Today’s festivities really should begin with a solid beaut from the other “Al Jazeera” (investigative news) publication in the Florida Keys: Key West the Newspaper, published online every Friday at thebluepaper.com.
Here is the teaser to the blue paper’s lead article today, which is, I think, the blue paper’s 4th consecutive article on the hoodwinker’s hoodwinker, Pritam Singh, and his most recent hoodwinking, locally known as Oceanside Marina.
My own submitted comment follows the teaser, which should be opened and read to get a taste of the difference between the blue paper’s band of journalism and other local newspapers’ brand, and to see all reader comments. I usually don’t publish the blue paper’s articles in full, because I want people to open the blue paper themselves, and increase the blue paper’s reader traffic numbers, which might help the blue paper get more donation$$$ for its often high-risk brand of journalism.
Naja Girard, blue paper Editor
Oceanside Marina: It’s Getting Worse…
Oceanside Marina November 2002 (State Archives of Florida/McDonald)
by Naja Girard…….
The cloud over the new Oceanside Marina hotel is getting darker.
For months questions have been lingering about the appearance of a luxury 175-room hotel on Stock Island when only 17 hotel building rights (called “transient rogos”) were on file for the project (instead of 175). Well, things just got worse. There is good reason, this week, to question whether 12 of those lone 17 transient Rogos even existed or whether they were created out of thin air using false documents.
It is a bizarre story, where Oceanside Marina becomes tangled with another Pritam Singh development: Hawks Cay Resort, completed in 2004, on Duck Key.Continue reading »
Town Fool Sloan says:
January 20, 2017 at 7:09 am
Yikes!
Gadzooks!
Holy Mackerel!
Kowabonga!
Shazam!
If Pritim’s lips are moving …
A second opinion, indeed!
Call the STATE ATTORNEY!!!
The foul deed –
PERJURY!!!
Dang, Na-ja,
This here bewitching be looking kinda like
the Wisteria Island and Charles Eimers
Pulitzer spelling bees!!!
Next today, is friendly fire in the lawsuit filed against me by the Birmingham, Alabama area woman, which litigation I have been reporting, and what led up to it, for quite a while at my websites.
When the amicus filer told me he was going to join into this fray, I told him I did not wish to know ahead of time what he would file with the court, because I did not wish to be accused of having influenced him. So what you are about to read is as new to you as it was to me when I received a copy of it yesterday afternoon, after the amicus had filed it with the Clerk of the Court.
Amicus means, “friend” of the court. Amicus briefs have a long, hallowed tradition in U.S. Jurisprudence.
I redacted the Plaintiff’s first name, because I was told by the company hosting my websites that its policy, which is not the law, they said, is I can publish either the Plaintiff’s first name or her last name, but not both her first and her last name. I also redacted some of the amicus’ personal information.
STATE OF FLORIDA
THE SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT COURT
IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF MONROE
CIVIL DIVISION
XXXXX HANEY,
Plaintiff
Vs CASE NO: 17-CA-000001-K
SLOAN Y BASHINSKY JR, as an individual,
Defendant
AMICUS BRIEF
on behalf of the Defendant, Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Jr.
by Richard Boettger, filing pro se
Amicus filer Boettger is not an attorney, and begs the Court’s indulgence for errors of process and form, respectfully requesting leave to refile corrected versions should the need arise.
Boettger’s qualification to file an Amicus is that he, like Defendant, is an investigative journalist requiring 1st Amendment protection of his right to report news free of government censoring and private legal intimidation.
Boettger has written for the only remaining investigative journalism outlet besides Defendant’s blog, Key West the Newspaper (KWTN, aka “The Blue Paper”) for almost ten years, from when it actually was blue newsprint and continuing to the present day when it is online only.
Boettger is also very familiar with Defendant’s blog. In particular, not only am I aware that Defendant will publish the content of my emails whether I ask him to or not, I have read numerous exchanges with angry people whose emails he printed against their wishes. It can be safely said that his general readership is aware of this fact, and for the Court to decide whether Plaintiff was so aware.
Boettger had considered writing an Amicus weeks ago, but thought that Plaintiff’s case was so weak that such an action would be unnecessary. However, Plaintiff’s mention of Boettger in her Second Amended Complaint making a false statement about me forces my hand. I was not in fact going to be involved in this case, as she states I was, until she herself brought me in. Thus whatever “harm” she is claiming, is done to herself by her own hand, as she has done repeatedly in this case.
