge McVeigh and Assignment Judge Jacobson:
I believe
that I have given you plenty of time to respond to the VERY SERIOUS CHARGES
against you (see attached emails). As of now, you have failed to
respond. As you know, when a person has a duty to respond and fails to do
so, this silence can be used against that person as evidence of guilt.
All the news
reports indicate that because of your recklessness, or incompetency, or even
conspiracy, you injured thousands of property owners and that you forced people
out of their properties by issuing fraudulent "judgments of
possession" without having any subject matter jurisdiction and without
performing any hearing or trial and without providing any notice. Even
worse, when the shocked property occupant saw the eviction notices and asked
for the 6-month stay written in the NJ statutes, you refused to do that and
allowed the sheriff to forcefully throw these people onto the street. All
that without you having a subject matter jurisdiction and without performing
any hearing or fact finding or application of the law to the facts. You are
also charged of violating a number of New Jersey Court Rules: see R.
4:6-7, Pressler & Verniero, Current N.J. Court Rules, comment 1 on R. 4:6-7
(2015); 1:13-4. Transfer of Actions, Rule 1:7-4(a). DISGRACEFUL,
CORRUPT NEW JERSEY JUDICIARY.
THESE ARE
SOME PRETTY SERIOUS, HORRIFIC AND TERRIFYING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST YOU.
How do you
respond? The public and the victims await to hear from you. Please
do not continue to bring disgrace to the honorable New Jersey Judiciary.
Sincerely,
Emma Rogers
emmarogers456@aol.com
emmarogers456@aol.com
////////////////-------------------------///////////////////////////---------------------///////
Office
of the Passaic County Sheriff
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
Dear
Sheriff Berdnik/Mr. Maer:
There
are some news reports that the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh has been
issuing judgments of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction and
without performing any hearings. The news reports state that the Passaic
County Sheriff has been executing orders issued by this judge (Margaret Mary
McVeigh), although she had no subject matter jurisdiction over land
possession. The land possession is adjudicated in the Law Division,
Special Civil Part or regular Law Division.
As
you know, at least 20 individuals and entities pleaded guilty to defrauding
homeowners using tax foreclosure proceedings. One of the ways to do this
was to fool this Judge McVeigh into drafting the "judgments" or
"orders". For example, the accusations say that she apparently
allowed the issuance of a "Final Judgment" where the following
language was inserted by the convicted felon Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax
Funding, and others:
“AND IT IS
FURTHER ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the plaintiff dully recover against the said
defendant …possession of the premises… and that a Writ of Possession issue
thereon”.
This Chancery
Court judge had no jurisdiction over the subject matter of land
possession. As of today, she has refused to respond as to why did she
insert or allowed that language to be inserted into that "final
judgment"?
Further
accusations are that she never even held any hearing over the land possession
issue. Margaret McVeigh just merely allowed that language to be inserted
into the text, so that the convicted felon Robert Del Vecchio immediately
seizes the property of the land possessor without any due process and in
violation of several New Jersey statutes.
From
what we understand, you (the Passaic County Sheriff) executed these obviously
void and illegal judgments or orders despite the fact they were not issued by
the Law Division.
In
some cases, you forcibly removed the possessors of the land or tenants and that
you did cause damages. You then filed charges against homeowners who
would refuse to leave their properties by refusing to obey void judgments or
orders from a court that has no subject matter jurisdiction or personal
jurisdiction.
How
do you respond to such accusations or questions? Didn't you know that
only the Law Division has subject matter jurisdiction over property
possession? Did you know that land possession judgments/orders issued by
a Chancery Court are void and have no legal effect? Did you know that you
may be held liable for damages based on the Forceful Entry and Detainer
statutes?
I
look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Emma Rogers
emmarogers456@aol.com
emmarogers456@aol.com
/////////////////////////---------------------------//////////////////////
Dear Judge
Margaret McVeigh:
We have
uncovered some new HORRIFIC AND TERRIFYING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST YOU. You
apparently allowed the issuance of a "Final Judgment" where the
following language was inserted by the Plaintiffs (convicted felon Robert Del
Vecchio, American Tax Funding, and others):
“AND IT IS
FURTHER ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the plaintiff dully recover against the said
defendant …possession of the premises… and that a Writ of Possession issue
thereon”.
Of course you
had no jurisdiction of the subject matter of land possession. Why did you
insert or allowed that language to be inserted into that "final
judgment"?
The HORRIFIC
AND TERRIFYING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST YOU is that you never even held any hearing
over the land possession issue. You just merely allowed that language to
be inserted into the text, so that the convicted felon Robert Del Vecchio
immediately seizes the property of the land possessor without any due process
and in violation of several New Jersey statutes.
They did not follow the Wrongful Entry and Detainer Act and the Anti-Eviction Act, or the Summary Dispossess Act. As a result, they caused millions of dollars in damages by forcibly removing tenants or land possessors without due process.
They did not follow the Wrongful Entry and Detainer Act and the Anti-Eviction Act, or the Summary Dispossess Act. As a result, they caused millions of dollars in damages by forcibly removing tenants or land possessors without due process.
FYI, subject
matter jurisdiction can neither be conferred by agreement of the parties nor
waived as a defense, and a court must dismiss the matter if it determines that
it lacks subject matter jurisdiction. Macysyn v. Hensler, 329 N.J. Super. 476,
481 (App. Div. 2000) (indicating that such a motion can be made "at any
time"); see also R. 4:6-7; Pressler & Verniero, Current N.J. Court
Rules, comment 1 on R. 4:6-7 (2015).
How do you
respond to these new charges against you?
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Mary Brown
Crime Investigator
//---------------------///////////////-----------------
Crime Investigator
//---------------------///////////////-----------------
Dear Judge
Margaret McVeigh:
There are
numerous reports in the media that you have been issuing judgments of
possession or facilitating the issuance of same, although you have no subject
matter jurisdiction over land possession issues. The Law Division has
exclusive jurisdiction over land possession judgments and issuance of writs or
warrants - the Chancery Court has no jurisdiction over land possession issues,
yet you have been issuing judgments of possession and associated orders.
You know of course that such judgments are void ab initio, a legal nullity.
Apparently,
you have caused significant financial and other damage to residents of this
state as a result of your allegedly reckless or even criminal acts.
There are a
lot of people accusing you of corruption and even conspiracy to intentionally
damage homeowners and business owners through your reckless acts to ensure tax
collection. How do you plea? Many people are calling for your
arrest and resignation. See for example this post:
MEET THE CORRUPT AND/OR INCOMPETENT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH. SHE CONSPIRED WITH OR WAS MISLEAD BY ROBERT DEL VECCHIO, AMERICAN TAX FUNDING AND OTHER CONVICTED FELONS TO SIGN OFF ON JUDGMENTS OF POSSESSION WITHOUT HAVING SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OVER LAND POSSESSION ISSUES.
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
Do you have anything to say to these serious charges?
Did you issue or facilitated the issuance of judgments of possession or writs or warrants of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction? A simple YES or NO would suffice. The public and victims need to know.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this inquiry. We want to make sure that unfounded allegations are not released into the media.
Sincerely,
Mary Brown
Crime Investigator
NOTE: As of today's date (3-7-2016), this judge has not responded to the accusations above.
//------------------------///////////////////////--------------------
Office
of the Passaic County Sheriff
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
Dear
Sheriff Berdnik/Mr. Maer:
There
are some news reports that the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh has been
issuing judgments of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction and
without performing any hearings. The news reports state that the Passaic
County Sheriff has been executing orders issued by this judge (Margaret Mary
McVeigh), although she had no subject matter jurisdiction over land
possession. The land possession is adjudicated in the Law Division,
Special Civil Part or regular Law Division.
As
you know, at least 20 individuals and entities pleaded guilty to defrauding
homeowners using tax foreclosure proceedings. One of the ways to do this
was to fool this Judge McVeigh into drafting the "judgments" or
"orders". For example, the accusations say that she apparently
allowed the issuance of a "Final Judgment" where the following
language was inserted by the convicted felon Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax
Funding, and others:
“AND IT IS
FURTHER ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the plaintiff dully recover against the said defendant
…possession of the premises… and that a Writ of Possession issue thereon”.
This Chancery
Court judge had no jurisdiction over the subject matter of land
possession. As of today, she has refused to respond as to why did she
insert or allowed that language to be inserted into that "final
judgment"?
Further
accusations are that she never even held any hearing over the land possession
issue. Margaret McVeigh just merely allowed that language to be inserted
into the text, so that the convicted felon Robert Del Vecchio immediately
seizes the property of the land possessor without any due process and in
violation of several New Jersey statutes.
From
what we understand, you (the Passaic County Sheriff) executed these obviously
void and illegal judgments or orders despite the fact they were not issued by
the Law Division.
In
some cases, you forcibly removed the possessors of the land or tenants and that
you did cause damages. You then filed charges against homeowners who
would refuse to leave their properties by refusing to obey void judgments or
orders from a court that has no subject matter jurisdiction or personal
jurisdiction.
How
do you respond to such accusations or questions? Didn't you know that
only the Law Division has subject matter jurisdiction over property
possession? Did you know that land possession judgments/orders issued by
a Chancery Court are void and have no legal effect? Did you know that you
may be held liable for damages based on the Forceful Entry and Detainer statutes?
I
look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Emma Rogers
emmarogers456@aol.com
emmarogers456@aol.com
Samantha Diaz @diazsamantha751
MAJOR CORRUPTION
IN #PASSAIC COUNTY: CHANCERY JUDGE W/O SUBJECT MATTER
JURISDICTION ISSUED ILLEGAL JUDGMENT OR ORDER
@whitestacy4561
Bill
Stevens Retweeted Vince Sear
@vfdsear
CORRUPT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH ISSUED JUDGMENTS
OF POSSESSION W/O JURISDICTION http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html …
Patricia
Cook Retweeted Steve Sweeney
CORRUPT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH ISSUED JUDGMENTS
OF POSSESSION W/O JURISDICTION http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html … …
Mary Cook Retweeted
Mary Cook Retweeted
Beth
Smart Retweeted Sarah White
@whitesarah4561
CORRUPT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH ISSUED JUDGMENTS OF POSSESSION W/O
JURISDICTION http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html … https://twitter.com/kevinjotoole/status/707581559516372992 …
Mary
Peters Retweeted Maria Martinez
@martinezmaria43
Maria
Martinez Retweeted Helen Rivers
Maria
Martinez added,
@helenrivers60
MEET THE CORRUPT
AND/OR INCOMPETENT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH. SHE CONSPIRED WITH
ROBERT DEL VECCHIO,
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
THE CORRUPT AND/OR
INCOMPETENT CHANCERY JUDGE MCVEIGH. SHE
CONSPIRED WITH ROBERT DEL VECCHIO, AMERICAN TAX FUNDING AND OTHER CONVICTED
FELONS
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
TO SIGN OFF ON JUDGMENTS
OF POSSESSION WITHOUT HAVING SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OVER LAND POSSESSION
ISSUES.
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
MEET THE CORRUPT
AND/OR INCOMPETENT CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH. SHE CONSPIRED WITH
ROBERT DEL VECCHIO,
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
AMERICAN TAX FUNDING
AND OTHER CONVICTED FELONS TO SIGN OFF ON JUDGMENTS OF POSSESSION WITHOUT
HAVING SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION AND W/O ANY HEARING OR NOTICE
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html
--------------------//////////////////////-----------------
@Passaic_Sheriff
BREAKING!!! IS SHERIFF BERDNIK GOING TO RESIGN OVER THE DISCOVERED
LUCAS/D'AGOSTINO CONSPIRACY?
Reading that article, it says that Lucas was not even at the scene of the alleged assault. He later claimed that he was the one assaulted. However he has made so many errors in his reports and statements that it is obvious he was not there. He also claimed that he injured his left shoulder, but everybody who knew Lucas has reported that he was a well-known linebacker who had an already injured shoulder.
I am not going to bother you too much, but there are also reports that you have been enforcing void judgments or writs that were issued by an allegedly corrupt judge, the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh. See here, for a small sample of what is going on:
@AssemblyNJ
EXPLOSIVE!! CORRUPTION. JUDGE MCVEIGH ISSUED ORDERS W/O SJCT MATTER JRSD
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-corrupt-andor-incompetent-chancery.html …
@aSSEMBLYNJ @NJSENDEMS @GovChristie
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME. CLEANUP THIS CORRUPTION OR INCOMPETENCY IN THE JUDICIARY
@NJSenDems
RECKLESS JUDGE ISSUES ORDER W/O SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION, CAUSES $$$$
DAMAGES https://twitter.com/allisonbrown262/status/698580455772286977 …
Do you have anything to say regarding these reports?
I appreciate your time.
Thank you for keeping out county safe. But corrupt individuals or entities must be eradicated.
Very Truly Yours,
--------------------//////////////////////-----------------
Dear Sheriff Berdnik:
There are some news reports that you may be forced to resign following the discovery of the Lucas/D'Agostino conspiracy. For example, please see here:
There are some news reports that you may be forced to resign following the discovery of the Lucas/D'Agostino conspiracy. For example, please see here:
Mary Cook Retweeted
Reading that article, it says that Lucas was not even at the scene of the alleged assault. He later claimed that he was the one assaulted. However he has made so many errors in his reports and statements that it is obvious he was not there. He also claimed that he injured his left shoulder, but everybody who knew Lucas has reported that he was a well-known linebacker who had an already injured shoulder.
I am not going to bother you too much, but there are also reports that you have been enforcing void judgments or writs that were issued by an allegedly corrupt judge, the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh. See here, for a small sample of what is going on:
Samantha Diaz @diazsamantha751
MAJOR CORRUPTION IN #PASSAIC
COUNTY: CHANCERY JUDGE W/O SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION ISSUED ILLEGAL JUDGMENT
OR ORDER
Stacy White @whitestacy4561
Bill Stevens Retweeted Vince Sear
Vince Sear @vfdsear
Do you have anything to say regarding these reports?
I appreciate your time.
Thank you for keeping out county safe. But corrupt individuals or entities must be eradicated.
Very Truly Yours,
Emma Rogers
emmarogers456@aol.com
emmarogers456@aol.com
//---------------------------------///////////////////////////----------------------------
COMPLAINT
FOR LACK OF ETHICS OR COMPETENCY OR NEGLIGENCE AGAINST JUDGES MARY C. JACOBSON
AND MARGARET MARY MCVEIGH
Basilis
(Bill) N. Stephanatos
PO
Box 0520
Tenafly,
New Jersey 07670-0520
Phone:
(973) 897-8162
bstephanatos@gmail.com
____________________________________________________________
13 January 2014
Mr.
John A. Tonelli
Executive
Director
The
Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct (ACJC)
PO
Box 037
Trenton, NJ 08625-0037
Clerk's Office Tel.: Phone (609)
292-2552
Fax No.: (609) 292-6848
RE: AC.JC
2014-045 (Judges Mary C. Jacobson and Margaret Mary McVeigh)
CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH HAD NO SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OVER PROPERTY POSSESSION ISSUES, BECAUSE THESE ARE THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LAW DIVISION
The fraudulently issued judgment
never adjudicated the subject matter of land possession, as the Chancery courts
have no jurisdiction over land possession issues. Thus, the judgment was
void regarding the alleged adjudication of the possession of the Defendant’s
property. A judgment is void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when
the court has no authority to adjudicate the controversy. See Bank v. Kim,
361 N.J. Super. 331, 339 (App. Div. 2003) (mortgage foreclosure judgment
void in violation of bankruptcy automatic stay). Here, the Chancery
court had no subject matter jurisdiction over the property possession issue and
thus any order issued by that court was void, a legal nullity. Therefore,
the sheriff was enforcing a void (and fraudulent as well) court order.
