Council House Elder Abuse
National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) formed a non-profit corporation then built and later refurbished Council House, 1501 17th Avenue, Seattle, Washington. The corporation rents independent-living apartments to senior citizens. The apartment block does not classify as a nursing home and does not legally house vulnerable adults. [Vulnerable Adults]
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Making a False or Misleading Statement to a Public Servant
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A person who knowingly makes a false or misleading material statement to a public servant is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. Material statement means a written or oral statement reasonably likely to be relied upon by a public servant in the discharge of his or her official powers or duties.
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Every person convicted of a gross misdemeanor shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for a maximum term fixed by the court of not more than one year, or by a fine in an amount fixed by the court of not more than five thousand dollars, or by both such imprisonment and fine. [RCW 9A.76.175]
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This sign shows yet another attempt to reclassify Council House as a nursing home to cover up multiple violations of laws and to support the fiduciary powers that Stephen A. Mitchell claims that he has over tenants.
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To insure full occupancy and increased income, the directors unlawfully rent apartments to vulnerable adults to their detriment and to the discomfort and danger of people living independently. Moreover, both managers and elitist tenants discriminate against them because of their infirmities. That classifies as elder abuse. Elder abuse consists of willful action or inaction that inflicts injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment.
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Moreover administrators exploit them by compelling or exerting undue influence over them to perform services that benefit managers. That financial exploitation has led to the illegal or improper use of the property, income, resources, or trust funds of a vulnerable adult by others.
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At least two vulnerable adults have died from neglect and abuse and the directors have had four other independent tenants incarcerated. They have since covered up the deaths. In one case the victims family and a Council House administrator benefitted financially by defrauding both federal and state agencies prior to her death and by disposing of her assets. Several more tenants remain at risk and suffer daily abuse at the hands of administrators.
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NCJW obtained federal financial assistance through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the original construction and rehabilitation. Residents have amortized mortgages by paying rent over several decades while HUD continued to subsidize some rents and services.
NCJW appointed directors who employed administrators mandated to comply with HUD directives. Instead, successive administrators have introduced supremacist policies and enforced them contrary to federal law. They have also obtained restraining orders that banned communication with the directors so that they could not hear about the abuse perpetrated in their name.
The directors (landlords), and two successive administrators, have consistently neglected to comply with HUD directives over a fifteen-year period. They deny tenants their civil rights and due process of law while using an aggressive administrative staff and violent enforcers (Kapos) to silence dissenters. The directors have a backstage connection with several Washington Superior Court judges that allows them to continue to violate both federal and state laws with impunity.
The author temporarily deleted information from essays, or used pseudonyms, to comply with contempt orders issued by Judge James A. Doerty, Superior Court of Washington. Washington Supreme Court has now reversed those decisions. The publisher claimed judicial bias, prior restraint, arbitrary censorship, and misuse of antiharassment laws.
Doerty misused antiharassment laws to claim that news gathering constitutes "surveillance" and reporting news defines as "harassment". The court order effectively denied constitutional rights to the author who has held an international press card for many years.
Doerty deliberately interrupted the flow of public information and interfered with ethical reporting procedures designed to observe and report upon government dereliction. HUD and City of Seattle officials have colluded with Council House directors and administrators by following laissez faire policies and have neglected to address myriad complaints and requests for help from residents. HUD has neglected to oversee the managers of this government financially-assisted building.
The court action, now reversed, advantaged a group of wealthy people who allegedly abused senior citizens and misappropriated federal funds. Moreover, the property housed US congressman Jim McDermott’s mother who swore a false or misleading declaration. This probably made the issue politically sensitive for a recently elected trial court judge.
The censored information formed part of the public record. Secretary of State, State of Washington, requires nonprofit corporations to file an annual report containing names and addresses of officers and directors. However, Council House directors, administrators, and attorneys, neither complied with this law nor did they comply with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) rules that require full disclosure.
Without any rational legal interpretation, Doerty retroactively ordered the publisher to remove other information (published more than a year before). He reviewed published material on the Internet then claimed that the author kept people "under surveillance" by using public records and attending a court hearing to report a case. Bizarrely, he wants all named journalistic sources to sign waivers. The court order effectively denies use of information contained in public records available under RCW 42.17 (Washington Public Disclosure Act).
Doerty, issued two antiharassment orders also contempt citations to censor this public medium by prior restraint at the behest of Council House directors and their administrator. Using their financial and political power, the directors obtained SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) court orders and contempt citations using perjured or suborned testimony against the author. They then had him jailed which they later elevated to solitary confinement.
SLAPP consists of frivolous charges designed to bankrupt an opponent and support prior restraint. The landlords have used this tactic on several occasions to try to cover up issues that affect all their tenants.
Doerty thwarted an appeal of his findings for more than five years by withholding court documents and other machination. The author/publisher claims judicial bias and arbitrary censorship that deny him his rights under the First Amendment to the US Constitution and Washington State Constitution.
Doerty has challenged a principle journalism ethic - seek truth and report it - by denying a reporter’s First Amendment rights. He then wrote biased decisions all without due process of law and refused a discovery process and cross-examination of witnesses.
A victim’s family and a Council House administrator benefitted financially by allegedly defrauding both federal and state agencies. They abused her then she committed suicide. Family members and directors conspired in matters surrounding her death and a subsequent cover up.
Doerty’s findings enabled a cover-up of the alleged Homicide by Abuse and other crimes that the directors and their administrators committed. Homicide by Abuse ranks as a class A felony punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in a state correctional institution or by a fine of fifty thousand dollars or both.
Washington Supreme Court finding reversed decisions of the lower courts. That will allow the public to know the names of people involved in elder abuse. It will also give an ethical prosecutor an opportunity to consider felony homicide charges against Council House directors and their administrators.