The main point I discovered out of dozens of readily findable statements on Plaintiff’s blog that establish her not only as a public figure, but shows her to be one who makes statements far more critical than those she alleges against Defendant. She wrote, “Speaking as a professional nose tweaker, I can appreciate a good stand-off, particularly with a religious zealot, BUT, calling Ashcroft insane was over the top, even by my low standards!” She calls herself “a professional nose-tweaker” with notably “low standards!” Such an writer has no credibility in criticizing others for doing a lesser version of what she does herself.
My final point demonstrating that Plaintiff’s actions have a chilling effect on press freedom is that for the first time my main paper, KWTN, will not publish anything I write about this case out of fear of a vexatious lawsuit from Plaintiff. This is the first report out of hundreds I have made for KWTN that they will not print. The two other local papers I have written for have limited me not only on my criticism of public figures, but also of advertisers. Only KWTN has published the material that, recently, for example, backed up my Ethics Complaint against County Mayor George Neugent resulting in his receiving three fines and Public Censure and Reprimand from the Florida Commission on Ethics. When KWTN can be intimidated, our only 1st Amendment hope is protection by the Courts.
Filer respectfully begs the Court to offer such protection by dismissing with prejudice Plaintiff’s claim.
Jan 19th, 2017
________________________________
Richard Boettger
XXXXX St.
Key West FL 33040
305-XXXXX
rd.boettger@XXXXX
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I HEREBY CERTIFY that a true and correct copy of the foregoing was sent to Defendant Sloan Bashinsky at sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com on this the 19th Day of January, 2017.
And to Plaintiff
XXXXX Haney
PO Box XXXXX
Birmingham, AL 35238
by 1st class U.S. Mail
_____________________________
Richard Boettger
XXXXXX St.
Key West FL 33040
Since it is my policy to tell the truth, as I know it, subject to having my ignorance elucidated by human or angelic intervention, I will say that twice during Haney’s and my brief fling this past December, I told her, in writing, online, once in private Facebook chat, the second time in an email, that I would protect her anonymity when I wrote about what she was doing for me.
I suppose Haney took that to mean she then could do anything she wished to me, with no fear that I might protest. If Haney had that view, she deceived herself. In fact, after Haney pulled the plug on all the had promised me, and told me she was going to call the police in on me if I did not obey her commands to abandon the deal she had made with me, that, if she did that, I told her in an email, I would out her publicly, online.
Haney knew, therefore, what was going to happen when she then called the police in on me. Or, if she thought I was bluffing, she deceived herself. Which would seem impossible, given how long she had been following my writings online, starting 2009. During that year, Haney emailed this love note:
Sloan,
Every time I read something you have written it sounds like sour grapes, i.e., bitterness. When I think of all you accomplished in your life, i.e., children, education; and all that you have been born to, i.e., a good family and financial security, I think you are one of the most ungrateful, bitter, people I have ever run into. What are you doing to alleviate the homeless problem in Key West, etc? Instead of always complaining and whining, why don’t you use what’s left of your life to change the world for the better. I can’t see any redeeming qualities in your bitter diatrites. Get honest and stop playing games that people have to spend time trying to figure out. You are similar to a maze with no way to get or out. In order to see what’s inside you have to stand on top of it and look down.
XXXXX Haney
During 2009 and 2010, Haney was following me on my websites. She saw me go head to head with many people online, publishing their names, and sometimes their email addresses. Haney saw me publish HER full name and her email address online.
After not hearing from Haney since probably late 2010, I found this private message from her in my Facebook account:
Conversation started February 22 (2016)
2/22, 6:42am
XXXXX Haney
Hi Sloan, I just read your Major redoubt and was glad to know that more of the pieces of the puzzle are finally set in place. Major’s death was a huge loss to so many people. Although I only knew him briefly via tennis, I really felt so sad to learn of his death. I hope you are doing well. I also enjoy your ramblings. You are one of the best writer’s I have ever read. Take good care.
Here’s a link to the Major Bashinsky Suicide Redoubt article, http://www.goodmorningbirmingham.com/?p=2682 , which dissected the maze Major, and others, had created to make it look like he had been murdered, which, in fact, he had shot himself in the head, which Haney, who once had dated Major, had never been able to accept.
In December of 2016, I found this private Facebook message from Haney, and only then accepted her friend request:
December 11
12/11, 11:59am
XXXXX Haney
Sloan, I am following you on your blog and am concerned about your homeless state. I don’t understand why you don’t have an apt, house, etc. If you need money for a place I can help and so can a number of other people who you know on FB and elsewhere. Just ask.
Dec 11 You accepted their request.