I
HAD FILED TWO APPEALS FROM JUDGE JACOBSON AND MCVEIGH DECISIONS, BUT THESE TWO
JUDGES REFUSED TO STAY THE TAKING OF MY HOME AND MY BUSINESS UNTIL THE APPEALS
COURTS RULE.
I am providing additional material
in support of my complaint against the above-referenced judges.
In June 2011, Dr. Stephanatos had
filed a suit to vacate the tax deed (Passaic County, Law Division
L-2973-11). Dr. Stephanatos even sent a letter to the judges, to the
co-conspirators Robert Del Vecchio, Matthew Marini and the sheriff that appeals
are pending and they in fact responded to the letter, acknowledging the
appeals. That suit to vacate the tax deed was filed within the statutory
period of three months. Due to the refusal of the these two judges to
stay the proceedings to review what they have done, the fraudulent issuance of
an ex-parte writ of possession and the wrongful interference by the sheriff and
American Tax Funding, LLC of Dr. Stephanatos’ legal rights, the Law Division
did not hear that lawsuit.
CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH HAD
NO SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OVER PROPERTY POSSESSION ISSUES, BECAUSE THESE
ARE THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LAW DIVISION
The fraudulently issued judgment
never adjudicated the subject matter of land possession, as the Chancery courts
have no jurisdiction over land possession issues. Thus, the judgment was
void regarding the alleged adjudication of the possession of the Defendant’s
property. A judgment is void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when
the court has no authority to adjudicate the controversy. See Bank v. Kim,
361 N.J. Super. 331, 339 (App. Div. 2003) (mortgage foreclosure judgment
void in violation of bankruptcy automatic stay). Here, the Chancery
court had no subject matter jurisdiction over the property possession issue and
thus any order issued by that court was void, a legal nullity. Therefore,
the sheriff was enforcing a void (and fraudulent as well) court order.
Meanwhile, Dr. Stephanatos also
filed two appeals: one from the L-2672-09 case and one from the F-9241-09
case. The appeals were docketed as follows: A-4685-10 and A-3900-10
(appeal from L-2672-09) Team 4. At the same time, Dr. Stephanatos applied
for a stay from the foreclosure judgment, to ensure that a higher court and/or
a federal court hear his appeals. These two judges refused to stay the
proceedings, despite the fact I was keep telling them that what they are doing
is illegal. The sheriff officers and the judges were aware that appeals
and lawsuits were pending; they also knew that state law, allows Dr.
Stephanatos to stay in his home, because he has been using the home as his
residence continuously since 1995 (see N.J.S.A. 2A:39-7. Title not
inquired into; defense of 3 years possession “Title shall not be an issue in
any action commenced under this chapter. 3 years peaceable possession by the
defendant shall be a defense to the action” and that is why they acted with
haste and fraud and criminal intent to deprive Dr. Stephanatos of his home and
his business. This behavior by the two judges shocks the conscience,
implicating a substantive due process violation. This violation occurred
on June 28, 2011.
The State, the County, the Chancery
Court and the conspirators also violated the New Jersey Constitution, Article
I, paragraph 20 that states that Private
property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.
Individuals or private corporations shall not be authorized to take private
property for public use without just compensation first made to the owners.
·
no property possession hearings were ever held;
·
no bench trial was ever held by McVeigh on any issue before her;
·
no fact-findings and application of the law to the facts consistent with Rule
1:7-4(a) were ever held;
·
no pre-eviction notices were ever provided to the Defendant;
·
no stay of the proceedings were ever held consistent with § 2A:42-10.6;
It is crucial to report to the
Committee that the Sheriff and the Passaic County provide as a defense to the
federal complaint that
“Plaintiff never appealed the
underlying Court Orders which ordered him to vacate the subject premises,
therefore, the defendants acted within their purview under the cover of law -
regarding the underlying events;”
This defense is obvious not valid,
considering that Dr. Stephanatos had filed several appeals and had in fact
notified the Sheriff of the pendency of such appeals. Thus, the
motivation for the actions of the Sheriff and its employees is highly
suspicious.
On May 13, 2011, the Honorable Mary
C. Jacobson, P.J.Ch., entered a final ex-parte judgment against Dr. Stephanatos
in favor of American Tax Funding, LLC (“ATFH”). (Final Judgment annexed at Da44-46).
This ex-parte judgment was drafted by the lawyers for the convicted
conspirators, Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax Funding, et al. This final
ex-parte judgment contains the language “This judgment shall not affect the
rights of any person protected by the New Jersey Tenant Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A,
2A:18-61.1 et seq.)” (Da45). The significance of this clause is discussed
in this brief, infra.
Robert A. Del Vecchio is the
attorney for ATF, LLC, and he submitted a Certification (filed May 13, 2011),
stating, in part:
The aforementioned person is not protected by the provision of the
Anti-Eviction Act (the “Act”), as enunciated in the New Jersey Supreme Court
Case of Chase Manhattan Bank v. Josephson, since that Act applies to tenants and
this defendant is the prior owner of the property. His ownership rights
were foreclosed upon in the above-entitled action. (Da48).
The significance of this statement
by Robert DelVecchio is that the judgment only covered ownership and not
possession of the home of Dr. Stephanatos, who was also using his homestead as
the place of business (Metropolitan Environmental Services, PC and Metropolitan
Environmental Services). Mr. Del Vecchio, in addition to violating federal law
(the conspiracy with ATF to violate the Sherman Act) he also intentionally
conspired with ATF and the Passaic County employees to violate the possessory
rights of Dr. Stephanatos.
The judgment under the tax sale law
was supposed to cover only ownership of a property and not possession. In
fact, Del Vecchio himself wrote in the Application for an ex-parte Writ that
Dr. Stephanatos only lost the ownership rights – no possessory rights were ever
lost by Dr. Stephanatos, as he was in possession of his property continuously,
he did not owe any taxes due to the unlawful over-assessment of his property
and since state law protected his possessory rights. See N.J.S.A. 2A:39-1.
On September 30, 2014, Del Vecchio pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate
the antitrust laws of this state and the federal government’s.
Since Dr. Stephanatos was opposed to
any person entering his homestead property and had communicated this to the
sheriff and Del Vecchio, the possession of the property was supposed to be
determined by a Law Division judge pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A:39-1 that
prohibits unlawful entry onto a residential property:
With regard to any real property
occupied solely as a residence by the party in possession, such entry shall
not be made in any manner without the consent of the party in possession unless
the entry and detention is made pursuant to legal process as set out in
N.J.S.2A:18-53 et seq., as amended and supplemented. (Emphasis supplied).
This process mandates the
procurement of a Warrant of Removal. Del Vecchio and the sheriff
employees, with the blessing of Chancery Judges McVeigh and Jacobson,
who had no subject matter jurisdiction over property possession issues, did not
do that here, in a conspiracy to violate Dr. Stephanatos possessory and other
legal rights. These two corrupt “judges” issued void judgments of land
possession issues, although the Chancery Courts have no subject matter
jurisdiction over land possession, because these issues are adjudicated by the
Law Division. They also issued orders on an ex-parte basis, without performing
any fact-finding and without application of the law to the facts as is required
by New Jersey court rules. In fact, these individuals have pleaded
in the federal lawsuit that they were not aware that any appeal were pending
and that all issues had been adjudicated, when in fact no issues had ever been
adjudicated. They used these excuses as a pre-text to intentionally
violate Dr. Stephanatos’ possessory and other legal rights and caused him the
loss of his business, his home and the destruction of his business and personal
property. The damages they caused him are into the many millions of
dollars and that is the reason that Dr. Stephanatos was under such
extraordinary duress during the day of the incident.
Del Vecchio and ATF obtained only an
ex-parte judgment of possession by drafting the language to the corrupt or
incompetent Judge Margaret McVeigh and Jacobson of Mercer County (although the
property was located in Passaic County and Jacobson had no jurisdiction over a
property in Passaic County), an ex-parte writ of possession, upon the self-
certification of Del Vecchio that Dr. Stephanatos did not any possessory
interests protected by the Due Process Clause and/or the Anti-Eviction Act or
the Summary Dispossess Act. No Writ of Possession was obtained for Dr.
Stephanatos’ business, Metropolitan Environmental Services, and Metropolitan
Environmental Services, PC. These practices by these two individuals have
been criticized by the state of New Jersey and the Public Advocate Division.
See for example the following excerpt from the “Toolkit for Tenants Living
in Foreclosed Properties”, published by the Department of the Public
Advocate, Trenton, NJ 08625, dated March 2010:
Courts and Sheriffs In addition to
owners and those who work for them, the courts and sheriff officers sometimes
mistakenly target protected tenants during the foreclosure process. The writs
of execution and final foreclosure judgments are drafted by the attorneys for
the lenders. The attorneys sometimes use language in court papers that cause
problems because it seems to cover tenants (for example, “and any and all
persons occupying said premises”). Other times attorneys specifically name
tenants and certify (swear to the court) that those tenants are not covered by
the Anti-Eviction Act. This is especially problematic because tenants
often do not have the opportunity to demonstrate that they are in fact
legitimate tenants until after the removal has already been ordered by the
court and scheduled by the sheriff. If a court order specifically names a
tenant to be removed, the sheriff must evict that person. Sometimes, however,
sheriffs read the language in the order and believe that they must evict
everyone. Also, some notices that sheriffs create and post on property include
language, such as “occupants” instead of “owners,” that appears to include
tenants. The Attorney General distributed a memo to sheriffs regarding the
rights of tenants living in foreclosed properties.
Thus, the judges and the sheriff
knew of the practices of Del Vecchio and ATF; yet, the sheriff employees acted
as agents for Del Vecchio and intentionally violated Dr. Stephanatos’
possessory rights, including a host of other offenses. Dr. Stephanatos
had informed the two judges and the sheriff of these practices by Del Vecchio
and ATF and had alerted the authorities (the sheriff, the governor, the local
senator O’Toole, etc.) that these individuals are breaking a host of state and
federal laws. Dr. Stephanatos also filed appeals and suits to vacate the
tax deed.
The phone records also prove that it
was Dr. Stephanatos who called Judge McVeigh at 8:56 am, to ask for the status
of an application of a stay. It was Dr. Stephanatos who initiated that,
and not the judge or anyone else as the prosecutor fraudulently asserts in his
letter. This significant evidence proves beyond doubt that the only thing
Dr. Stephanatos wanted for a 6-month stay that is freely granted under all
circumstances and it is in fact codified under the statutes: see NJSA
§ 2A:42-10.6.
It was that simple: a
statute-based stay would have solved every issue, but the reckless judge
McVeigh did not do it for whatever reason. Perhaps this judge was
incompetent, reckless, ruthless, biased, usurped her authority, or whatever
else. It would have been up to the Grand Jurors to determine the role of
the State and County employees and determine whether they acted prudently or
whether they caused the escalation of the situation through their negligent,
reckless or even criminal conduct.
Another
crucial and clearly exculpatory evidence was that Metropolitan Environmental
Services, was not part of the Writ of Possession; and that the Sheriff was not
authorized to remove Defendant’s business from the premises; but the Sheriff
did it anyway; the evidence presented to the Court (the communications
between Metropolitan Environmental Services and the Sheriff) shows that the
Sheriff was aware that a tenant was present and that no Writ had been issued
for that tenant. This crucial evidence also indicates that Defendant had
the right to defend his business and business property from intruders or
attackers; no such instructions were provided to the Grand Jurors, as the
State intentionally refused to provide that evidence to the jury. Dr. Stephanatos
had valid factual defenses that were never presented and thus, the prosecutor
interfered with the investigation of the Grand Jury.
Dr.
Stephanatos never threatened anyone few days prior to the eviction, as the
prosecutor has fraudulently asserted in his response brief; the Court
should order the State to provide proof of these fraudulent assertions, as
these lies were also made to the Grand Jurors and painted Dr. Stephanatos as a
violent person and affected the jury’s decision to indict;
It was Dr.
Stephanatos who called Judge McVeigh to ask for a stay or check on the status
of a stay he had applied few weeks ago, pursuant to with
NJSA § 2A:42-10.6 that allows up to a six month stay; the Sheriff
SWAT team had sharpshooters and snipers pointing at Defendant’s chest and head
while he was talking to judge McVeigh and Dr. Stephanatos was fearful of his
life and that is why he told the Judge that there will be blood shed unless
there is a stay; a simple stay (allowed by the New Jersey statutes (and
granted by all courts) would have prevented this incident); but the
reckless State employees caused Dr. Stephanatos to be under stress and duress
by trying to remove his business without having a Writ.
However, the two judges (McVeigh and
Jacobson) refused to stay the proceedings and this is a crucial fact that the
jury of 12 citizens will consider in their deliberations: why there was
so much haste to remove Dr. Stephanatos from his residence and place of
business? Why there was not a stay so that all these issues are
adjudicated? A SIMPLE STAY OF THE PROCEEDINGS WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THE
INCIDENT ON JUNE 28, 2011. Now we have found out significant issues
with what these conspirators did and the violation of numerous laws of this
state.
The grand jury was never made aware
of these illegal acts, because the Passaic County prosecutor refused to allow
me to testify in the grand jury and omitted all the available defenses – A
CLEAR VIOLATION OF NEW JERSEY LAW AND A GRAND JURY MISCONDUCT.
I have suffered several many
millions of dollars in damages due mostly to the failure of these two judges to
ensure that all New Jersey laws and procedures and homeowner’s rights are not
violated. They failed to perform even the slightest due process and only
accepted as true the claims of Robert Del Vecchio (a convicted felon), and his
co-conspirators. Their behavior raises some serious ethical and
competency issues and this court (a Passaic County court) will preside and do a
fact finding of all these critical facts and issues that affect another Passaic
County court – this will look to a common sense citizen as a conflict of
interest. That is the reason we are asking to transfer the case to
another county.
Very
Truly Yours,
Bsilis
N. Stephanatos
---------------------------------------------
MILES FEINSTEIN, ESQ.
1135 CLIFTON AVENUE
CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY 07013
Attorney ID #: 233611966
Attorney for Defendant
Basilis N. Stephanatos
STATE
OF NEW JERSEY
Plaintiff,
v.
BASILIS
N. STEPHANATOS,
Defendant
|
SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
LAW DIVISION - PASSAIC COUNTY
Indictment No. 11-09-00810-I
Criminal
Action
RESPONSE
TO THE STATE’S OPPOSITION TO THE MOTIONS TO DISMISS AND TO OTHER OMNIBUS
MOTIONS
|
TO:
Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office
401 Grand Street
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Attn: Assistant Prosecutor Peter M.
