New law makes going green easier for HOA residents

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:

SAN ANTONIO – The Texas legislature put some limits on homeowners associations, adding rules that would make going green easier for homeowners.

That change in the law actually took place a year and a half ago but groups that promote solar say many HOAs don’t even know about it and continue to ban solar panels from their neighborhoods.

GALVESTON HOA PREZ files $10 million defamation suit against resident

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:

GALVESTON – A local homeowners association president alleges he is the focal point of certain false statements made by another resident and has filed a $10 million lawsuit. 

In recent court papers filed Nov. 29 in Galveston County District Court, Seascape Owners Association president Ron Benotti accuses Richard Alan Collier of making defamatory remarks and emailing them to numerous individuals.

The suit alleges Collier wrongfully labeled Benotti as “arrogant,” “incompetent,” “dishonest,” “unethical” and “harassing.”

Things the defendant said included that the plaintiff mishandled a beach nourishment dune restoration project, acted unethically and illegally with no regard to the association’s bylaws or state laws and engaged in character assassination and a “personal vendetta” against him, according to the original petition.

Benotti points out that in the emails Collier “negligently or maliciously” stated the plaintiff committed election fraud; spied on Collier and his family, friends and business associates; and blamed the respondent for lying and financially misleading the homeowners association.

“The defendant intentionally or recklessly made statements that created a high degree of risk of harm yet deliberately proceeded to act with conscious disregard or indifference to the risk,” the suit says.

Benotti insists he has incurred substantial loss of his reputation and has suffered severe emotional distress.

A jury trial is requested.

Galveston County 56th District Court Judge Lonnie Cox is presiding over the case.

Case No. 12-CV-2972

'Jesus is the reason for the season' sign sparks controversy in Washington

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:

PASCO, Wash. - Jesus seems to be the reason for neighbors to fight about a sign in one Pasco man's yard. His large Christmas decoration has become the cause of controversy. The homeowner's association says this sign breaks its rules.

Missouri HOA Garnishes Man's Bank Account days before Christmas

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:  Talk about heartless.  Days after the death of his granddaughter, and the week before Christmas, a Kansas City HOA garnished the bank account of a past due homeowner.  Watch the video here:

Man's rough month includes homeowners association fight | Local News - KMBC Home

Bexar County Jury Awards HOA $208K from former President and Lawyer

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:

A jury has spoken in the somewhat protracted dispute between the Ventura s HOA and various owners of properties in that northeast Bexar County subdivision. The former HOA President and its former attorney were hit with a whopping $280K verdict on December 21, 2012.

Watch the videos from WOAI TV below.

HOA Sued for Cleaning Up Home Owner’s Patio Trash

San Antonio HOA Lawyer Trey Wilson wrote:

From The Buffalo News, N.Y.

Dec. 17 — When neighbors took it upon themselves to clean Suzanne Taylor’s cluttered patio in Buffalo’s exclusive Waterfront Village, she accused them of trespassing and discrimination, and eventually sued them in federal court.

After a three-year legal battle, a federal appeals court found Taylor’s suit to be “groundless and frivolous” and ordered a lower-court judge to award attorney fees to the home owners organization she sued.

Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin, who had previously denied attorney fees to the defendants, did exactly that last week to the tune of $107,322.

“It’s not enough to prevail. Our clients had to prove her suit was frivolous,” said Minryu Kim, a lawyer for the Harbour Pointe Homeowners Association. “It’s very, very rare that courts award attorney fees to prevailing defendants.”

In discrimination cases, courts have a long history of not awarding attorney fees to defendants because of the “chilling effect” that might have on future discrimination cases.

Taylor had claimed disability discrimination — she said she suffers from depression — and Curtin found that her case was not “entirely unreasonable or without foundation.”

Now Taylor feels that the decision to award attorney fees will have other ramifications. 

“I really think there’s going to be a chilling effect,” Taylor said of the courts’ ultimate ruling. “I really think lawyers are going to be afraid to take these cases.”

