I am sad to report that Gary Chase allegedly hung himself in his home last week. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that Gary was constantly under attack by bureaucrats in the notoriously corrupt town of Winchester, NH. Gary and his former wife owned a valuable piece of property in the heart of downtown and Gary believed the town gang wanted to take his land for their downtown redevelopment “master plan”. Years ago, the town thugs made their first move against Gary and his wife by targeting the property for zoning violations, claiming it was a junkyard and ultimately coming in and stealing over $300,000 of various construction equipment, and allegedly appropriating some of it to themselves and their buddies.
The endless court struggles and follow-up threat against his home led his wife to leave him. Despondent, he reached out for help, but no one wanted to stand against the corrupt goons calling themselves the “Town of Winchester”. On top of this stress, he also was suffering the physical pain of a spine injury. No compassion came from the “town” – they continued to press him. He pleaded to the Cheshire superior court to listen to him. Ultimately, more of his property was stolen by the town gang and liens placed on his home.
“Town of Winchester” Gang Members Smirk as Gary’s Property Is Stolen
The constant harassment pushed Gary over the edge into paranoia. At one point he told me that he believed that the town criminals were hacking into and reading his emails. Of course, when they really are out to get you, you can’t blame someone for being paranoid. Gary met with me in person and spoke to me by phone – his case was persuasive, but there was so much to it, it was hard to really grasp it all. I wanted to do more for him, but I’m not an attorney so I brought the story out here on the blog in three posts (linked here in this article) over the last couple of years since I first met him in early 2013.
Now Gary is gone from this world, dead by allegedly hanging himself in his own home. (more…)
It always catches me by surprise when a public official continues to express belief in an incorrect analysis of law. Yesterday afternoon in Keene, a chalk artist was approached by a bailiff who exited the front doors of the court to issue a pseudo-order to stop chalking. Classifying the chalking as ‘disorderly conduct’, a vague legal term to which chalking does not apply, the authority figure retreated when questioned about his statements and suggested that he would contact Keene police. A KPD SUV rolled by, and another officer walked past the chalking and into the courthouse, but no further action was taken. And, the chalking remained over 24 hours later!
I suppose this was simply an incident in which one bailiff had an incorrect interpretation of the rights of people to express themselves. It was respectable to see the issue dropped once the false information was corrected. One longs for a day when chalking itself does not cause such an elevation of the emotions for bystanders and authority figures.
Following the victory of the Merry People at the New Hampshire superior court level, Robin Hood of Keene is now scheduled for another decisive win over the conniving legal team calling itself ‘The City of Keene’ — this time at the state’s highest court, the Supreme! On Wednesday, October 15 at 9:30am, attorneys for the city as well as Robin Hood’s legal counsel will present brief oral arguments in support of their filings regarding the appealed case which was heard over the course of three full days last autumn. While one robed person entertained the narrative last time, on this examination, there will be no less than five dark-clothed individuals asking questions and formulating opinions regarding the legal parameters of the whimsical case.
As many stories that reach NH’s only appellate court resonate, this case has also prompted amicus curiae briefs from the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union in support of ‘Hooding and an opposition brief filed by the ominous New Hampshire Municipal Association. The location of the Concord court and details of their process are listed on their website.
Thanks to Martha Shanahan at the Keene Sentinel for her front page feature piece focusing on the Shire Free Church’s appeal of the City of Keene’s denial of tax exempt status for our Keene parsonage. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on this case. Here’s the Sentinel story, for which city attorney Thom Mullins refused to comment:
Members of a local activist group have appealed a city board’s rejection of their application for tax-exempt status on a Keene duplex.
Jay Denonville, Mark Edgington, Ian B. Freeman and Darryl W. Perry, who identify themselves in the appeal as ministers of the Shire Free Church: Monadnock, say the city’s Board of Assessors should reverse its June decision and allow the group to claim tax-exempt status on the property as the parsonage of a religious organization. The appeal was filed Aug. 28 in Cheshire County Superior Court.
Freeman and Perry, both members of the loosely organized group of bloggers known as Free Keene, filed the application for tax-exempt status at the group’s Leverett Street property in March.
Freeman told The Sentinel he co-founded the Shire Free Church, which has branches and ministers in other parts of New Hampshire and outside of the state, in 2010. (more…)
On Wednesday, September 03, a monumentous occasion occurred as the one and only governor Maggie Hassan visited Keene State College. On her foot voyage from the SUV to the front doors of the library, she was met with the usual escorts, but also including Free Keene blogger Derrick J. He steadily pitched hardball questions to New Hampshire’s highest politician, who consistently ignored him by miming casual conversation with others around her.
On the brief walkway preceding the entrance to the library doors, I encountered the scene of the governor’s entourage being led by Derrick. Approaching the governor, I inquired, “Governor Hassan, would you be able to sign my collectable decanter?,” referring to the vodka receptacle. Graciously, the high candidate obliged, “Sure,” taking and signing the ceramic canteen. With a signature striking similar to, “Messiah,” I was overjoyed to witness the hypocrisy of an anti-cannabis politician who is proud of their legal contributions to the state’s vodka industry. After the hilarious commercial the governor appeared in for the special edition NH state vodka bottle, I can imagine their value could only have skyrocketed. How far are we from the day when a New Hampshire governor autographs their personal strain of recreational cannabis? As boldly stated on the face of our nation’s official liquor decanter, “Live Free or Die”.
Of the seven races they were watching, four were wins for the liberty activists, including two democrat incumbents, Tim O’Flaherty and Michael Garcia. In his race for Manchester state rep for Wards 4-7, incumbent democrat Tim O’Flaherty received a solid third place out of five contenders. The first and second placed opponents only got 26% each compared to O’Flaherty’s 24%. O’Flaherty says that local haters spent a fair amount of money to mail flyers to all registered dems, promoting three other candidates. However, O’Flaherty says that what happened to him was nothing compared to the all-out-attack on Michael Garcia.
Michael Garcia (no relation to US Senate candidate Marilinda Garcia) is a Keeniac-moved-to-Nashua, who, like O’Flaherty won his state rep seat originally in 2012 in Nashua’s Ward 7. Local haters were caught by surprise in 2012 and this year mobilized against him with large signs calling the democrat liberty activist who moved several years ago from Florida, a “phony”. Plus, they were distributing an attack flier at the polling site. Despite the desperate push against him, Garcia prevailed, beating the last place contender by 30 votes. Garcia received 16% putting him in third place out of four, with the fourth place person receiving 12%.
The other races that Miscellany Blue were watching included Elizabeth Edwards who received a solid first place finish in Manchester’s Ward 4! She scored 41% of the vote compared to the second place finisher’s 34%. Manchester’s Amanda Bouldin (the founder of Shire Sharing) also made it through in a close race for state rep in Ward 5 where she finished second with 25% – the runner-up had 22%.
In Keene, despite valiant efforts, James “Robin Hood” Cleaveland lost his race for state rep to political newcomer William Pearson, who in a Keene Sentinel interview claimed to be a “real democrat”, whatever that means. Pearson received 102 votes in Keene’s Ward 1 compared to Cleaveland’s 30 votes (23%). The good news out of this race is that turnout in Ward 1 was down from 9% in 2012 to 7% in 2014, meaning that either Cleaveland’s opposition did nothing to try to stop him, or if they did, any efforts they made to try to turn out the vote were total failures. (more…)