Roby
FACTUAL
DEFENSES SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRESENTED TO THE GRAND JURY AS THEY WERE REFUTING THE
TESTIMONY OF THE STATE’S WITNESSES AND DISPROVING ELEMENTS OF THE ALLEGED
OFFENSES
The State is
confusing the “factual defenses” (or failure of proof defenses) with the
affirmative defenses. The existence of the emails and phone records are
failure of proof defenses because they refute the statements of Lucas and
D’Agostino that at 8:50 am they saw the Defendant pointing a gun at them behind
a storm door: the email records show that at 8:50 am the Defendant sent
an email to this client; the previous e-mail strings also show that the
Defendant was at his computer for several hours prior to 8:50 am.
It is
important to note that the State has just admitted that it was in receipt of
the email and phone logs of the Defendant and that it failed to provide them to
the Grand Jury or inform the grand jury of the existence of that factual information.
The record of the emails and the phone calls indicate that at 8:50 am, when the
Sheriff’s Process Service Unit arrived at the property, the Defendant was at
his home office at the back of the property, about 50 feet away from the
door. This evidence directly refutes the charges of assault at 8:50 am
and raises a reasonable doubt that the Defendant acted the way Lucas and
D’Agostino claim. If conclusive factual evidence refutes an element of
the alleged charge, then that evidence must be presented to the Grand Jury, as
the petit jury will dismiss the charges upon consideration of that
evidence. It is that plain and simple.
In fact, the
DVD of Sheriff transmissions provided in Exhibit C of the State’s response
brief corroborates the Defendant’s timeline facts, as it shows that calls were
made by the Sheriff employees after 8:55 am. If anything had happened at
8:50 am, then there would have been records of phone calls of these sheriff
employees at 8:51 or earlier. This information (that was available to the
State), directly refutes the assertion of the State witnesses (who have
obviously lied) and the Grand Jury would have investigated these factual
conflicts and perhaps subpoena the Defendant to testify. A simple
examination of the scene of the house would not have corroborated the testimony
of the sheriff employees and would have revealed that the Sheriff employees
lied and that their testimony is simply not believable, raising a reasonable
doubt that the events occurred the way these sheriff employees claimed they
did.
Furthermore,
Defendant has stated that his doors were all locked and closed. This
directly refutes the assertion of the State witnesses that Defendant’s door was
wide open. It is more likely than not that a reasonable juror would have
believed that the doors were all locked, as this is what people do to avoid
intruders inside their home or when people are planning to come and throw them
out of their business: people simply keep their doors closed and locked,
the same way the Defendant did. These factual assertions of the Defendant
are not “affirmative defenses”; they create reasonable doubt that the
events took place in the manner the State’s witnesses claim they did they
occurred and are a failure of proof of elements of the offenses.
The
prosecution should have let the Grand Jury know of the existence of the emails
and phone records. The prosecution should also have advised the Grand
Jury that the Defendant was willing to testify at the proceedings as he had
discussed with Mr. Carl Herman and had also let Mr. Walter Dewy know to that
effect. The Grand Jury then would have considered if it needs some
additional information or if it needs to subpoena the Defendant to testify and
so on. The State had already into its possession the letters sent by the
Defendant to Judge Reddin complaining about the failure of Mr. Herman to secure
his testimony at the Grand Jury. (See Opposition to the Motion to Revoke
Bail, dated March 1, 2012). Here is what the defendant included in that
letter:
Mr.
Herman:
·
Failed to submit my certification/affidavit to the grand jury;
·
Failed to secure my presence to the grand jury;
·
He never found out as to the why the state refused to allow me to testify at
the grand jury;
Obviously
I have been very dissatisfied with the services of Mr. Herman since he failed
to secure my grand jury testimony or at least the submission of a certification
or affidavit or the alibi (the electronic records proving beyond any doubt that
I was located 30 feet away from the location of the alleged offense and at the
time of the alleged offense) or other constitutional and statutory
defenses/privileges/justifications/immunities. We had agreed for me to
testify. That was the prime reason I hired him and paid him $3,500
upfront. But he failed completely in his duties and this resulted
in a fatal breach of trust and confidence on my part.
All this
factual information proves beyond any doubt that the Defendant had agreed with
Mr. Herman to testify at the Grand Jury proceedings. It is also a fact
that the Defendant has written and verbally stated many times that these two
sheriff employees lied about the events and that the charges are fraudulent and
not believable if they are subjected to slight scrutiny or pitted against the
email and phone records of the Defendant and the physical setting of the
residence.
It is important to note here that
the defendant’s home is in a wooded, remote and isolated area of Wayne, New
Jersey. There are no homes neighboring to the north. There is only
one home neighboring to the east (about 50 feet away) where there was only one
woman present. There is another home to the west (about 100 feet away)
where the owners were at work. Thus, the N.J.S. 2C:29-3b(2) charge is
also fraudulent, as less than five people and less than five habitations were
within 100 feet from defendant’s home. Defendant would have testified to
all these facts and would have caused the grand jury to return a no bill for
charge N.J.S. 2C:29-3b(2). This factual evidence also proves that the
sheriff employees lied when they filed these charges against the Defendant.
The two sheriff employees did not
wear the dark blue or black law enforcement uniforms and according to their
testimony, they did not identify themselves as law enforcement. In fact,
they never claimed that they ever announced themselves, such as knocking at the
door or ringing the doorbell, as per their testimony. They in fact
testified that they were sheriff employees, not police officers performing a
criminal investigation. Their duties during that day were not law
enforcement duties, because this was a civil matter. Defendant’s
testimony would have also returned a no bill, as he was not aware that the
sheriff employees were police officers; because they are not police
officers. The prosecutor is again fraudulently writing in his response
letter that the sheriff employees are in fact police officers, a very pathetic,
fraudulent, misleading and ludicrous assertion. In Exhibit A, we attach
copies of the original complaints filed by Lucas and D’Agostino. It can
be seen that these two individuals filed charges under section 2C:12-1B(4), as
they were not police officers. This factual evidence produced by the
State’s witnesses conclusively proves that even the sheriff employees did not
know that they were in fact police officers; but, instead they were sheriff
employees.
As further proof that the
2C:12-1B(4) statutes intended to protect law enforcement officers is an
examination of the statute 2C:12-1b(5). This is the statute that
addresses the assault on law enforcement officer or public employee, such a
sheriff. Under this statute, the assault upon a law enforcement
officer is included under 2C:12-1b(5)(a): Any law enforcement officer acting
in the performance of his duties while in uniform or exhibiting evidence of his
authority or because of his status as a law enforcement officer.
By contrast the assault on a sheriff
officer is included under section 2C:12-1b(5)(h): Any … sheriff, undersheriff,
or sheriff’s officer acting in the performance of his duties while in uniform
or exhibiting evidence of his authority.
Thus, the legislature has clearly
distinguished between a law enforcement officer and a sheriff officer.
These two groups of employees were not meant to be considered one and the same.
I believe that this analysis
conclusively proves that the statute 2C:12-1b(9) does not include sheriff
employees, but it was intended to protect police officers in their law
enforcement duties. Lucas and D’Agostino were sheriff’s officers wearing
sheriff officer uniforms and not police officers. The state legislature
would have most likely included the sheriff employees in the 2C:12-1b(9)
statute (the same way it did in 2C:12-1b(5)) and not simply leave it open to
interpretation or ambiguity.
The phone records also prove that it
was the Defendant who called Judge McVeigh at 8:56 am, to ask for the status of
an application of a stay, as is allowed by all eviction statutes. It was
the Defendant who initiated that phone as this factual evidence proves, and not
the judge or anyone else as the prosecutor fraudulently asserts in his letter
to this Court. This significant evidence proves beyond any doubt that the
only thing the Defendant wanted was a 6-month stay that is freely granted under
all circumstances and it is in fact codified under the statutes: see
NJSA § 2A:42-10.6.
It was that simple: a
statute-based stay would have solved every issue, but the reckless judge
Margaret McVeigh and the convicted conspirators did not do it for whatever
reason. Perhaps this judge was incompetent, reckless, ruthless, biased,
usurped her authority, or whatever else. It would have been up to the
Grand Jurors to determine the role of the State and County employees and the
conspirators and determine whether they acted prudently or whether they caused
the escalation of the situation through their negligent, reckless or even
criminal conduct, (improperly evicting a person is a criminal act in the State
of New Jersey).
Another
crucial and clearly exculpatory evidence was that Metropolitan Environmental
Services, was not part of the fraudulently obtained Writ of Possession; and
that the Sheriff was not authorized to remove Defendant’s business from the
premises; but the Sheriff did it anyway; the evidence presented to the
Court (the communications between Metropolitan Environmental Services and the
Sheriff) shows that the Sheriff was aware that a tenant was present and that no
Writ had been issued for that tenant. This crucial evidence also
indicates that Defendant had the right to defend his business and business
property from intruders or attackers; no such instructions were provided
to the Grand Jurors, as the State intentionally refused to provide that evidence
to the jury. The Defendant had valid factual defenses (not merely
affirmative defenses) that were never presented and thus, the prosecutor
interfered with the investigation of the Grand Jury and changing the outcome of
the Grand Jury proceedings.
The Defendant
never threatened anyone few days prior to the eviction, as the prosecutor has
fraudulently asserted in his response brief; the Court should order the
State to provide proof of these fraudulent assertions, as these lies were also
made to the Grand Jurors and painted the Defendant as a violent person and
affected the jury’s decision to indict; the Defendant vehemently denies
that few days prior to the eviction he had threatened the convicted criminal
conspirators.
The fraudulently issued judgment
never adjudicated the subject matter of land possession, as the Chancery courts
have no jurisdiction over land possession issues. Thus, the judgment was
void regarding the alleged adjudication of the possession of the Defendant’s
property. A judgment is void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when
the court has no authority to adjudicate the controversy. See Bank v. Kim,
361 N.J. Super. 331, 339 (App. Div. 2003) (mortgage foreclosure judgment
void in violation of bankruptcy automatic stay). Here, the Chancery
court had no subject matter jurisdiction over the property possession issue and
thus any order issued by that court was void, a legal nullity. Therefore,
the sheriff was enforcing a void (and fraudulent as well) court order.
As it was
stated earlier, it was the Defendant who called Judge McVeigh at 8:56 am to ask
for a stay or check on the status of a stay he had applied few weeks ago,
pursuant to with NJSA § 2A:42-10.6 that allows up to a six month
stay; the Sheriff SWAT team had sharpshooters and snipers pointing at
Defendant’s chest and head while he was talking to judge McVeigh and the
Defendant was fearful of his life and that is why he told the Judge that there
will be blood shed unless there is a stay; a simple stay (allowed by the
New Jersey statutes and routinely granted by all courts) would have prevented
this incident; but the reckless State and County employees caused the
Defendant to be under stress and duress by trying to remove his business
without having a Writ for removal of Metropolitan Environmental Services.
The current prosecutor, P. Roby, is
fraudulently attempting to mislead and lie to this Court by stating that the
Sheriff was there to evict the Defendant from his “business/home”.
However, the fraudulent Writ makes no mention of Defendant’s business, a legal
tenant at the property for many years. Now, the corrupt prosecutor is
claiming or appears to be claiming that the Writ covered both the Defendant and
his business. But it did not – there is no evidence to support this reckless
assertion and we are asking the Court to strike these responses of the state
and sanction the prosecutor.
In fact, there is no record that any
Judgment of Possession was adjudicated by any Law Division court.
Judgments of Possession and other eviction issues are in the jurisdiction of
the Law Division. See Exhibit B for the legal forms used by the Passaic
County courts to adjudicate the issue of possession. These proceedings
require a notice, and reason for the eviction, and an answer, and a court order
signed by a Law Division judge, and so on. We demand that the State
provides a copy of the judicial record showing that there was a trial or a
factual hearing where the issue of possession was adjudicated. If the
State fails to provide evidence of such record, then this Court must rule in
favor of the Defendant on the issue of the adjudication of the Judgment of
Possession and the subsequent Writ of Possession. No court ever
adjudicated the possession of the property by using the long-established
procedures listed above; NONE.
Please note that under the “Writ of
Possession” form in Exhibit B, it states the following:
“WHEREAS, on ________ by a certain
judgment of the Law Division Special Civil Part, PASSAIC in a cause therein
pending, ….”
Clearly, the conspirators were
required to file a suit in the Law Division, but they never did. This is
the crux of the matter. They in fact defrauded and lied to the various
courts and court clerks. Most likely, a conspiracy between the State,
County and the convicted criminals had been formed, to force out of their homes
people who were disputing their tax bills.
There is no record of any ejectment
or eviction proceeding ever held before any court that had jurisdiction over
such proceedings and over Defendant’s property and person. The state has
failed to provide any record that such proceedings were ever held and is lying
to this Court by claiming that “a Court-ordered Writ of Possession” was
issued. No court that had jurisdiction over the property ever adjudicated
a judgment of possession and therefore a Writ could not have been possibly been
issued.
Certainly, no such hearings were
ever held for the legal tenant Metropolitan Environmental Services. The
sheriff however, did evict this tenant from the premises in a total disregard
of the law of possession and the law of tenancy. Recklessness beyond belief.
The Grand Jurors were never informed of such illegal acts by the sheriff.
This fraudulent scheme was invented
by Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax Funding, and the other convicted
conspirators. Perhaps additional conspirators include the County and
Municipality and Judicial employees as they have violated the legal rights of
thousands of homeowners by using these fraudulent (and criminal) ex-parte
proceedings, without any hearing, without any findings of fact, without
application of facts to the law, by violating the constitutional rights of the
homeowners and so on. Absolute disgrace. This potential conspiracy
between the County, State and the convicted conspirators is the prime reason we
do not believe that fair trial and fair proceedings will be had in this County.
We hereby renew our Motion to Change Venue, based on the detailed discussion of
some of the factual evidence that was intentionally and willfully not presented
to the Grand Jurors.
Hogan
requires both exculpatory and inculpatory statements to be presented to the
grand jury, and so must this Court. Defendant had the right to have the
grand jurors hear both the incriminating and the exculpatory evidence, rather
than have certain information withheld by the Assistant Prosecutor. When
a witness presents a number of versions of his story, and when the Defendant
presents facts or testimony that is refuting the factual allegations of the
state witnesses, all the statements must be presented to the grand jury in
order for the grand jury to properly carry out its investigative function with
the level of fairness to which defendant is entitled. The grand jury
"was deprived of its right to investigate and its ultimate task of
determining whether the State did in fact present a prima facie
case." Hogan, , 281 N.J. Super. at 299, 657 A.2d 462. State
v. Epps, 284 N.J. Super. 373 (N.J. Super. App. Div. 1995 (dismissing the
indictment for failure to provide both exculpatory and inculpatory statements
to the Grand Jury).
In Hogan, the Assistant
Prosecutor argued in the trial court that it was in her discretion to present
the evidence to the grand jury. Because she personally did not believe the
recantation, and believed it was coerced, and therefore not credible, she
argued she did not have to present the evidence to the grand jury. Id.
at 296, 657 A.2d 462. The court stated:
The prosecutor contends that her
duty to disclose only arises if the statement is exculpatory and if the
prosecutor believes it to be truthful. This cannot possibly be the
determinative basis for the decision whether to disclose evidence to the grand
jury. The standard for prosecutorial conduct may not rest on a prosecutor's
belief. The decision whether to indict is solely entrusted to the grand jury,
which must decide "whether a prima facie case has been made out."
