In response to Ms Downs email RE Lee County Petition Concerns (below)

Ms. Downs,

Have you observed in Lee County rocket docket?  I urge you to go, observe, sit in the galley and imagine it being any other category of litigation, divorce, traffic, criminal, child custody, etc.  While many are biased against any and all defendants in Florida foreclosure cases, believe it or not, most of the defendants have legitimate legal defenses due to improper mortgage securitization leading to improper transfer of real property in contravention of state laws and federal securities laws.  There are violations of constitutional property rights along with violations of due process rights as these cases are rocket docketed into a process that favors speed and docket clearing in favor of the more powerful litigant who, often along with their counsel, has been proven to fabricate it’s own evidence to prove it’s case.  Speed and case dispensation in favor of opaque, ill-defined foreclosing plaintiffs is valued above all else; above justice, above due process, above property rights, above respect for authentic land records, above the rules of procedure, above rules of evidence, above federal securities laws, above full disclosure to investors – our cities, states, pensions, 401(k)s.

Ms. Downs, I urge you to do your own investigation into Florida’s foreclosure process, examine public land records and foreclosure files before you come out in support of a system that is allowing large scale unfettered continuance of fraud upon the court, fraud upon our land records, and fraud upon our nation’s citizens (mortgagors & investors).  What we are witnessing is a great regulatory, legislative, and judicial failure.

Ms. Downs, are you truly defending these practices and the judges who implement them in tens of thousands of cases?  Did you read the emails between judges discussing setting up ex-parte meetings with plaintiff’s “local counsel”?  Or the one stating the plaintiff’s counsel is getting “burned out” and how the court can brainstorm for ways to help alleviate local counsel for plaintiffs’ burden (pg 141)?

To a non-lawyer, it is clear that circuit court judges have colluded to deprive a class of litigants and their attorneys of the recognized and established judicial due process.  The outcome of a certain category of court cases is predetermined in a judicial system where laws, rules of procedure, lawyers, and thinking, reasoning judges are superfluous.  Procedures are in place to assure the defendant and/or his counsel loses even when the plaintiff’s representative does not appear for a hearing and the judge simply picks out any live, breathing plaintiff’s attorney in the galley to cover the case.

This is judicial bias to the extreme.  In Florida’s foreclosure rocket dockets, the bigotry is aimed at mortgagors accused of being in default to a alleged lawful creditor, but at other times in our nation’s history, the same could be said of judicial treatment of blacks or women.

For example, here is an excerpt from Rape and the American Judicial System.

The justice system of the colonial times refrained from punishing white males but did not waver from finding fault with the actions of females, causing women to hesitate at reporting rape against white men. Two famous cases in history, those of Martha Richardson and Goodwife Fancy, exemplify this notion. Martha Richardson had gotten pregnant before her wedding with a man other than her fiancé. Upon this surprise, Martha recalled fainting at her master’s house some time ago in the presence of two white males and concluded that one of them must have raped her. However, the court ruled that Martha’s story could not be true, for “a woman who was raped- who had no delight in the act- could not conceive. Martha Richardson had conceived and borne a child, and thus she deserved to be ‘publiquely and severely corrected’ as a fornicator” (Dayton, 241). This verdict goes to show that the justice system favored protecting the reputation of white males over females, for this decision was an attempt to find the most logical reasoning as to why white males were innocent and females guilty. They did not search for the truth, but instead for ways to prove the innocence of white males. The second case was that of Goodwife Fancy, a servant who claimed to have gotten raped by a number of white men, but whose husband had advised her to not speak of it to anyone. When the case finally went to court after two years, the verdict concluded that [2] The Fancys- she for concealing her tribulations as he…[for] ‘neglecting the timely revealing of’ the attacks- were both ordered to be severely whipped” (Dayton 235). This case, again, goes to show that the courts did not look for the truth in the cases, but instead looked for technicalities by which they could get the accused white male off. The courts in the colonial times were not upholding justice; their intent was just to look out for the reputation of white males accused of rape.

Facts, truth, and justice be damned.

At one time the courts ruled that a raped woman must be a promiscuous fornicator.   At one time the courts ruled that an accused black person must be guilty.

In these times, regardless of the nebulous foreclosing entity’s identity, legal right to foreclose, history of malfeasance, damages inflicted upon millions of families, and widespread fabrication of evidence; the courts rule (after rushing through alternative procedures) that any accused mortgagor must be a deadbeat who deserves to be dispossessed in the quickest, most expedient manner.

In closing, thank you for sharing your views with us Ms. Downs.  This discourse continues to be extremely thought provoking and educational.

Sincerely,
Lisa Epstein
ForeclosureHamlet.org

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Email from Mayanne Downs RE Lee County Petition Concerns

To the members of this list serve, or recipients of the below email:

I write as an individual, a lawyer in Florida who received this email.  Although it would be easy not to respond, I cannot let the record stand with the statements made in this chain unrebutted.

I have read every email attached to this email. Not only do those emails NOT support the claims made below – that the judges in Lee County were acting in a “disgusting” fashion without regard to due process – but they actually show  judges working hard to do their jobs as well as they can, and to find the appropriate way to process the staggering caseloads they must manage.  These thoughtful judges are communicating about how best to proceed, trying to understand what their colleagues are doing, sharing approaches, and  obviously interested in the best possible approach to a difficult problem.

It is wrong and unfair, in my opinion, to make sweeping derogatory statements about these judges, who cannot defend themselves. It is wrong to claim that a dense record supports a sweeping and damning conclusion, knowing that most will not take the time to read the materials.  And it is unfair to do so in such a dramatic and widespread fashion.

I understand that people can have reasonable differences about what is right and wrong in these cases, and I certainly understand claims that due process is not being satisfactorily addressed.  Those claims should be prosecuted or defended as the clients and their lawyers see fit.  Sharing information is an admirable goal. Using a forum to damn others — not so much.

We all have an obligation to speak and act respectfully, and with due regard for our roles in our system of justice.  Words have power, and we all have a responsibility to remember that.

I am confident that no one on this list intends harm, and I’m not suggesting that anyone has acted intentionally badly.  I simply ask for some care, and caution, in how we communicate about these important issues.

Thanks for “listening.”

Best regards to all,

Mayanne Downs

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4closureFraud.org