That was the beginning of Haney’s and my December fling, during which I went to Birmingham on her dime, and then she had a change of heart, or a change of something, and she reneged all of her promises to me, and when I did not roll over and play dead, she called the police in on me, and here we are, in court in Key West, at her insistence.
Rick Bettger’s amicus brief reminded me of what I kept forgetting to include in what I e-filed yesterday in Haney’s lawsuit against me, which e-filing I included in yesterday’s dilemmas, dilemmas everywhere … post at this website.
I described in that e-filing several ways Haney had tried to scam the Court, after she had alleged in her lawsuit that I had published she was a scam artist.
What I kept forgetting to include yesterday was that Haney keeps alleging in her lawsuit that she is not a public figure, which she herself knows is not true. She knows she is a public figure, and is so by her own doing.
Haney made herself a public figure by filing vexatious litigation against and calling in the police on many people where she lives in Alabama.
Haney made herself a public figure by creating a website to attack her former husband and offering a $1,000,000 bounty to anyone who brought him to justice, her former husband wrote to me on Facebook. Former hubby told me their divorce case took 7 1/2 years, due to Haney’s various tactics. They went through every judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where they then lived. When Haney filed motion to have the court record sealed and the trial and conducted in secret, because she had mental issues and if word of that got out, she would have a hard time making a living, the then presiding judge denied Haney’s motion. Then, when Haney finally was ordered to pay 1/2 of the marital debt, she filed bankruptcy and hubby got left with the entire marital debt, he told me.
Haney made herself a public figure by creating and publishing her own political activist website and publishing aggressive columns and opinions thereon, one exquisite quote from which Rick Boettger cited in his amicus brief.
Haney’s political activist website: http://www.usnewslink.com/xarchive.htm
Online is a charge against Haney for having scammed a man who claimed he tried to buy that website’s domain name from Haney.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Judith-Haney-is-a-scam-artist/-Birmingham-Alabama-35238/Judith-Haney-is-a-scam-artist-UsNewsLinkcom-USNewsLinknet-USNewsLinkorg-A-Scam-Artist-520775
I published that alleged scam, and then Haney alleged in her lawsuit that I published she was a scam artist.
I have many faults, which are pointed out to me ongoing by my friends, critics, enemies and girlfriend, if I have one. And by the angels, in various ways I cannot dodge or ignore.
However, telling what I know to be lies is not something I do, because I am terrified of what the angels will do to me if I don’t tell the truth. And, I find that telling the truth tends to be easier in the long run, than not telling the truth, although in the short haul, telling the truth can be really rough.
Next on this topic today, recent Facebook chat with a part-time Key West amiga:
WED 10:15PM
Sharon
I finally finished reading her most recent filing, it made me wonder if she was after your possible future inheritance all along. Possibly marrying you if things had worked out, even probably surviving you but now going after it this way. It was the last lines that made me think that.
Sharon
“The defendants capital assets include a future inheritance which the plaintiff herein elects as a remedy for her costs, compensatory damages and punitive damages.” Wow that’s a mouthful
4:48AM
Sloan
That’s what it looks like to me, too. I think any sane person, who reads her and my Facebook and emails, would conclude that, despite her saying she did not want a relationship, that was precisely what she was hoping for, and that eventually we would get married, and in that way she would get to enjoy my inheritance. She knew from reading what had had published at my websites, what I stood to inherit, and when. Looks to me her Facebook message in February 2016 praising my writings, totally contrary to anything from her in the past, was her opening gambit. Then came her second move in December, offering to help me financially. At some point, she realized I was not going to change my spots to suit her taste, so she reneged and tried to get me to go along with it, and when I dragged my feet, she began the extortion attempt, threatening to sick the police on me, which is her way of trying to get her way historically, and when I did not cave in, she did sick the police on me. I had told her in plain English what I would do, if she did that. She was not blindsided. She then went into the innocent victim mode. She sued me for an injunction, saying she was not asking for damages, because I was poor, lived on the street. She knew all along about my potential inheritances. Now that she has told the Court what she is really after, it probably is time for me to plead her and my online correspondence into the Court file, so the Judge can see what really did go down between her and me. So the Judge can see this is an elaborate scam, which reasonably could be argued dates back years. On top of all of that, what are her damages? Her reputation where she lives is terrible. She has misrepresented to (scammed) the court that she has a good reputation, which could be damaged. Her terrible reputation has not hurt her appraisal business. But she tells the court I have hurt her reputation and her appraisal business and thus her ability to make a living. On top of all of that, what I have published about her is true. So, there is no libel (defamation). She tried to extort me, then she told the Court I had tried to blackmail her. The truth is not in her. Nor, arguably, is sanity. I do not think an insane person is legally competent to file a law suit pro se. A legal guardian would have to be appointed by a court, and the legal guardian would bring the lawsuit. The Judge really does need to hire a psychiatrist to evaluate Haney, via what she wrote to me and I wrote back to her, and her pleadings in this law suit she has filed, and to speak with her former husband and the chief of police and the city attorney of Leeds, Alabama, where Haney lives and works and habitually sues people and sicks the police on people.