*379379
[ Ibid. (citing Trap Rock
Industries v. Kohl, 59 N.J. 471, 487, 284 A.2d 161 (1971), cert.
denied, 405 U.S. 1065, 92 S.Ct. 1500, 31 L.Ed.2d 796 (1972)).]
Similarly
here, the prosecutor argues that he believes that the Defendant’s emails and
phone records are incriminatory and that they would not have made any
difference in the Grand Jury’s decision whether a prima facie case has been
made out. However, what the prosecutor thinks of the evidence or the
testimony of the witness is irrelevant. The email records and the phone
call record of the sheriff and the Defendant show that the Defendant was not
pointing a gun at both Lucas and D’Agostino at 8:50 am as he was 50 feet away
behind his business computer. Basically, the State’s witnesses’ testimony
is fully contradicted by reliable electronic and physical evidence.
Although the Grand Jury proceedings are not supposed to be adversarial ones,
the prosecutor must present evidence that will tend to disprove the elements of
the state’s charges or that would shed reasonable doubt that elements of the
alleged offenses ever took place. The bottom line is that the prosecutor
decided to withhold from the Grand Jury reliable electronic evidence and
eye-witnesses and the grand jury "was deprived of its
right to investigate and its ultimate task of determining whether the State did
in fact present a prima facie case." Hogan, supra, 281 N.J.
Super. at 299, 657 A.2d 462.
Because a target has neither a right
to testify before the grand jury nor to have the grand jury hear any particular
evidence, the target is completely dependent on the prosecutor to inform the
grand jury of exculpatory evidence. Although a prosecutor is not required
to present “all possibly exculpatory evidence” to a grand jury, he or she must
alert the grand jurors to the existence of “important exculpatory evidence.” In
that category, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts includes
“exculpatory evidence that would greatly undermine the credibility of an
important witness, [other] evidence likely to affect the grand jury’s
decision,” as well as evidence the withholding of which would cause the
presentation to be seriously tainted. The evidence proffered by the
Defendant demonstrates that the withheld evidence would have distorted or
“greatly undermined” the credibility of the evidence presented to the Grand
Jury.
The evidence standard before the
Grand Jury is whether there is “evidence, which if uncontradicted and
unexplained, would carry the case to a jury and justify the conviction of the
accused.” Trap Rock Industries. Inc., v. Kohl, 59 N.J. 471 (1971).
While this evidential burden may seem low, it provides an important protection
to citizens by preventing the State from abusing its power and bringing
criminal charges that lack any basis in the evidence or they are contradicted
by other evidence or witness testimony. Sufficiency of the evidence is
not the decision point; the evidence presented must be uncontradicted and
unexplained – this is the key decision point. Here, all the evidence
presented to the Grand Jury has been contradicted and fully explained by the
Defendant’s proffered evidence. Protecting our citizens against the
possibility of unfounded criminal charges is the most important function of the
grand jury.
Here, all the
statements presented to the jurors were also false or fraudulent and the
Defendant was prepared to testify and provide evidence that would have refuted
necessary elements of each offense that he was charged with and would have
contradicted and explained testimony presented by the State. The
Defendant would have testified, among other important facts, that
·
that no court had adjudicated a Judgment of Possession through an eviction
hearing or a summary dispossess hearing;
·
that the Chancery Court had no subject matter jurisdiction over a land
possession issue, as such issues are the jurisdiction of the Law Division; and
therefore, all possession orders issued by Chancery Court were void ab initio,
with no legal effect, a complete nullity;
·
that no court had ordered a writ of possession to be issued, following an
eviction hearing (a property possession hearing); it was the conspirator Robert
Del Vecchio who falsified forms presented to a judge in Mercer County (Judge
Jacobson) and put language to indicate that the possession issue had been
adjudged – but it had not been adjudicated by any court – THIS IS AN
EXTRAORDINARY IMPORTANT POINT FOR THE COURT TO UNDERSTAND;
·
that he did not know that Sheriff employees were “police officers” as the State
fraudulently states in its brief;
·
that the Sheriff employees were not wearing the dark “police officer” uniforms,
but they were wearing Sheriff civil division uniforms;
·
that the individuals peering through Defendant’s side windows never announced
that they were “police officers” or sheriff officers;
·
that a young (neither bold and no facial hair) Sheriff employee was illegally
peering through Defendant’s side window; and that he slipped and fell as he was
standing at the very edge of the porch and was illegally trying to look inside
Defendant’s home at about 8:53 am, about 3 minutes after he arrived at the
porch at 8:50 am;
·
that Lucas (he may have been the sworn law enforcement officer on duty that
day) was not the one peering through that side window and that he was located
at least 50 feet away near his sheriff vehicle;
·
that Lucas formed a conspiracy with the other Sheriff employees to testify that
he was the one sitting on the porch of the Defendant’s home; the reason
is that none of the other sheriff employees were sworn law enforcement
officers;
·
that Lucas has testified that it was hard to see inside the home because of the
sun reflection, further corroborating Defendant’s facts presented in the Motion
to Dismiss;
·
that a Writ of Possession does not allow the Sheriff to peer through
inaccessible windows or perform illegal search especially if the Plaintiff (the
conspirators, Robert Del Vecchio, ATF, et al.) has not arrived at the property;
·
that a Warrant for Removal issued by a Law Division Judge was required to
remove the Plaintiff from his home or business and that the Sheriff did not
have a Warrant and that no such Warrant for Removal was ever obtained from a
Law Division court;
·
that the Plaintiff representative (the conspirators Robert Del Vecchio, ATF, et
al) were not present during the Sheriff illegal peering through the window(s)
of Defendant’s home;
·
that the County, the Chancery Court
and the conspirators also violated the New Jersey Constitution, Article I,
paragraph 20 that states that Private
property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.
Individuals or private corporations shall not be authorized to take private
property for public use without just compensation first made to the owners.
And that under no circumstances private property can be taken by private
entities and that no court can issue orders to that effect, taking private
property fully owned by the Defendant and delivering it to a third, private
party;
·
That no property possession hearings (eviction hearings) or summary dispossess
proceedings were ever held before any court of proper jurisdiction, in
violation of New Jersey law – the State has not and cannot provide evidence
to this Court that a Property Possession hearing (an eviction hearing) ever
took place; the conspirators simply fooled a Court Clerk in Mercer County
into believing that the property possession had been adjudicated;
·
no bench or other trial was ever held by McVeigh on any issue before her;
·
no fact-findings and application of the law to the facts consistent with Court
Rule 1:7-4(a) were ever held; and that the Court of Appeals would have vacated
every order that had been issued;
·
no pre-eviction notices were ever provided to the Defendant, as is required by
New Jersey Law;
·
no stay of the proceedings for up to six months were ever held authorized under
NJSA § 2A:42-10.6 and no notices were provided by the conspirators
advising the Defendant to apply for a stay;
·
that during the execution of a Writ of Possession, the Sheriff is not allowed
to brake the door or enter the premises without the owner being present; and
that the Sheriff in this case did just that or attempted to do that without the
conspirators being present;
·
that Defendant’s business, Metropolitan Environmental Services, was not part of
the Writ of Possession; and that the Sheriff was not authorized to remove
Defendant’s business from the premises; but the Sheriff did it anyway;
·
that Defendant never threatened anyone few days prior to the eviction, as the
prosecutor has fraudulently asserted in his response brief; the Court
should order the State to provide proof of these fraudulent assertions, as
these lies were also made to the Grand Jurors and painted the Defendant as a
violent person and affected the jury’s decision to indict;
·
that it was the Defendant who called Judge McVeigh to ask for a stay or check
on the status of a stay he had applied few weeks ago, pursuant to with
NJSA § 2A:42-10.6 that allows up to a six month stay;
·
that the Sheriff SWAT team had sharpshooters and snipers
pointing at Defendant’s chest and head while he was talking to judge McVeigh
and the Defendant was fearful of his life and that is why he told the Judge
that there will be blood shed unless there is a stay; a simple stay
(allowed by the New Jersey statutes (and granted by all courts) would have
prevented this incident);
·
that several appeals were pending, including a Suit to Vacate the Tax
Deed; and that THE Sheriff employees now claim that they did not know
that appeals and suits were pending;
·
that the Defendant was forced out of his home by the threats made by Sheriff
officer Celix that the SWAT team will break into his home if he does not get
out; Defendant hereby requests that the phone conversations between Celix and
him become available to the Defendant;
·
that at 1:30 pm, the SWAT team got the go-ahead to use excessive and
unnecessary force and break into Defendant’s home without having a Warrant;
·
that at no time did anyone told the Defendant that he was under arrest;
·
that at no time did anyone told the Defendant that he had committed any
offense;
·
that at no time did anyone told the Defendant that an arrest warrant had been
issued for his arrest;
·
that at no time did the Defendant barricaded the door or windows or the
property;
·
that the Defendant only wanted (and had the right) to protect his business and
business property that was not part of the fraudulent Writ of Possession,
pursuant to NJSA 2C:3-6 (defense of premises NJSA 2C:3-6(a) and (b) and defense
of personal property (NJSA 2C:3-6(c) and (d));
·
that Defendant’s property was sold for $330,000, representing the fair market
value of the property; while the Wayne Township has over assessed the
property at almost $500,000; this is more than the 15% allowance on
over-assessments and that as result no taxes were due to the Township, as a
matter of law;
·
that the Tax Assessor of Wayne Township sent a letter to the Defendant stating
that no assessments had been performed since 1995;
·
that flooding in Passaic County had reduced the property values, including the
Defendant’s and had communicated so with the Assessor.
·
that the former home of the Defendant was located in an isolated and wooded
area of Wayne where less than 5 people and less than 5 habitations were located
within 100 feet from the property;
·
that Lucas was not the person illegally peering through Defendant’s side
window, as the Defendant has recently obtained a photo of Lucas and he is not
the person that he saw having stuck his face onto the side window;
Defendant remembers a young person peering through his side window; that person
had full set of hair and no facial hair, while Lucas is in his 50s and has
facial hair and he is very-very bold. The young sheriff employee was in
his late 20s to early 30s and had full set of hair and also had very sharp eyes
illegally searching inside the residence as the Defendant did not answer the
door at 8:50 am. Defendant hereby requests a list of the names of all
Sheriff employees who were originally dispatched at the 687 Indian Road
property at 8:50 am. This is obviously a bomb-shell, as it will expose
the conspiracy among these Sheriff employees to frame the Defendant.
·
I am attaching the original charge filed by Lucas on 6/28/2011 under Section
NJS 2C:17-2C. As you see, he wrote the reason for the charge is “PLACING
SLIVER[sic] METAL CONTAINER ON HIS FRONT STEPS CAUSING THE EVACUATION OF
NEIGHBORS. As you know by now, this was a BLACK PLASTIC SAFETY CONTAINER
FOR MY BUSINESS INSTRUMENT placed there to be picked up by the vendor, Pines
Environmental. Note that Lucas writes: “SLIVER [sic]” (he meant silver).
However, this was a black plastic instrument case. This is another
clue telling me that Lucas was not there to eye-witness the instrument.
THIS IS VERY
SERIOUS ALLEGATION AND THIS COURT MUST PERFORM AN URGENT INVESTIGATION.
The above is
just a summary of the factual contentions of the Defendant. These factual
contentions, along with physical corroborating evidence, refute the allegations
of the State witnesses and refute elements of the alleged offenses by facts and
testimony and other physical and printed corroborating evidence that clearly
exculpate the Defendant or at least place reasonable doubt upon necessary
elements of the charged offenses.
A Defendant’s statement
denying involvement in an alleged offense, although such a statement directly
negates guilt, ordinarily would not be sufficiently credible to be ‘clearly
exculpatory,’ and need not be revealed to the grand jury.
[Hogan, Id. at 237–38.
However, in this case the testimony
of the Defendant would have provided not just a mere statement of not-guilty,
but consists of numerous eyewitness observations, and corroborating emails and
phone records, and written material and photographs and detailed description of
the physical setting and the surroundings that would have greatly assisted the
Grand Jury in its investigation. In this particular case, it is important
to note that the State has not provided not a single physical corroborating
evidence to the Grand Jury and also has not provided any corroborating witness
to the Lucas and D’Agostino testimony.
The Appellate Division, in John
Hogan, supra, correctly observed that a prosecutor’s obligation
to instruct the grand jury on possible defenses is a corollary to his
responsibility to present exculpatory evidence. 336 N.J. Super. at 341.
Since Defendant’s home and Defendant’s business and personal property was
involved, the State should have presented the defenses of one’s person, the
defense of his dwelling, the defense of his business and the defense of his
property (both business and personal). In Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss,
as well as in this reply brief, the Defendant has presented numerous facts that
clearly warranted an instruction of the Defense of Home, Defense of Property,
Duress, Entrapment and Self-Defense.
New Jersey self-defense law permits
citizens to use force against unlawful intrusion into their homes, curtilage,
or occupied motor vehicles by any person, including public servants. This
law altered the landscape of the Castle Doctrine by extending legal protection
to those who would use force against the police.
In the Preamble to the New Jersey
Self-Defense Act, an act concerning the protection of persons and property,
amending N.J.S.2C:3-4 and N.J.S.2C:3-6, introduced in the assembly and the senate
for the 2010 session, the [New Jersey] Legislature finds and declares that:
a. It is proper for law-abiding
people to protect themselves, their families and others from intruders and
attackers without fear of prosecution or civil action for acting in defense of
their own well-being and the well-being of others.
b. The "Castle Doctrine"
is a long-standing American legal concept arising from English Common Law
that provides that one's abode is a special area in which one enjoys
certain protections and immunities, that one is not obligated to retreat
before defending oneself against attack, and that one may do so without
fear of prosecution.
c. Article I of the New Jersey
Constitution guarantees the citizens of this State the rights "of enjoying
and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting
property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness."
d. The Second Amendment to the
United States Constitution affords the people of this nation the right to keep
and bear arms.
e. All who reside in and all who
visit this State have a right to expect to be unmolested and safe within their
homes, residences and vehicles.
f. No person should be required, as
a point of law, to surrender their personal safety or well-being to the unlawful
actions of a criminal, nor to needlessly retreat in the face of intrusion or
attack.
g. It is, therefore, altogether
fitting and proper, and within the public interest, to ensure that law-abiding
people are justified in protecting themselves, their families and others from
intruders and attackers, and that they may do so without fear of prosecution or
civil action.
DEFENSE
OF PREMISES (N.J.S.A. 2C:3-6(a) and (b))
The State failed or refused to
charge the Grand Jury with the ordinary defense of the Defense of Premises N.J.S.A.
2C:3-6(a) and (b). The burden of proof is upon the State to
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force by the Defendant was not
justified. Here is what the Model Jury instructions provide for this
defense:
A
section of our criminal law provides that ......... the use of force upon or
toward the person of another is justifiable when the actor is in possession or
control of premises or is licensed or privileged to be thereon and he
reasonably believes such force necessary to prevent or terminate what he
reasonably believes to be the commission or attempted commission of a criminal
trespass by such other person in or upon such premises.[1]
A
reasonable belief is one that is not recklessly or negligently held[2]; it is a belief that would be held by a
person of ordinary prudence and intelligence situated as defendant was.
