PHOENIX, Jan. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An African American man on the ASD spectrum working at Veterans Recovery Network, a veteran services organization for homeless military veterans, has filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Nevada District against The Siegel Select Group, a national property management firm previously investigated by members of Congress for unlawful evictions, and city law enforcement officials at the Casa Grande Police Department for allegedly running unlawful evictions, recklessly interfering with active protection orders issued by an Arizona judge, wanton eviction procedures, and submitting falsified police report information about a physical assault on a Casa Grande woman last February while he was nearly 700 miles away, as court documents infer to evince the cumulative effects involved in this situation.
Cary Peterson, who works at a non-governmental organization that supports disabled and homeless military veterans, filed a civil lawsuit against the Siegel Select Group, and local police officers for unlawful eviction and civil rights violation claims. The lawsuit alleges that Siegel Group's management in Arizona interfered with a court order of protection, locked Peterson out of his unit, violated statutory laws on due process rights to tenants, and had been involved in a monetary dispute over a holiday rental property funded by Veterans Recovery Network.
Arizona Senator T.J. Shope, a member of the 16th Legislature District, expressed disinterest in the 'undesired lobbying contact' email concerning this legal situation in his backyard involving ASD-disabled Black-Hispanic man and his son who were initially visited with threats of physical harm and racial harassment with death threats prior to filing a lawsuit for a order of restraint, according to Mesa Police Department records and the criminal prosecution that remains pending in the court, and a matter of the public interest at the Arizona Attorney General's office. Shope, a member of the Arizona legislative committee on public safety, is a member of the 16th Legislature District, which includes Casa Grande and Pinal County.
OLD BEEFS
In the Summer of 2024, the Veterans Recovery Network had been working with a disabled military veteran in Mesa with his VA benefits. PACT Act Relief Settlement Program advocated administrative complaints filed with the Office of Civil Rights and the Arizona Attorney General when they became aware of the landlord-clients of Hull, Holiday & Holiday Law Office for evictions against members of their veterans organization. These eviction actions all resulted from disabled tenants living on SSDI or VA disability benefits being placed into an housing-assistance programs run by state-mandated nonprofit organizations that were required to pay the majority or all of the disabled tenants' rent payments. But eviction actions started instead after these community-bridging organizations failed to do so after several months (without the tenant's knowledge).
NEW BEEFS
December 18, 2024, Siegel Select Group filed a crossover lawsuit against Peterson in the Casa Grande Justice concerning the Arizona rental property controversies raised in Peterson federal lawsuit filed against Siegel's corporate office and property manager two weeks earlier.
Peterson's federal complaint against Siegel Select Group Nevada, Siegel's Arizona property manager Rebecca Blanford and an unidentified male with her, and police officials in the City of Casa Grande, was followed by Casa Grande Justice Court Justice of Peace John Ellsworth, a military veteran who's judiciary profile (https://www.pinalcourtsaz.gov/directory.aspx?eid=32) quote reads that 'all persons should be held accountable for their actions,' entered a court hearing disposition (an eviction judgment in favor of Siegel) that the respondent, Cary Peterson- ironically being a (retired) Tribal court judge from Silicon Valley- 'failed to appear' in court on December 23, 2024, resulting in a default judgment against him. This 'absentia' judgment erroneously entered by the court occurred despite Peterson typing his name into the Zoom conference of the court hearing, stating that he was 'present' before the court sessions began, which included communication on the official court record with Siegel's attorney and Judge Ellsworth.
The court record shows that Peterson filed an appeal with an application order receipt for a 'supersedeas bond' in accordance with the Arizona law before the Pinal County Constable got involved to reclaim the rental property in dispute last week. The same Arizona justice court that stated Peterson 'failed to appear' for the eviction hearing [as well] denied Peterson's notice of appeal, and supplemental motions requesting the court transcript and 'designation of record on appeal.'
CONGRESSIONAL FAULT-FINDING
In 2021, U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn was the vanguard of a congressional committee report (https://coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/clyburn-siegel-invitation-homes-pretium-ventron-pandemic-evictions) against Siegel Select Group. In July 2022, Congressman Clyburn published a report that condemned the Siegel Group for unlawful evictions and civil rights violations of several tenants during the pinnacle of the COVID crisis, their 'misleading' and 'aggressive' tactics to evict tenants "uniquely egregious."
According to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn, this federal legislative report (https://coronavirus-democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/clyburn-siegel-invitation-homes-pretium-ventron-pandemic-evictions) revealed that Siegel Select Group used abusive tactics to 'evict tens of thousands of struggling residents' despite the current eviction laws during the COVID pandemic, while receiving $2 million in forgiven Paycheck Protection Program funds (PPP government loans).
EVIDENT ERRORS
The (erroneously-issued) 'failure to appear' judicial order is [now] a multi-jurisdictional controversy that now remains a matter of the United States District Court (Peterson v. Siegel Group Nevada Inc., et al., No. Case No. 2:24-cv-02265 (D. Nev. Dec. 6, 2024) derived from more than a handful of related lawsuits between Peterson, a veteran client of Veteran Recovery Recovery Network ('Sternberg'), the Siegel Group, particular Siegel Select Group employees ('Blanford'), Casa Grande City's police officer Timothy Dunham, three unidentified Casa Grande police officials, and the Law Offices of Hull, Holiday & Holiday- a complex legal matter which public records show had a domino-effect of cumulative errors after a simple misinterpretation caused by what Peterson says was a 'crank call' made to the police by an estranged relative in Arizona last February, while Peterson was several hundreds of miles away in California.
The erroneous police reporting by the Casa Grande Police Department was followed by irregularities in the Arizona justice system that resulted in the Arizona state court's communications director telling the Arizona State Bar's communications director and a news investigator in an email response that he could not find any trace of newly-appointed Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Lisa Boddington's family court docket cases involving Peterson as a party.
Last September, in another instance related to Commissioner Boddington's judicial case load, the judge's deputy clerk concedes to the court transcriber that the audio recordings from [all three] court hearings related to Peterson's protection order actions were lost due to 'human error.'
Court papers disclose that Peterson believes that the erroneous police report information filed by the Casa Grande Police caused the Arizona judges and local community to place him in a bad light, defaming his character and reputation in general.
STATUS OF PROCEEDINGS
Last Friday, Peterson filed an emergency motion to transfer this case matter to the United States District Court for the Arizona District due to the fact that Nevada does not have jurisdiction to hear civil rights claims against local law enforcement officials under Title 42, Section 1983 of the United States of Code.
These court proceedings, assigned to United States District Court Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon of the Nevada District, remain pending. There are no scheduled hearings at the present time.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/38cf3fd6-0a61-4eb3-9d4d-ad4595978120
CONTACT: Media Contact: Public Affairs, [email protected] (Veterans Recovery Network)