If Haney is not checked by the Judge, I expect she will prosecute me, and burden the court and the legal system down here until the end of time, which is what her husband told me she did to him, and is what the police chief and city attorney told me she does to a lot of people.
Those two men seemed to be at their wits end, and the local judges, too, over Haney. They could not stop her. Perhaps they went at trying to stop her the wrong way. Perhaps they should have brought legal action to have her declared insane and a legal guardian appointed, and, even, have her confined to a state mental institution. Her former hubby told me that her psychiatrist had told him that he had detected 3, perhaps more, personalities in her.
Next today, Key West terrain of which I know very little, so am hesitant to pretend I am informed:
Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square (Pier)
For years, Jim Hendrick has been Pritam Singh’s field marshall – land use/development expert and adviser. Hendrick was that for the people who bought Peary Court from the Navy. Hendrick was that for Roger Bernstein and Roger’s family, in their efforts to develop Wisteria Island, which Naja Girard shot down by getting the US Government to claim it owns Wisteria, which caused Naja to be a labeled a witch by Roger Bernstein. Which, the appellation, when I told Naja about it, delighted her and caused her to cackle just like a witch.
Mallory Square rezoning could create problems
Anyone in favor of turning Mallory Square into a convention center or bar/restaurant hub with no parking? That’s what could occur under the city’s proposal to rezone Mallory Square and Clinton Square to the misleadingly-titled “Historic Mallory Square Arts and Cultural District.”
Instead of simplifying the approval process for arts and cultural activities, the city at first proposed to make special events, outdoor events, and outdoor display of art for sale (e.g.,the sidewalk art fair) go through the expensive, time-consuming procedures of obtaining “Conditional Use” approvals, while allowing new restaurants with outdoor entertainment and alcohol sales to be built as of right. Yes, you read that correctly: no impact statement required for new bar/restaurants; just a building permit.
Sometime during the last week, the rezoning proposal was revised to delete outdoor festivals, special events and outdoor display of art “for sale or otherwise” as conditional uses, but instead of designating them as permitted uses, they were simply eliminated from the list of specified uses. However, restaurants and “development of new structures” are prominently mentioned in the stated intent of the new Historic Arts and Cultural District.
Why? Is there is an unmet need for hundreds more restaurant seats and bar stools in Old Town, or for “new structures” to displace scarce waterfront public open space? Who’s driving this errant bus? Certainly not the arts and cultural organizations whom one would expect to be involved in drafting such important historic-district regulations. The city’s own historic planner was left out of the process, as were Old Island Restoration Foundation, Historic Florida Keys Foundation, Art in Public Places, Council of the Arts, etc.
A well-conceived arts and cultural district could help our museums and cultural activities, while protecting long-established nonconforming uses. But this strange proposal could create more problems than it solves. Those who care about preserving our remaining waterfront public open space at Mallory Square, can voice their opinion at the Planning Board hearing, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m.
Jim Hendrick
Key West
At 6 p.m. yesterday, I was on the lower keys city transit shuttle, headed up US 1 to my friend Todd German’s home, to spend the night. Todd graciously has let me stay nights there, while I recover from a tenacious croup that seized me the day I received an email from Haney that she had sued me in Key West.
I have an old friend, Mark Riggs, a world-class street performer, whom I have been seeing and chatting with some on the lower keys morning shuttle coming into Key West.
Maybe a year ago at a Key West city commission meeting, I told the mayor and city commissioners that anything Mark Riggs told them about Mallory Square and Sunset Celebration, they could take to the bank. Perhaps Mayor Cates and the city commissioners should seek Mark out, hear what he has to say about what Jim Hendrick covered in his letter to the editor.
Hendrick is the smartest, shrewdest, land use lawyer in the Florida Keys. Note, I said lawyer. Even though he was disbarred, that did not change anything, other than Hendrick stopped going to court for his clients. Between Hendrick and Mark Riggs, the mayor and commissioners should get a pretty good idea of what all really is going on regarding Mallory Square.
Below is today’s Key West Citizen’s treatment of what Jim Hendrick addressed in his letter to the editor yesterday, my few thoughts in bold italics:
New district creation postponed
BY SCOTT UNGER
Key West Citizen
The creation of a new Old Town district that has been in the works since last May was delayed again by the Key West Planning Board on Thursday.