As the statute indicates, the defense of property exonerates a person who uses
force in the reasonable belief that such action was necessary to prevent or
terminate the commission or attempted commission of a criminal trespass, even
though his/her belief was later proven mistaken. Accordingly, the law
requires only a reasonable, not necessarily a correct, judgment.[3]
A
person commits a criminal trespass if, knowing that he is not licensed or
privileged to do so, he enters or surreptitiously remains in any research
facility, structure, or separately secured or occupied portion thereof.[4]
BURDEN
OF PROOF [ALL CASES]
The burden of proof is upon the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
the use of force by the defendant was not justified. Thus, if you find
that the State has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant
committed _________________________ [the crime[s] charged in the indictment]
and has also proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not
justified in using force, then your verdict must be guilty. But if you
have a reasonable doubt whether his/her use of force was justified, then your
verdict must be not guilty.
The State has falsely stated that
this is an affirmative defense. In an affirmative defense, the defendant
has the burden to prove the defense by a preponderance of evidence.
However, the above Model Jury instructions clearly state that the burden is on
the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force by the
defendant was not justified. Thus this is not an affirmative defense and
it should have been charged to the Grand Jury.
Defendant provided affidavits or
certifications to Mr. Herman for submittal to the grand jury, but Mr. Herman
failed to do so. Defendant had evidence provided to Mr. Herman proving
that at the time the complainants claim he was standing at his front door, he
was in fact sitting in front of his computer, sending emails to his
clients. These proofs would have established that defendant could not
have acted the way the complainants allege. Also, the record reveals that
counsel advised defendant of his right to testify before the grand jury and
defendant eagerly decided to do so. Defendant was eager, willing and ready
to testify and took the liberty to contact Mr. Dewey multiple times to
ask as to when he can testify in the grand jury proceedings.
However, defendant did not testify
to the grand jury due to omissions by Mr. Herman and the acts of the
prosecutors and no exculpatory or
defenses/justifications/privileges/immunities were ever presented to the grand
jurors. Defendant did not testify regarding the elements of
knowledge, purpose, or intent or scienter of the individual offenses.
Should defendant have testified to the grand jury on his alibi and his
defenses/justifications, he would have been exonerated of all charges.
POST SALE
PROCEDURE FOR MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE CASES
We are
providing below a summary from a document entitled Practical
Guide to Foreclosures and Foreclosure Alternatives, by Ralph F. Casale, Esq.,
2008, 290 Route 46 West, Denville, New Jersey 07834
to show to this Court that in order for a person to be evicted the new owner
must initiate a legal process and is required to obtain a Judgment of
Possession, followed by a Writ of Possession.
The procedure listed below is for
mortgage foreclosures and subsequent evictions. The present case is a
so-called tax-lien foreclosure. In the present case, the conspirators
were mandated to initiate eviction proceedings and obtain a Judgment for
Possession followed by a Warrant for Possession or Warrant for Removal, but
they never did. There is not record that an eviction proceeding ever took
place and the State has not (and cannot) provide with any proof that a Judgment
for Possession legal proceeding ever took place. As we have explained to
this Court, the circumvention of the New Jersey legal procedures was part of
the conspiracy scheme to defraud homeowners of their properties.
In a mortgage foreclosure case, if the lender is the successful bidder, the sheriff will provide a deed in due course which is then recorded.
The lender then is burdened
with selling the premises
which obviously incurs more time and costs. The premises must be brought to saleable condition, there are the usual realtor
commissions, transfer taxes and if not current, past due real estate taxes and possibly
condominium association fees.
More often than not the former borrowers still occupy the premises.
In order to sell and close the property must be vacant. The lender can try to persuade the borrowers to vacate the premises
voluntarily. Many lenders
try to provide “cash for keys”.
Sometimes the
incentive of a cash payment from the lender is enough to convince
the borrowers to vacate. Most often however,
the lender must evict the occupant of the premises. If the occupants
are the former borrowers, the process is accomplished through a Judgment of Possession, followed by a Writ of Possession
and affected through the sheriff
of the county. The process usually takes an additional
three to six months. The lender can expect the borrower to apply to the court
for the extension of the eviction
for a variety of reason and the courts are generally very liberal in extending the date. Once the final eviction date is established, the lender must provide
a representative at the designate
time at the property
along with a locksmith and mover. The sheriff only attends the eviction to insure and peaceful turnover
of the property. The sheriff is not supposed to do anything and
must wait for the arrival of the owner or its representative.
If
the premises are occupied
by persons other than the borrowers
or their relatives, the eviction process is subject to applicable tenancy
laws. This is also crucial for
this Court to note, as a tenant, Metropolitan Environmental Services, was
present at the premises. New Jersey has what is generally
referred to as an anti-eviction statute. The statute’s effect is that as long as a (tenant(
pays the rent, the
landlord cannot evict the tenant. There must be a reason for the tenant to
be evicted. There are several steps the lender and its attorney must follow to eventually effect an eviction. Suffice it to say that the process is much slower than the eviction of the former borrowers. Several legal issues arise. Are the premises
properly registered with the municipality; what can the lender/landlord reasonably demand as monthly rent; should the lender offer a lease and if
so, on what terms; if
the property
is a multi-family, is it in compliance with applicable state regulations effecting multi-family dwellings; what if the property is a FHA Section 8 premises?
Clearly the lender must be in close communication with its attorney
who hopefully is well versed in this area of the law. Without going into all the intricacies of the process,
assuming the tenant does not pay the rent, a tenancy
action is instituted which will eventually result in a Warrant
for Removal which is effected
by a constable along with a
representative of the lender/landlord, locksmith
and mover.
Source: Practical Guide to
Foreclosures and Foreclosure Alternatives, by Ralph F. Casale, Esq., 2008, 290
Route 46 West, Denville, New Jersey 07834.
Similar procedure is followed in tax
lien foreclosure case, with the significant difference that in residential
properties (such as the one at hand) instead of a Writ of Possession, the
Sheriff must obtain a Warrant. Here, the Sheriff failed to obtain a
Warrant.
The application of the New Jersey
land possession statutes is explained in detail in Gary LEVIN and Donna Levin,
Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Adrian LYNN, et al., 310 N.J. Super. 177, decided
April 1998, Appellate Division A-1537-96T2.
“The references therein, to N.J.S.A.
2A:18-53 et seq. and N.J.S.A. 2A:39-2 et seq., are to the statutory provisions
concerning, respectively, summary dispossess proceedings instituted in the
Special Civil Part, and Superior Court actions to establish either title or the
right to possession of real property, and the intent of those amendments is
clearly to prohibit a landlord or anyone else from taking possession of
residential premises without following judicial procedures. In the case of a
summary dispossess proceeding (which is the method employed by the Millers to
obtain a judgment of possession against plaintiffs here) that procedure
includes the landlord's obtaining of a warrant for possession. N.J.S.A.
2A:18-57. And, it should be noted that in any action seeking possession of a
residential property, the issuance of that warrant can be delayed, for good
cause, for as long as six months:
[I]n any action brought by a
landlord against a tenant to recover possession of premises or unit used for
dwelling purposes, to which this act is applicable, whether by summary
dispossess proceedings, civil action for the possession of land, or otherwise,
the judge of the court having jurisdiction shall use sound discretion in the
issuance of a warrant or writ for removal or writ of possession, and if it
shall appear that by the issuance of the warrant or writ the tenant will suffer
hardship because of the unavailability of other dwelling accommodations the
judge may stay the issuance of the warrant or writ and cause the same to issue
at such time as he shall deem proper under the circumstances, but in no case
shall such judge stay the issuance of any such warrant or writ for possession
for a longer period than 6 months after the date of entry of judgment of
possession․
[N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.6.]”
These practices by these convicted
criminals have been criticized by the state of New Jersey and the Public
Advocate Division. See for example the following excerpt from the “Toolkit
for Tenants Living in Foreclosed Properties”, published by the Department
of the Public Advocate, Trenton, NJ 08625, dated March 2010:
Courts and Sheriffs In addition to
owners and those who work for them, the courts and sheriff officers sometimes
mistakenly target protected tenants during the foreclosure process. The writs
of execution and final foreclosure judgments are drafted by the attorneys for
the lenders. The attorneys sometimes use language in court papers that cause
problems because it seems to cover tenants (for example, “and any and all
persons occupying said premises”). Other times attorneys specifically name
tenants and certify (swear to the court) that those tenants are not covered by
the Anti-Eviction Act. This is especially problematic because tenants
often do not have the opportunity to demonstrate that they are in fact
legitimate tenants until after the removal has already been ordered by the court
and scheduled by the sheriff. If a court order specifically names a tenant to
be removed, the sheriff must evict that person. Sometimes, however, sheriffs
read the language in the order and believe that they must evict everyone. Also,
some notices that sheriffs create and post on property include language, such
as “occupants” instead of “owners,” that appears to include tenants. The
Attorney General distributed a memo to sheriffs regarding the rights of tenants
living in foreclosed properties.
Thus, the judges and the sheriff
knew of the practices of Del Vecchio and ATF; yet, the sheriff employees acted
as agents for Del Vecchio and intentionally violated Dr. Stephanatos’
possessory rights, including a host of other offenses. Dr. Stephanatos
had informed the two judges and the sheriff of these practices by Del Vecchio
and ATF and had alerted the authorities (the sheriff, the governor, the local
senator O’Toole, etc.) that these individuals are breaking a host of state and
federal laws. Dr. Stephanatos also filed appeals and suits to vacate the
tax deed.
Dr. Stephanatos also had significant
possessory interest, including the filing of a Suit to Vacate the Tax Deed, the
filing of two appeals, the possession of a business in the premises, and the
right to buy back the rights to the property. See N.J.S.A.
54:5-104.100. This state law is consistent with the legislative findings
in N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1a. See also Royal Tax Lien Services,
LLC v Morodan, Appellate Division, Docket No. A-1211-14T3, July 20, 2015 wherein
the court stated:
On the other hand, the tax sale laws and our court rules are designed
to allow owners to redeem their properties where possible, and to receive relief from inequitable judgments. The analysis
found in I.E. clearly
favors defendants, and although not binding upon us, it clearly and convincingly outlines the equitable weight
that should be accorded to a defendant’s concerns in this scenario, the
consequences of which are draconian.
The
equities at stake can vary when the redemption value is disproportionately low
relative to the owner's equity in the property. As the court stated in I.E.'s,
LLC v. Simmons, 392 N.J. Super. 520, 536 (Law Div. 2006), the law results in a
"harshness of the tax sale certificate proceedings in this State, where
people with substantial equity in a property, for whatever reason, fail to pay
property taxes and thereafter default in the tax sale certificate foreclosure
proceedings."
In that case, the
redemption amount was $22,837.50 and the property's value was $275,000. Ibid.
That disparity is similar in magnitude to the disparity in this case. That
opinion also stated:
Until the Legislature
devises a better system, courts of equity must do their best to balance the
equities, taking into account the necessity of allowing the transfer of clear
title and the need to compel the payment of property taxes against the
necessity of ameliorating, in appropriate circumstances, the onerous impact of
the procedure in circumstances where the party has remained in possession of
the property and has substantial equity in it.
[Id. at 537.]
This Court should also compare the
law of the state of New York, where similar process must be followed, i.e., the
issue of possession must be decided by a Law Division judge:
NEW
YORK STATE REAL PROPERTY ACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS LAW(RPAPL)
ARTICLE
7
SUMMARY
PROCEEDING TO RECOVER POSSESSION OF REAL PROPERTY
Sec. 713. GROUNDS WHERE NO
LANDLORD-TENANT RELATIONSHIP EXISTS.
A special
proceeding may be maintained under this article after a ten-day
notice to quit has been served upon the respondent in the manner prescribed in
section 735, upon the following grounds:
1. The property has been
sold by virtue of an execution against him or a person under whom he claims and
a title under the sale has been perfected.
2. He occupies or holds
the property under an agreement with the owner to occupy and cultivate it upon
shares or for a share of the crops and the time fixed in the agreement for his
occupancy has expired.
3. He or the person to
whom he has succeeded has intruded into or squatted upon the property without
the permission of the person entitled to possession and the occupancy has
continued without permission or permission has been revoked and notice of
the revocation given to the person to be removed.
4. The property has
been sold for unpaid taxes and a tax deed has been executed and delivered
to the purchaser and he or any subsequent grantee, distributee or devisee
claiming title through such purchaser has complied with all
provisions of law precedent to the right to possession and the time of
redemption by the former owner or occupant has expired.
5. The property has been
sold in foreclosure and either the deed delivered pursuant to such sale, or a
copy of such deed, certified as provided in the civil practice law
and rules, has been exhibited to him.
Based on New Jersey and New York
law, including the law of all other states, to remove a person in possession,
the owner must occupy the premises himself (this was not the case here) or no
rent was being paid or for breach of the peace. In other words, only
after they met few exceptions (such as not paying rent, etc.) and through an
Order from a Law Division Judge could have allowed these defendants to
enter Dr. Stephanatos’ property and to remove him from his dwelling. They
did not follow the Wrongful Entry and Detainer Act and the Anti-Eviction Act,
or the Summary Dispossess Act and they willfully lied to the Mercer County Clerk
in May 2011 that there were no tenants in the premises (see Exhibit B in
Attachment 7 for the willful misrepresentation by Robert Del Vecchio that no
tenants were present at the residence of Dr. Stephanatos and that Dr.
Stephanatos had no possessory interests in his home).
The defendants also knew that the
Wrongful or Unlawful Entry statutes protect Plaintiff’s right to remain in
possession of his residence. Specifically, N.J.S.A. 2A:39-7
says that title shall not be an issue since Plaintiff was in continuous
possession of his residence for 16 years.
N.J.S.A. 2A:39-7 Title not
inquired into; defense of 3 years possession
Title shall not be an issue in any
action commenced under this chapter. 3 years peaceable possession by the
defendant shall be a defense to the action.
Defendants Del Vecchio and ATF
failed to disclose these statutes to the sheriff that prevent the sheriff from
evicting a person from a residential property without a Warrant for Removal.
This way they managed to fool the sheriff to perform an unlawful search
and unlawful entry and to forcefully remove Dr. Stephanatos from his
lawfully-occupied residence on June 28, 2011. The New Jersey Law clearly
says that these individuals can be charged with criminal trespass, pursuant to N.J.S.A.
2C:18-3, including many other criminal charges, such as Theft by Unlawful
Taking, Robbery, Burglary, etc.
Dr. Stephanatos’ possessory interest
in his home could not have been violated by the defendants without the very
specific legal process of N.J.S.A. 2A:18-53 et seq.[1] However, the defendants willfully
violated Dr. Stephanatos’ legal rights
It is very crucial for this Court to
understand that the conspirators never instituted such land possession
proceedings before any court of competent jurisdiction. It is mandatory
that summary dispossess proceedings, civil action for the possession of land,
or otherwise be held by the conspirators, in accordance with New Jersey law,
but the conspirators intentionally did not do that. These convicted
criminals simply drafted the document entitled “Final Judgment” and they gave
it to a Judge in Mercer County (Judge Jacobson) to sign the two pages.