The case of Taylor v. Harbour Pointe began more than four years ago, when neighbors, who 

had complained that Taylor’s patio was a “pigsty,” cleaned it up and moved several items to the inside of her garage.

When Taylor, who was out of town at a college reunion, returned home and found that her patio had been cleaned, she called police and filed a report accusing her neighbors of trespassing and burglary.

She eventually took her case, which became a housing discrimination complaint, to the state Division of Human Rights and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/news/home-thoughts/dispute-about-pigsty-in-buffalo-turns-into-a-legal-battle-royal/#ixzz2FbDLpXmZ

Former CrimeStoppers Head, Veteran Dallas Cop Theadora Ross, Sentenced After Stealing $250,000 From CrimeStoppers Reward Fund

From 2006 to 2010, Dallas police officer Theadora Ross was the respected head of the Dallas area Crime Stoppers program.  You know Crime Stoppers:  there are branches of Crime Stoppers all over the world, dedicated to solving crimes by allowing people to provide information that may lead to an arrest of an evildoer without having to directly deal with the police face to face. 

Crime Stoppers Organizations Are Big Deals These Days, With Big Reward Funds

Being able to share what someone knows without having to give their name has proven to be an invaluable tool to law enforcement, and Crime Stoppers is viewed as a major crime-fighting tool in most law enforcement circles.  Part of its reputation has come from the ability of Crime Stoppers to bring new information to police when investigations don't have much to go on, using money:  Crime Stoppers offers rewards to folk who come forward and spill what they know.  You've probably seen an advertisement or two, where a reward is offered for information in an unsolved case. 

Dallas Cop Sentenced for Taking $250,000 From Dallas Crime Stoppers' Pot of Reward Money

Which means that Crime Stoppers has money in a pot for those rewards, something that Theadora Ross found just too, too tempting there at the Dallas Crime Stoppers office.  Never mind that Theadora Ross was a Dallas police officer, who had sworn to perserve, protect, and defend:  Officer Ross was sentenced this week to 46 months incarceration in a federal pen for income tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wire fraud (she pled guilty back in August 2012, there was no trial). 

Dallas Police Department Senior Corporal Theodora Ross was arrested back in June 2010 by Dallas police while setting in her Crime Stoppers office; seems her pal, Malva Delley, spilled the beans on Ross after Delley was questioned by police.  How did the cops find out?  An observant bank teller became suspicious after seeing Delley collecting more than one CrimeStoppers reward, and picked up a phone.

Delley and Ross were both arrested, and Delley pled guilty back to one count of conspiracy to make a false statement to a financial institution in May 2011. 

While Dallas citizens (and Dallas police) trusted Theodora Ross to run Crime Stoppers, seems that the Dallas police officer was busy creating fake tip numbers to be paid on Crime Stopper cases.  These tip numbers are the tools to allow CrimeStoppers to pay rewards to anonymous tippers: present the tip number to the bank, and you are paid the reward in cash.  It was an easy scheme:  Delley would use Ross's fake tip number to collect the money from the bank as a Crime Stoppers reward. 

The rewards added up.  By the time that these two grifters were caught, they had taken a quarter of a million dollars from the North Texas Crime Commission, which funds the Dallas Crime Stoppers (along with Dallas court fines, Collin County court fines, fundraising efforts and charitable donations to Crime Stoppers).  That's right:  $250,000.00.

Ross Ordered to Pay Back the Money and To Pay Her Income Taxes, Too

Luckily, the money may be recouped.  Ross has been ordered to pay $274,304.00 in restitution as part of her sentencing.  That's covering losses to Crime Stoppers as well as taxes due:  over a four year time period, it was found that Officer Ross failed to pay around $38,000 in income taxes on the $175,000 of income she received in her conning.  That's right:  the IRS expects to be paid even if the income is from an illegal grift.

Here's a question that hasn't been answered in the news coverage or the court opinions or FBI press releases:  is that bank teller whose tip lead to the discovery of this huge fraud on CrimeStoppers going to get a reward for calling in her suspicions?  Just wondering.