The creation of a Mallory Square Arts and Cultural District encompassing Clinton Market, the Custom House, Mel Fisher Museum, the businesses of Mallory Square and the Audubon House was postponed until the March 16 meeting after 10 community members spoke against the move.
Citizens said the new district would impact the popular Sunset Celebration, exclude other art-centric areas of town and could lead to new businesses encroaching on the Square, while others said the effort was rushed, gave improper noticing and didn’t consult groups and societies with vested interest in historical and cultural values.
“I believe that this ordinance is misguided, I think that our arts and cultural district is all of Old Town,” said Florida Keys Arts Council Executive Director Elizabeth Young. “There seems to be a lot of bait and switch and something else is going on.” “This is a nice crowd but (if the zoning is approved) we will bring a big crowd and it won’t be pretty.”
Planning Director Thaddeus Cohen took issue with Young’s statement and said the rezoning was clouded by misinformation and the new district wouldn’t prevent other areas of town from being recognized as cultural centers. “I’m disappointed in the person who says this is a bait and switch. Anyone who knows me knows that our staff is professional in what we do,” Cohen said. “I’m not in a position to carry the water for anyone.”
“There’s been a lot … of misinformation. This does not change the Sunset Celebration.” “All it does is provides for the ability for current folks to be conforming and provides (for) accessory uses … Nothing changed except for added flexibility, which we think still is a good thing.”
Well, I personally have seen Thaddeus Cohen say one thing at a public meeting, and then turn right round and do just the opposite, even after I called him on it. I personally have seen Cohen and his staff, and the prior city planner and his staff, be swayed, or smozzled, or something, by special interests, especially developers, and then be overridden by other city agencies and even by the mayor and city commissioners.
While the Planning Department has been working on the district for more than a year, the issue heated up last July when representatives of the Mel Fisher Museum requested a zoning switch to Historic Residential Commercial Core District (which includes Duval Street businesses as the heart of the island’s entertainment district) in order to pursue new business opportunities such as bike rentals and a cafe.
Cohen maintained the museum could pursue its goals under its current zoning, which led to a postponement of the issue to give the sides time to work out a compromise. The issue was postponed again in November and the newest iteration expanded to its current form, which is designed to promote the arts while maintaining the area’s historical significance, according to Planner Virginia Haller.
“The main result of the proposed (zoning) … would be to accommodate the mixed use district that allows for a wide range of restaurant, limited scale retail sales, artist studios, galleries, and arts and craft uses while conserving the architectural quality of the area with cultural and historic significance, and to further facilitate the development of new structures in a manner compatible with existing structures,” the staff report states.
Mel Fisher President Melissa Kendrick said the museum has spent a lot of money to fix what began as a small problem and requested a switch to the commercial zoning. “Fix our problem and let everybody else (create) the arts and cultural district,” she said.
Owen Trepanier, speaking on behalf of the museum, said the new district satisfied some problems, but would require the business to obtain a parking variance every time it wanted to make a change.
Cohen said Mel Fisher associates have stated in writing that the new district would satisfy the museum’s needs and Trepanier was misrepresenting the city’s comprehensive plan.
Board Chair Sam Holland said the negotiations with Mel Fisher produced contradictory statements from representatives. “We have had two planners and others give us contradictory information from Mel Fisher … and that needs to be out there,” Holland said. “(City) staff said on day one you (don’t) have a zoning problem. I respect all the passion out here … but I do want an accurate record of what’s transpired.”
Rumors and speculation led to many community members expressing their concern, Holland said. “I do believe that there is quite a bit of misinformation out there …. and I believe that was generated in the last 24 to 48 hours to bring you here,” he told the crowd.
Board members Jim Gilleran and Michael Browning said there were too many questions surrounding the proposal to support it. “We have dozens of organizations that are concerned about the impact of this,” Browning said. “I think we would be remiss in passing something that doesn’t address or fully explain … what the actual impact will be on these other organizations.”
“This is the proverbial can of worms,” said Gilleran. “By trying to solve a problem (with Mel Fisher) we may have created issues that really don’t exist.”
Browning’s motion to postpone the issue indefinitely died on the floor after a 3-3 tie before Gilleran’s motion to postpone the issue until the March meeting passed unanimously. If the new district is approved by the Planning Board, the issue will move before the Key West City Commission.
sunger@keysnews.com
Here is what it pretty much nearly always boils down to, in Key West.
sloanbashinsky@outlook.com