This was part of the conspiratory scheme of these criminals, i.e., to file
false certifications with the courts, to mislead the courts in signing
judgements of possession without holding any hearing or any New Jersey
law-mandated legal process. The State has not and cannot provide ANY
legal proceedings to this Court where the Judgment of Possession was
adjudicated. And certainly cannot provide any evidence regarding such
proceedings against Metropolitan Environmental Services, a proper and legal
tenant of the 687 Indian Road premises.
Importantly, the New Jersey law
allows for extension of the eviction time, even in case where a valid Writ was
issued. See N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.6. Here, the Defendant called
and wrote and pled with the conspirators and Judge McVeigh to stop the illegal
onslaught and to stay the illegal eviction, but to no avail. Judge
McVeigh sure should have known that no eviction hearings (Judgment of
Possession) were ever held. She should have known that what the
conspirators were doing was illegal; she could not have been that
incompetent of a judge. Perhaps she is an incompetent judge, as she also
failed to consider defendant’s full equity in his home (as is mandated by New
Jersey case law (see Royal Tax Lien Services, LLC v Morodan,
Appellate Division, Docket No. A-6030-12T1, July 3, 2014)) and she never
conducted a bench trial to determine the facts consistent with Rule
1:7-4(a).
Judge Jacobson in Mercer County
simply issued a judgment against defendant based on the statements of the
conspirators Robert Del Vecchio and American Tax Funding (ATF). The
entire panorama of circumstances indicate that defendant was denied due
process. There are issues and defenses of entrapment, duress and improper
government conduct.
It is the Defendant’s position that
New Jersey’s Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 et seq.) and New
Jersey’s Foreclosure Fairness Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-69 thru 72) were violated by
the State’s and conspirators’ actions in this case as they evicted a legal
tenant of the premises, Metropolitan Environmental Services. The
fraudulently obtained Writ of Possession cited by the State, does not include
Metropolitan Environmental Services and the Defendant had the right to defend
his business from illegal eviction. Even more importantly, State Law
requires a Warrant for eviction of a residential tenant.
A JUDGMENT RENDERED WITHOUT PROPER
SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION IS VOID. SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION CANNOT
BE WAIVED BY THE PARTIES OR OTHERWISE AVOIDED
JURISDICTION OF THE NEW JERSEY
COURTS
To further prove that a Chancery
Court has no subject matter jurisdiction over land possession issues, here is
the jurisdiction of the New Jersey courts, as is provided at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/civil/.
As you can see, the Chancery Court has no Jurisdiction over property possession
issues. On the other hand, the Law Division handles either the
Landlord-Tenant issues(to summary dispossession actions) or
actions for possession of real estate (unlawful detainer/writ of
possession). This is very critical information, as you can imagine.
Superior Court,
Law Division, Special Civil Part
The Special Civil Part handles
claims for monetary damages of $15,000 or less (unless the overage is waived) and
unlawful detainer actions. Case types typically filed in the Special Civil Part
are damage claims arising from contract, consumer debt, auto negligence
property damage, and statutory penalty enforcement, and non-monetary matters
such as writs of replevins and actions for possession of real estate (unlawful
detainer/writ of possession). Judges without a jury typically adjudicate
Special Civil Part cases. There are approximately 406,000 cases filed in the
Special Civil Part each year.
The Special Civil Part, Small Claims
Section handles cases in which the demand is $3,000 or less and actions for the
return of all or part of a security deposit when the amount does not exceed
$5000. Annually, approximately 35,000 cases are filed with the Small Claims
section.
The Special Civil Part, Landlord -
Tenant Section has limited, special jurisdiction. It is limited to summary
dispossession actions in which the dispute arise out of a landlord - tenant
relationship. The only relief available is whether possession is returned to
the landlord with the tenant’s summary removal from the property. Annually,
approximately 170,000 cases are filed with the Landlord-Tenant section.
Superior Court,
Chancery Division, General Equity
Chancery Division, General Equity
handle claims for non-monetary relief, such as restrictive covenant
enforcement, labor injunctions, foreclosures, and corporation or partnership
governance disputes. A judge without a jury tries General Equity cases. There
are approximately 8,900 cases filed in General Equity each year.
The above prove beyond any doubt
that the Chancery Judge had no jurisdiction over the possession issue and any
orders issued by a court devoid of subject matter jurisdiction are void and
cannot be enforced. The worst part here is that this “adjudged”
possession judgment was never adjudicated, as there was never a hearing or
trial ever took place. The convicted conspirators simply wrote that
language into a “final judgment” issued in May 2011 and gave it to a Chancery
judge in another county, Mercer County, to sign it. Then they obtained an
ex-parte Writ of Possession from a Clerk of Mercer County (note that the
subject property was located in Passaic County, and the Mercer County Clerk had
no jurisdiction over the Defendant’s property located in Passaic County).
As defined by our Supreme Court in
James v. Francesco, 61 N.J. 480, 485 (1972), "a judgment is void if there
has been a failure to comply with a requirement which is a condition precedent
to the exercise of jurisdiction by the court." A void judgment is one rendered
by a court lacking jurisdiction with regard to the party against whom it is
rendered or lacking jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action,
Restatement, Judgments (2d) Section 1 pp 30-33 (1982), and it may be set aside
without the need of showing a meritorious defense. See Jameson v. Great
Atlantic, 363 N.J. Super. 419, 425 (App. Div. 2003). New Century
Financial Services, Inc. v. Suk Cha Carrero, Appellate Division, Superior
Court, February 2007, Docket No. A-3926-05T23926-05T2.
Thus, the “final judgment cited by
the State was void, not voidable. It had no legal effect
whatsoever. Thus, any Writ issued pursuant to such void judgment was also
void, of no legal effect.
A judgment is void for lack of
subject matter jurisdiction when the court has no authority to adjudicate the
controversy. See Bank v. Kim, 361 N.J. Super. 331, 339 (App. Div. 2003)
(mortgage foreclosure judgment void in violation of bankruptcy automatic
stay). Here, the Chancery court had no subject matter jurisdiction
over the property possession issue and thus any order issued by that court was
void, a legal nullity.
HOW THE CONSPIRATORS MANAGED TO FOOL
(OR CONSPIRED WITH) THE COURTS
Despite the luck of any fact finding
by Judge McVeigh (Judge McVeigh never conducted a bench trial to determine the
facts consistent with Rule 1:7-4(a)), on May 13, 2011, the Mercer County
Honorable Mary C. Jacobson, P.J.Ch., entered a “final judgment” against
defendant in favor of American Tax Funding, LLC (“ATFH”). (Final Judgment
annexed at Da44-46) upon the presentation to that court of a form that had been
prepared by the conspirator Robert Del Vecchio. That form includes
language “AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the plaintiff dully
recover against the said defendant …possession of the premises… and that a Writ
of Possession issue thereon”. Contrary to what the conspirators wrote in
this form and presented to a Mercer County Court for signing, there was
never an adjudication of the possession of the premises. There is
no judicial record that the State can provide that indicates that such
possession litigation ever took place. As was stated in the previous
section, the Chancery Court had no subject matter jurisdiction over the
property possession issue and it could not have been adjudicated by that
court. This fact alone provides clear and convincing evidence of a
conspiracy between McVeigh and the convicted criminals (Robert Del Vecchio,
ATF, and others) to defraud the Defendant of his property and business.
Basically the conspirators presented
to the Mercer County court a form that has adjudicated both the ownership issue
and the possession issue. The conspirators managed to fool the Mercer
County court clerk by providing this fraudulently prepared form that states
that the possession issue has been adjudged by the Passaic County Chancery
Court. Basically, the conspirators took advantage of the dysfunctional
legal system of New Jersey where one court does the fact finding and another
court signs the orders (and in this instant case, Judge McVeigh of Passaic
County Chancery Court, never held any fact finding and application of the facts
to the law session in violation of Rule 1:7-4(a). The conspirator Robert
Del Vecchio took full advantage of this confusion and managed to full the court
system.
This final judgment also contains
the language “This judgment shall not affect the rights of any person protected
by the New Jersey Tenant Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A, 2A:18-61.1 et seq.)”
(Da45). The significance of this clause is discussed in the Motion to
Change Venue brief and it is applicable here as Defendant’s businesses
(Metropolitan Environmental Services and Metropolitan Environmental Services,
PC) were tenants at that property and could not have been evicted without legal
process. The Writ of Possession fraudulently obtained by the conspirator
Robert Del Vecchio did not include Metropolitan Environmental Services.
However, the Passaic County Sheriff did evict these business tenants without
having a Writ of Removal or a Warrant for Removal. This is an undeniable
fact and proves beyond any doubt that the sheriff employees did violate the
Defendant’s possessory rights and caused massive economic and non-economic
injuries in the process.
THE PROSECUTOR CONTINUES TO LIE AND
MISLEAD THIS HONORABLE COURT BY STATING THAT LUCAS AND D’AGOSTINO WERE POLICE
OFFICERS WHEN IN FACT THEY WERE SHERIFF OFFICERS
The prosecutor continues to refer to
the sheriff officers as police officers, in a willful attempt to mislead this
Court the same way the prosecutor mislead the Grand Jury. The New Jersey
Criminal Code clearly distinguishes between a police officer and a sheriff
officer. As proof that the 2C:12-1b(9)
statutes intended to protect law enforcement officers in the performance of the
police duties and not to protect sheriff officers, the Court should take a look
at the statute 2C:12-1b(5). This is the statute that addresses the
assault on law enforcement officer or public employee, such a
sheriff.
Under this statute, the assault upon
a law enforcement officer is included under 2C:12-1b(5)(a): Any law
enforcement officer acting in the performance of his duties while in uniform or
exhibiting evidence of his authority or because of his status as a law
enforcement officer.
By contrast the assault on a sheriff
officer is included under section 2C:12-1b(5)(h): Any … sheriff,
undersheriff, or sheriff’s officer acting in the performance of his duties
while in uniform or exhibiting evidence of his authority.
Thus, the legislature has clearly
distinguished between a law enforcement officer and a sheriff officer.
These two groups of employees were not meant to be considered one and the
same. This is the reason that sheriff officers who perform civil process,
wear different colored uniforms than the law enforcement officers. Even
within the Sheriff’s department, there are different groups of sheriff’s
employees identified as law enforcement group, civil service group, K-9 group,
etc. and they in fact wear different color uniforms to make that distinction as
a law enforcement versus non-law enforcement. Based on their testimony,
Lucas and D’Agostino were employees working in the civil process division and
wearing light blue uniforms and not the dark blue uniforms.
We believe that this analysis
conclusively proves that the statute 2C:12-1b(9) does not include sheriff
employees, but it was intended to protect police officers in their law
enforcement duties. The state legislature would have most likely included
the sheriff employees in this statute and not simply leave it open to
interpretation or ambiguity.
The prosecutor, fully aware that the
above statute is meant to protect police officers and not sheriff officers, has
fraudulently represented throughout his response brief that the sheriff’s
process servers were in fact police officers. The same fraudulent
presentation was made to the Grand Jury and mislead the jurors and tainted the
proceedings.
These charges under 2C:12-1b(9) must be dismissed with
prejudice for the reasons stated above as Lucas and D’Agostino were not police
officers but sheriff officers.
THE PROSECUTOR CONTINUES TO LIE AND
MISLEAD THIS HONORABLE COURT BY STATING THAT LUCAS AND D’AGOSTINO HAD THE
AUTHORITY TO EVICT BOTH THE DEFENDANT AND THE BUSINESS TENANT
The Prosecutor is lying to the Court
by stating in his response brief that the sheriff officers had a Writ of
Possession that included the Defendant’s business. However, the Writ of
Possession makes no reference to Defendant’s business, Metropolitan Environmental
Services, that was a legal tenant of the premises.
It is the Defendant’s position that
New Jersey’s Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 et seq.) and New
Jersey’s Foreclosure Fairness Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-69 thru 72) were violated by
the Sheriff’s and conspirators’ actions in this case as they evicted a legal
tenant of the premises, Metropolitan Environmental Services. The alleged
Writ of Possession cited by the State, does not include Metropolitan Environmental
Services and the Defendant had the right to defend his business from illegal
eviction.
NO JUDGMENT OF POSSESSION OR
EVICTION PROCEEDINGS WERE EVER HELD IN FRONT OF A LAW DIVISION COURT AS IS
REQUIRED BY NEW JERSEY LAW.
The State continues to make fraudulent
representations to this Court that somehow a “court-ordered Writ of Possession”
was issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, when in fact no Judgement of
Possession was ever adjudicated and so such writ was ever issued by a competent
court as there was never an eviction action instituted against the
Defendant by the conspirators. This is extremely crucial for this Court
to understand.
In is response, the State has
failed to provide to this Court ANY transcripts of any legal process relating to
the issue of the adjudication of the eviction of the Defendant from his
fully-owned property (the Defendant had 100 percent equity in his
home). Absolutely no evidence of any eviction process exists, as no such
action was brought by the conspirators before a court of competent jurisdiction
and no hearing or legal process ever took place in direct violation of State
Constitutional and Statutory Laws. We explain below.
As we wrote in our Omnibus Motions
Brief, the conspirators Robert Del Vecchio, American Tax Funding, et al. never
applied to the Chancery Court or a Law Division Court for an eviction judgement
(also called Judgement for Possession). This is critical for this Court
to understand. After the Defendant refused to redeem the illegal tax sale
certificate obtained by the conspirators, the Chancery Court transferred the
title of his 687 Indian Road property (fully owned by the Defendant) to the
conspirators via a so-called Tax Deed. This occurred prior to May 13,
2011. No further hearings or legal process occurred regarding the
possession of the property that was the home and the place of business of
the Defendant. The Court must note that New Jersey Law prohibits the
self-eviction from residential properties and provides that no eviction process
will be adjudicated unless the owner follows notice and other requirements
found in the New Jersey’s Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 et seq.)
and New Jersey’s Foreclosure Fairness Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:50-69 thru 72.
The New Jersey law that was intentionally
violated by the State, the County and the conspirators, provides as follows:
N.J.S.A. 2A:39-1. No person shall
enter upon or into any real property ․
and detain and hold the same, except where entry is given by law, and then only
in a peaceable manner. With regard to any real property occupied solely as a
residence by the party in possession, such entry shall not be made in any
manner without the consent of the party in possession unless the entry and
detention is made pursuant to legal process as set out in N.J.S. 2A:18-53 et
seq. or 2A:35-1 et seq.
Specifically, for removing a person
from a residential property, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-57 requires that a judgment
of possession must be issued by a Law Division Judge, followed by a Warrant for
Removal. State law also mandates that a notice be provided to the person
in possession that s/he has the right to apply to the court for a stay of
execution of the warrant, along with other notifications.
The application of these statutes is
explained in detail in Gary LEVIN and Donna Levin, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.
Adrian LYNN, et al., 310 N.J. Super. 177, decided April 1998, Appellate
Division A-1537-96T2.
“The references therein, to N.J.S.A.
2A:18-53 et seq. and N.J.S.A. 2A:39-2 et seq., are to the statutory provisions
concerning, respectively, summary dispossess proceedings instituted in the
Special Civil Part, and Superior Court actions to establish either title or the
right to possession of real property, and the intent of those amendments is
clearly to prohibit a landlord or anyone else from taking possession of
residential premises without following judicial procedures. In the case of a
summary dispossess proceeding (which is the method employed by the Millers to
obtain a judgment of possession against plaintiffs here) that procedure
includes the landlord's obtaining of a warrant for possession. N.J.S.A.
2A:18-57. And, it should be noted that in any action seeking possession of a
residential property, the issuance of that warrant can be delayed, for good
cause, for as long as six months:
[I]n any action brought by a
landlord against a tenant to recover possession of premises or unit used for
dwelling purposes, to which this act is applicable, whether by summary
dispossess proceedings, civil action for the possession of land, or otherwise,
the judge of the court having jurisdiction shall use sound discretion in the
issuance of a warrant or writ for removal or writ of possession, and if it
shall appear that by the issuance of the warrant or writ the tenant will suffer
hardship because of the unavailability of other dwelling accommodations the
judge may stay the issuance of the warrant or writ and cause the same to issue
at such time as he shall deem proper under the circumstances, but in no case
shall such judge stay the issuance of any such warrant or writ for possession
for a longer period than 6 months after the date of entry of judgment of
possession․
[N.J.S.A. 2A:42-10.6.]”
At that time, the Defendant filed
two Appeals and a Suit to Vacate the Tax Deed based on the illegal activities
of the conspirators.
The State continues to make
fraudulent representations to this Court that somehow a “court-ordered Writ of
Possession” was issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. Here is what
the New Jersey statutes say under Article 3, Actions for Possession:
§ 2A:42-10.6. Judge to use sound
discretion in issuing warrants or writs for removal or writs of possession;
stay of issuance;limitation
Notwithstanding any other provisions
of law, in any action brought by a landlord against a tenant to recover
possession of premises or unit used for dwelling purposes, to which this act is
applicable, whether by summary dispossess proceedings, civil action for the
possession of land, or otherwise, the judge of the court having jurisdiction
shall use sound discretion in the issuance of a warrant or writ for removal or
writ of possession, and if it shall appear that by the
issuance of the warrant or writ the
tenant will suffer hardship because of the unavailability of other dwelling
accommodations the judge may stay the issuance of the warrant or writ and cause
the same to issue at such time as he shall deem proper under the circumstances,
but in no case shall such judge stay the issuance of any such warrant or writ
for possession
for a longer period than 6 months
after the date of entry of the judgment of possession;
Despite the luck of any fact finding
by Judge McVeigh (Judge McVeigh never conducted a bench trial to determine the
facts consistent with Rule 1:7-4(a)), on May 13, 2011, the Mercer County
Honorable Mary C. Jacobson, P.J.Ch., entered a “final judgment” against
defendant in favor of American Tax Funding, LLC (“ATFH”). (Final Judgment
annexed at Da44-46) upon the presentation to that court of a form that had been
prepared by the conspirator Robert Del Vecchio. That form includes
language “AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that the plaintiff dully
recover against the said defendant …possession of the premises… and that a Writ
of Possession issue thereon”. Contrary to what the conspirators wrote in
this form and presented to a Mercer County Court for signing, there was
never an adjudication of the possession of the property. There is no
judicial record that the State can provide that indicates that such possession
litigation ever took place. Basically the conspirators presented to the
Mercer County court a standard form that has adjudicated both the
ownership issue and the possession issue and some blanks are filled out- these
forms are only applicable to mortgage foreclosure cases and not to a tax lien
case where Defendant had full ownership of the property and where the alleged
tax owed was a small fraction of the value of the property. The
conspirators managed to fool the Mercer County court clerk by providing this
fraudulently prepared form that states that the possession issue has been
adjudged by the Passaic County Chancery Court. Basically the conspirators
took advantage of the dysfunctional legal system of New Jersey where one court
does the fact finding and another court signs the orders. The conspirator
Robert Del Vecchio took full advantage of this confusion and managed to full
the court system.
This final judgment also contains
the language “This judgment shall not affect the rights of any person protected
by the New Jersey Tenant Anti-Eviction Act (N.J.S.A, 2A:18-61.1 et seq.)”
(Da45). The significance of this clause is discussed in the Motion to
Change Venue brief.
This Court should understand that in
every property, there are two titles: a possessory title and a legal
(ownership) title. The above judgment (fraudulent or not), only covers
the ownership and not possession of a property. The possession of a
property must be decided under the provisions of the Unlawful Entry and Detainer
state law (see N.J.S.A. 2A:18-57, New Jersey’s Anti-Eviction Act
(N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1 et seq.) and New Jersey’s Foreclosure Fairness Act
(N.J.S.A. 2A:50-69 thru 72). The new owner must file an eviction suit
against the defendant and must state the reasons for the eviction and must
comply with pre-eviction notices. An owner cannot simply self-evict a
person by providing self-certification; however, this is what these
conspirators and the state and county employees did here and violated the
possessory rights of the Defendant as are guaranteed by the State Constitution
and by State Laws. This is very crucial for the Court to understand.
Robert A. Del Vecchio is the
attorney for the conspirator ATFH, and he submitted a self-Certification (on an
ex-parte basis) (filed May 13, 2011), with the Clerk of Mercer County, stating,
in part, that:
The aforementioned person is not
protected by the provision of the Anti-Eviction Act (the “Act”), as enunciated
in the New Jersey Supreme Court Case of Chase Manhattan Bank v. Josephson,
since that Act applies to tenants and this defendant is the prior owner of the
property. His ownership rights were foreclosed upon in the above-entitled
action. (Da48). The Court should note that this conspirator
wrote that “”His ownership rights were foreclosed”; however, the issue at
hand was the possession of the property and not the ownership.
This self-certification was an
illegal and fraudulent ex-parte certification by the co-conspirator Robert Del
Vecchio, on behalf of his client, ATF or ATFH, as Defendant’s businesses were
tenants at the property. This Court should also note that the Chase Manhattan
Bank v. Josephson case refers to mortgage foreclosures and not tax lien
foreclosures, as the Appellate Division in Royal Tax Lien Services, LLC v
Morodan has already ruled that homeowners who hold significant equity
into their properties should not lose their home:
Furthermore, as we have indicated
earlier, Defendant’s business was a tenant at the subject property and was not
subject of the Writ of Possession or any other legal proceeding and could not
have been evicted from the premises. This is crucial evidence before this
Court and indicates the magnitude of the conspiracy against the
Defendant:
·
The State, the County, the Chancery Court and the conspirators also violated
the New Jersey Constitution, Article I, paragraph 20 that states that Private property shall not be taken for public
use without just compensation. Individuals or private corporations shall
not be authorized to take private property for public use without just
compensation first made to the owners.
·
no property possession hearings were ever held;
·
no bench trial was ever held by McVeigh on any issue before her;
·
no fact-findings and application of the law to the facts consistent with Rule
1:7-4(a) were ever held;
·
no pre-eviction notices were ever provided to the Defendant;
·
no stay of the proceedings were ever held consistent with § 2A:42-10.6;
As the Appellate Division in Royal
Tax Lien Services, LLC v Morodan has already ruled, homeowners who hold
significant equity into their properties should not lose their home:
Moreover, if the final judgment
stands, plaintiff will receive property that, according to defendants, is
valued at $650,000 for an approximate $65,000 investment. That is a factor that
should have been taken into account when balancing the equities. See I.E.'s,
L.L.C. v. Simmons, 392 N.J. Super. 520, 537 (Law Div. 2006) (tax sale
certificate foreclosure system can be "Dickensian" where owners hold
substantial equity in property. "Until the Legislature devises a better
system, courts of equity must do their best to balance the equities, taking
into account the necessity of allowing the transfer of clear title and the need
to compel the payment of property taxes against the necessity of ameliorating,
in appropriate circumstances, the onerous impact of the procedure").
Royal Tax Lien Services, LLC v Morodan, Appellate Division, Docket No.
A-6030-12T1, July 3, 2014.
Here, the Chancery Judge McVeigh
refused or failed to obey the above State case law. Her actions violated
the rights of the Defendant. Thus, we have just provided proof that the
conspirators and the County employees did in fact violated Defendant’s rights
and broke State laws and the State Constitution that expressly prohibits the taking
of private property for either private or public use without compensation is
provided first. A fully-owned $500,000-valued property suddenly became
the property of a private entity in direct violation of Article I, paragraph 20
of the New Jersey Constitution. These are disgraceful, as well as illegal
acts; the Grand Jury was never informed, as the State and the County made sure
that no such evidence was presented to them and prevented the Defendant from
testifying and presenting this evidence and other testimony and physical
corroborating evidence.
In summary, contrary to the
fraudulent assertions of the State and County employees, no court had ever
issued a Judgment for Possession as is required prior to obtaining a Writ of
Possession. And no compliance with the eviction notice requirements ever
took place. And the Writ of Possession fraudulently obtained by the
conspirator Robert Del Vecchio did not include Metropolitan Environmental
Services. However, the Passaic County Sheriff did evict these
business tenants without having a Writ of Removal or a Warrant for
Removal. The State has failed to provide any legal documents that the
Judgment of Possession proceedings ever took place. This proves beyond
any doubt that Defendant’s possessory rights were violated by the Sheriff and
the conspirators.
THE INDICTMENT MUST BE DISMISSED
WITH PREJUDICE BECAUSE THE FOUR (4) PLUS YEAR CASE DELAY DEPRIVED THE DEFENDANT
OF HIS CONSTITUTIONALLY-GUARANTEED RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL CAUSING HIM SEVERE
ECONOMIC AND NON-ECONOMIC HARDSHIP, LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT AND PROFESSIONAL
LICENSES, AND OTHER HARDSHIPS. BARKER V. WINGO, 407 U.S. 514, 530,
92 S. CT. 2182, 2192, 33 L. ED. 101, 117 (1972), STATE V. CAHILL, 213
N.J. 253 (2013), STATE V. JONATHAN E. DOWNS, DOCKET NO. A-0, N.J. SUPERIOR
COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FEBRUARY 14, 2014
A defendant has a right to a speedy
trial. U.S. Const., amend.VI; N.J. Const. art. I, ¶ 10.
New Jersey has adopted the four-prong test set forth in Barker v. Wingo, 407
U.S. 514 (1972), to determine whether a defendant’s right to a speedy trial has
been violated. See State v. Szima, 70 N.J. 196, 200-01 (1976).
Courts should assess “four
non-exclusive factors” to determine if a defendant’s constitutional speedy
trial guarantees have been violated: “length of the delay, reason for
the delay, assertion of the right by a defendant, and prejudice
to the defendant” Id. at 264.; see also State v. Farrell, 320 N.J.
Super. 425 (App. Div. 1999); State v. Tsetsekas, 411 N.J. Super. 1 (App.
Div. 2009). The four factors in Barker are (1) the length of the delay;
(2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendant’s assertion of his or her
right; and (4) prejudice to the defendant. See Cahill, supra, 213 N.J. at 270.
Due to the lack of a specified time period, courts must engage in a balancing
process, subject to the specific facts and circumstances of each case.
“There is no set length of time that
fixes the point at which delay is excessive.” State v. Tsetsekas, 411
N.J. Super. at 12. In Cahill, the Court instructed that a gauge to
a “presumptively prejudicial” delay is “the amount of time customarily required
to dispose of similar charges.” State v. Cahill, 213 N.J. at 265.
The Cahill Court referred to
New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Wilentz’s July 26, 1984 Directive #1-84
instructing that DWI charges be disposed of in 60 days. Id. at 269. The Court
called the 60-day period a goal, not a “bright line rule.” Id. at 270.
However, the Court said, “90 to 120 days should be the norm for disposing of
[DWI] cases.” Id. at 274. The Court further noted that a case that “approaches
one year” is “presumptively prejudicial.” Id. at 265. In Cahill,
the Court called the 16-month delay “too long.” Id. at 277. Likewise, in State
v. Tsetsekas, the Court found that 344 days, “more than five times the
stated [Supreme Court] objective” … weighted heavily for the defense. State
v. Tsetsekas, 411 N.J. Super. at 11.
In 2014, the New Jersey Joint
Committee on Criminal Justice recommended that the Legislature enact a speedy
trial act that sets forth time frames in which defendants must be indicted and
brought to trial. If the defendant has been released pretrial, the complaint
against that person would be dismissed without prejudice to it being refiled at
a later time. After indictment, if a case is not tried within 180 days, an
incarcerated defendant would be released. The indictment would be dismissed
with prejudice after 365 days if the defendant is not in custody. Source:
Report of the Joint Committee on Criminal Justice, March 10, 2014.
The Defendant first asserted his
right to speedy trial before Judge Filko and Judge Reddin in 2012. At the
time, the defense lawyers indicated to the courts that they should not enforce
the Defendant’s right to speedy trial. In any event, a defendant does not
have an obligation to assert his right to a speedy trial because he is under no
obligation to bring himself to trial. Id. at 266. Court delays
are charged to the State, not to the Defendant. State v. Farrell, 320
N.J. Super. at 450-451.
A
mere presence of court backlog or overcrowded case load is insufficient to
justify delay by prosecution. United States v. Goeltz, 513 F. 2d 193,
197, (10th cir. 1975). Here, this Court took almost 3 years to decide a
Motion to Change Venue, instead of deciding it within 30 days or less.
These delays cannot possibly be attributed to the Defendant. To the
extent that the Defendant's counsel waived time or requested continuances, this
would not be attributed to Defendant, due to counsel's actions contradicting
the best interest of Defendant. Regardless of Defendant being bound by
counsel's actions, defense continuances don't excuse lengthy delays in the
disposition of a case. United States v. Lam, 251 F. 3d 852 (9th Cir.
2001).
The court instructed in State v.
Farrell, “prejudice to a defendant resulting from delay is no longer
confined to inability to defend on the merits. Prejudice can also be found from
employment interruptions, public obloquy, anxieties concerning the continued
and unresolved prosecution and the like.” State v. Farrell, 320 N.J.
Super. at 452.
Likewise, the Court in Tsetsakas
recognized that “significant prejudice may also arise when the delay causes the
loss of employment or other opportunities, humiliation, the anxiety in awaiting
disposition of the pending charges, the drain in finances incurred for payment
of counsel or expert witness fees and the other costs and inconveniences far in
excess of what would have been reasonable under more acceptable circumstances. State
v. Tsetsekas, 411 N.J. Super. at 13.
Here, defendant has suffered very
significant losses of employment, as employers performed background checks and
refused to hire defendant, even after they made employment offers. In
addition, defendant lost several professional licenses due to the outstanding
charges, leading to further economic losses. Defendant also has not been
able to obtain state licenses (including the Licensed Site Remediation
Professional license) to do professional work because of the pending,
unresolved charges. Several New Jersey licensing boards even denied
defendant the application to sit for exams, causing defendant to lose very
significant business and/or employment opportunities. The net result of
these prolonged delays is potentially multi-million dollars in economic
damages.
As a professional expert engineer,
defendant has also suffered irreparable reputation loss that essentially
destroyed his career that he worked many decades to build.
DEFENDANT HAS DISCOVERED SOME NEW
EXPLOSIVE INFORMATION.
Corporal Ronald Lucas was not the
officer looking through my side window on June 28, 2011. That man was a
young officer without facial hair.
Now I have obtained the picture of
Ronald Lucas (see attached) and it shows an old man in his 50s. That man
has a shoulder brace, after his shoulder injury that he claims he suffered when
he jumped from the porch.
I have found out that Lucas has
retired from the Sheriff (due to his disability) and he obtained a part time
job as a security guard at Pequannock High School.
This twist of events explain as to
why Lucas could not get his story straight and why he made so many revisions.
We need to find out the name of the
young officer who rode with Victor D’Agostino that day. Obviously
this young officer decided not to lie and Ron Lucas took his place instead.
We need to find out as to where
Lucas actually fell. There must be some testimony or some eye witness
testimony that we can figure this out. This man (Lucas) played football
during high school (and afterwards) and I would not be surprised if he had
injured his shoulder from sports.
These are all bomb shells!!!
LETTER FROM JUDGE MCGEADY, DATED
JANUARY 17, 2014
The prosecutor commented on the lack
of probable cause found by Judge McGeady. This was misleading for the
Court (De la Carrera), as McGeady later suggested that I write to the
prosecutors to appeal the probable cause determination. Please see his
letter dated January 2014.
When I filed criminal charges
against these individuals, there was not criminal proceeding against
them. That is perhaps the reason McGeady did not find probable cause at
the time. When I submitted new evidence at a later time, he sent me the
attached letter suggesting to resubmit the case.
RULE 3:12. Defendant's Obligation To
Provide Notice
The Defendant hereby serves written
notice on the prosecutor that he intends to rely on the following defenses:
Ignorance or Mistake, 2C:2-4(c);
Duress, 2C:2-9(a);
Entrapment, 2C:2-12(b);
General Principles of Justification,
2C:3-1 to 2C:3-11;
3:12-1. Notice Under Specific
Criminal Code Provisions
A defendant shall serve written
notice on the prosecutor if the defendant intends to rely on any of the
following sections of the Code of Criminal Justice: Ignorance or Mistake,
2C:2-4(c); Accomplice: Renunciation Terminating Complicity, 2C:2-6(e)(3);
Intoxication, 2C:2-8(d); Duress, 2C:2-9(a); Entrapment, 2C:2-12(b); General
Principles of Justification, 2C:3-1 to 2C:3-11; Insanity, 2C:4-1; Lack of
Requisite State of Mind, 2C:4-2; Criminal Attempt (renunciation of criminal
purpose), 2C:5-1(d); Conspiracy (renunciation of criminal purpose), 2C:5-2(e);
Murder (affirmative defense, felony murder), 2C:11-3(a)(3); Criminal Restraint,
2C:13-2(b); Theft by Extortion, 2C:20-5; Perjury (retraction), 2C:28-1(d);
False Swearing (retraction), 2C:28-2(b); Controlled Dangerous Substances Near
or On School Property, 2C:35-7; and Distributing, Dispensing or Possessing
Controlled Substances Within 500 Feet of Public Housing Facilities, Parks or
Buildings, 2C:35-7.1.
No later than seven days before the
arraignment/status conference the defendant shall serve on the prosecutor a
notice of intention to claim any of the defenses listed herein; and if the
defendant requests or has received discovery pursuant to R. 3:13-3(b)(1),
the defendant shall, pursuant to R. 3:13-3(b)(2) , furnish the prosecutor with
discovery pertaining to such defenses at the time the notice is served. If,
however, the arraignment/status conference was held within 28 days of indictment
pursuant to R. 3:9-1(c), the defendant shall serve such notice on the
prosecutor, along with the pertinent discovery, by a date to be determined by
the trial judge, except in no event later than 14 days after the date of the
arraignment/status conference. The prosecutor shall, within 14 days after
receipt of such discovery, comply with R. 3:13-3(b)(1) and (f) with respect to
any defense for which the prosecutor has received notice.
For good cause shown the court may
extend the time of service of any of the foregoing, or make such other orders
as the interest of justice requires. If a party fails to comply with this Rule,
the court may take such action as the interest of justice requires. The action
taken may include refusing to allow the party in default to present witnesses
in support or in opposition of that defense at the trial or to allow the
granting of an adjournment or delay during trial as the interest of justice
demands.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons and
authorities cited, the defendant Basilis N. Stephanatos respectfully submits
that the indictment must be dismissed with prejudice. Defendant also
requests the specific relief delineated in the Omnibus Motions, including the
cross examination of Officers Lucas and D’Agostino at a hearing to prove that
their testimony before the grand jury was false, fraudulent and intentionally
misleading. Additionally, there must be a hearing on the motion to
suppress. Defendant will testify that his doors were all closed and
locked with a deadbolt and that the two officers performed an unlawful search
inside his dwelling in violation of his constitutionally guaranteed rights and
in violation of state law prohibiting peering inside residences. See
Exhibit D for a similar situation in West Milford, to see how the sheriff
employees behave in these matters.
The state has admitted in
proceedings before Judge Filko that the sheriff’s officers did not have a
Warrant from a Law Division Judge. They only had an ex-parte Writ issued
pursuant to a void possession judgment issued by a Mercer County Chancery judge
who had no subject matter jurisdiction over land possession matters.
Thus, they were illegally attempting to remove defendant from his dwelling
while working as agents for convicted criminals Robert Del Vecchio, ATF, et.
al. Defendant incorporates herein his prior submissions to this Court.
Respectfully submitted,
___________________________________
Miles Feinstein, Esq.
Attorney for defendant
Basilis N. Stephanatos
Dated: March 1, 2016
ORDER
TO DISMISS
Having
found that the State failed to bring the instant case to conclusion of trial
within the time allowed by law and Judicial Rules, this Court acknowledges that
the State denied Defendant's right to a speedy trial. This Court
therefore now orders the immediate dismissal with prejudice of all charges in
the instant case against the Defendant, the immediate discharge and liberation
of the Defendant from bail, the return of all of Defendant's property, the
immediate repair at State’s expense of all damage done to Defendant and
Defendant's property during or consequent to the arrest and incarceration,
immediate payment by the Plaintiff of all storage, impound, and other fees for
Defendant's business instruments and other property encumbered as a consequence
of Defendant's arrest, the transportation of Defendant by Defendant's choice of
public or private automobile, or other public conveyance to Defendant's dwelling
place at State’s sole expense, the immediate writing and hand delivery to
Defendant of a formal apology by the prosecutor in the instant case for
violating Defendant's Constitutionally guaranteed right to a speedy trial, for
which let execution issue forthwith.
_______________________________________
____________
Judge
Miguel De la
Carrera Date
Ordered
EXHIBIT
A
COPIES
OF THE ORIGINAL COMPLAINTS FILED BY LUCAS AND D’AGOSTINO
EXHIBIT
B
LEGAL
FORMS USED BY THE PASSAIC COUNTY COURTS TO ADJUDICATE THE ISSUE OF PROPERTY
POSSESSION IN THIS COUNTY
EXHIBIT
C
LETTER
FROM JUDGE MCGEADY, DATED JANUARY 17, 2014
EXHIBIT
D
SIMILAR
CASE IN WEST MILFORD, NEW JERSEY AS WAS REPORTED BY THE PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF
TO THE MEDIA
Source:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/police-blotters/man-hospitalized-and-arrested-when-eviction-goes-sour-in-west-milford-1.1274515
Here is a similar case in West
Milford. It is almost identical to my case: D’Agostino arrived, I
would not answer the door and then he (D’Agostino) called for backup.
Then they did a search, etc. Just read the Sheriff’s release. It is
very telling.
Man hospitalized and arrested when
eviction goes sour in West Milford
February 19, 2015
Last updated: Thursday, February 19, 2015, 10:52 AM
By BRYAN LA
PLACA
Staff
Writer |
Suburban
Trends
MILFORD - A
"routine" home eviction turned into a police standoff that sent one
man to the hospital yesterday morning, according to the Passaic County
Sheriff's Office.
As reported in a
release from Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik, at 8:24 a.m. on Feb. 18, county
sheriff's officer Victor D'Agostino went to a Louis Avenue residence "to
conduct an eviction."
The release states
that the eviction was based on a Superior Court order due to mortgage
non-payment. Authorities identified the owner of the residence as Piper Glass.
Two vehicles were in
the driveway, including one owned by Glass, but no one would answer the door
when D'Agostino arrived, according to the release.
The officer then
called for backup, and county officers Sgt. Scott Slekis, Chris Patacco, and
Liram Kaba responded along with several West Milford Police Department
officers.
Berdnik said the
officers investigated further and determined that Joseph Ferrell, another
occupant of the house, had two active Passaic County Superior Court warrants
due to an alleged violation of probation and outstanding child support payments
amounting to $40,520. Ferrell is Glass' boyfriend, he added.
More than three hours
after the eviction attempt began, officers reportedly saw Ferrell looking out a
sliding glass door in the rear of the residence, "which because of the
foreclosure should have been empty," states the release.
D'Agostino then ordered
Ferrell to exit the house. Ferrell and Glass complied, coming out on the rear
patio.
Several officers
responded to assist behind the home, and Ferrell was taken into custody.
Berdnik said that as
Ferrell was being transported to the Passaic County Jail, he started to
complain that he could not breathe and was having chest pains. A West Milford
officer administered oxygen, and an ambulance was called to the scene.
A West Milford officer
then escorted Ferrell in an ambulance to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center
in Paterson. Ferrell was subsequently released.
Berdnik said, "In
this case, a routine enforcement of a court-ordered eviction led to the arrest
of an individual who was not fulfilling his child support responsibilities and
had several outstanding warrants."
Email: laplaca@northjersey.com
Source:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/police-blotters/man-hospitalized-and-arrested-when-eviction-goes-sour-in-west-milford-1.1274515
[1]
N.J.S.A.
2C:3-6(a) and (c) provide that the justification for the use of force in
defense either of premises or personal property is “subject to the provisions
of this section and of section 2C:3-9.” If any issues arise pursuant to N.J.S.A.
2C:3-9(a) or (c) in a given case, the model jury charges for those
subsections should be given after the other “provisions of this section” are
explained but before the jury is instructed on the burden of proof.
[2]
N.J.S.A. 2C:1-14
(j). The definitions of reckless and negligent states of mind
contained in N.J.S.A. 2C: 2-2 (b) (3) and (4) should be included
at this point if they have not been charged previously in connection with the
offense(s) charged.
[1]
2A:39-1 Unlawful entry prohibited. With
regard to any real property occupied solely as a residence by the party
in possession, such entry shall not be made in any manner without the
consent of the party in possession unless the entry and detention is
made pursuant to legal process as set out in N.J.S.2A:18-53 et seq.,
as amended and supplemented; P.L.1974, c.49 (C.2A:18-61.1 et al.), as
amended and supplemented; P.L.1975, c.311 (C.2A:18-61.6 et al.), as amended and
supplemented; P.L.1978, c.139 (C.2A:18-61.6 et al.), as amended and
supplemented; the "Tenant Protection Act of 1992," P.L.1991, c.509
(C.2A:18-61.40 et al.); or N.J.S.2A:35-1 et seq. and "The Fair Eviction
Notice Act," P.L.1974, c.47 (C.2A:42-10.15 et al.).
-----------------///////////////////------------------
There are news reports that the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh has been issuing judgments of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction. As you should know, the land possession issues are the subject matter of the Law Division. As a result, the allegations claim that you have caused millions of damages to homeowners and tenants by evicting innocent tenants and homeowners. You are charged with executing Writs of Possession issued by Chancery Courts, which is against the law.
Do you know that judgments issued by courts that have no subject matter jurisdiction are void and they have no effect? They are considered a legal nullity.
You can read more here.
SHOCKING! Complaint for lack of ethics or competency against Judges Mary C. Jacobson and Margaret McVeigh of NJ http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/shocking-complaint-for-lack-of-ethics.html …
Do you have anything to say? We would like to know your response prior to issuing our own investigative report.
Thank you for consideration.
-----Original Message-----
From: Allison Brown <allisonbrown26@aol.com>
To: bmaer <bmaer@pcsheriff.org>; rberdnik <rberdnik@pcsheriff.org>
Sent: Wed, Mar 2, 2016 4:10 pm
Subject: Perjury and Conspiracy Charges Against Ronald Lucas, Victor D'Agostino. et al.
@Passaic_Sheriff
SHOCKING! CORRUPT PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF FILED FRAUDULENT CHARGES AGAINST
INNOCENT HOMEOWNER http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/explosive-passaic-county-sheriff_8.html
The reports accuse the Passaic County Sheriff of cover-up, and destruction of evidence.
Do you have any comments to make prior to us releasing our investigative report?
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.
Allison Brown
allisonbrown26@aol.com
Office of
the Passaic County Sheriff
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
RE: Perjury and Conspiracy Charges Against Ronald Lucas, Victor D'Agostino. et al.
Dear Mr. Maer and Sheriff Berdnik:
I am following up my yesterday's correspondence.There are news reports that the Chancery Judge Margaret McVeigh has been issuing judgments of possession without having subject matter jurisdiction. As you should know, the land possession issues are the subject matter of the Law Division. As a result, the allegations claim that you have caused millions of damages to homeowners and tenants by evicting innocent tenants and homeowners. You are charged with executing Writs of Possession issued by Chancery Courts, which is against the law.
Do you know that judgments issued by courts that have no subject matter jurisdiction are void and they have no effect? They are considered a legal nullity.
You can read more here.
SHOCKING! Complaint for lack of ethics or competency against Judges Mary C. Jacobson and Margaret McVeigh of NJ http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/shocking-complaint-for-lack-of-ethics.html …
Do you have anything to say? We would like to know your response prior to issuing our own investigative report.
Thank you for consideration.
Allison Brown
allisonbrown26@aol.com
From: Allison Brown <allisonbrown26@aol.com>
To: bmaer <bmaer@pcsheriff.org>; rberdnik <rberdnik@pcsheriff.org>
Sent: Wed, Mar 2, 2016 4:10 pm
Subject: Perjury and Conspiracy Charges Against Ronald Lucas, Victor D'Agostino. et al.
Office of
the Passaic County Sheriff
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
William Maer
Media Information & OPRA Processing Unit
11 Sheriff's Plaza
Paterson, NJ 07502
bmaer@pcsheriff.org
973-389-5900
RE: Perjury and Conspiracy Charges Against Ronald Lucas, Victor D'Agostino. et al.
Dear Mr. Maer:
We
are working on a story that has appeared in the social media recently
regarding conspiracy and perjury charges against Ronald Lucas, Victor
D'Agostino and others. These two Passaic County sheriff officers
created a conspiracy, fabricated evidence and lied at the grand jury to
cover up their illegal and/or criminal acts. For more, please see these
links:
RONALD A. LUCAS USED PERJURED TESTIMONY AND FALSE, FABRICATED OR FRAUDULENT EVIDENCE TO MISLEAD THE GRAND JURORS AND HELP INDICT AN INNOCENT HOMEOWNER http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/ronald-lucas-use-of-perjured-testimony.html
The reports accuse the Passaic County Sheriff of cover-up, and destruction of evidence.
Do you have any comments to make prior to us releasing our investigative report?
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.
Allison Brown
allisonbrown26@aol.com