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Pattern or Practice
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Civil and Human Rights Violations
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Fourteen articles describe racism and civil rights violations by Stephen A. Mitchell, directors, lawyers, staff, Kapos (enforcers), and some tenants at Council House during the past five years. They contain evidence of dereliction by government officials and their investigators which has resulted in unlawful evictions of physically and financially disadvantaged elderly people.
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Council House directors have shown indifference to tenant abuse by managers and their thugs. They have denied tenants their right to complain in violation of their constitutional right to freedom of expression. They have also either threatened them with eviction or evicted them for filing legitimate complaints with government agencies.
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Fully researched and documented, the articles allege that government officials have not dealt with complaints in accordance with law. They have consorted with Council House directors and their lawyers to conduct a whitewash of multiple instances of elder abuse and racism. By that, they violated Civil Rights Act Title VIII and Seattle Open Housing Ordinance.
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Investigation revealed an extensive pattern or practice of elder abuse, violation of civil and human rights, and denial of due process of law. The term "pattern or practice" means an intentional violation of rights granted by the Civil Rights Act evidenced by more than an isolated instance, or by regular repeated conduct in violation of that Act.
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John W. Meyers, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Thomas A. Carr, City Attorney, City of Seattle; Germaine W. Covington, Director, Seattle Office of Civil Rights (SOCR); Norm Maleng, King County Prosecuting Attorney; and their employees, have neglected to investigate allegations of racism, elder abuse, and homicide by abuse. Evidently, they covered up those crimes for political expediency. Consequently, two Council House tenants filed in US District Court, Western District of Washington, for injunctive relief.
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Prior to publication, all people mentioned had a chance to refute statements that could negatively affect their reputations or cause investigation or prosecution.
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[Introduction to New/Updated Articles] [Constitutional Rights Initiative]
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Judge Mariane Spearman, Washington District Court (West Division), ruled that Charlene Sego (53) had failed to carry her burden of proof in the antiharassment action that she had brought against Pola Doenyas (75±). Sego apparently acted as straw man for Stephen A. Mitchell (40), Council House, Seattle, building manager. Doenyas holds a lease at Council House and Sego apparently visits from time to time. [Straw-Man Stratagem]
William J. Crittenden, Attorney-at-Law, Seattle, represented Doenyas at the hearing (19 Jul 05). Crittenden acted as lead attorney in a Washington Supreme Court review of another action against Mitchell and Council House (23 Jun 05) that addressed similar First Amendment and eviction issues. Those issues presently await a decision. [Washington Supreme Court]
Doenyas had appeared as a witness in defense of Lauren Jeanne Hawk (65), another tenant who complained about harassment and discrimination in yet another First Amendment and eviction issue involving Mitchell and Council House (30 Jun 05). Doenyas claimed that Mitchell retaliated against her for supporting Hawk.
Several people overheard Mitchell say to a lawyer in front of the court building following the Hawk hearing that he would evict Doenyas for "spitting at people". Mitchell and his thugs (in particular Sego’s alleged husband Nathaniel Stahl) have harassed Doenyas repeatedly since she testified in a harassment lawsuit against Mitchell and Council House four years ago (20 Mar 01). [Hawk and the Raven]
Ex Parte Commissioner Kimberley Prochnau, Washington Superior Court, granted Council House a temporary no-contact order against Hawk for rude and abusive behavior (allegedly obtained with perjured testimony). The order names five Council House people and staff, also Sego who again claims harassment, this time by Hawk. The court set down the Hawk eviction and First Amendment issues for trial before Washington Superior Court, Seattle (01 Aug 05).
[Order on Civil Motion]
Doenyas, a long-term Council House tenant, received an eviction threat (19 Sep 02) for discussing issues published in Contra Cabal with other Council House tenants (lessees). Mitchell told her that she could receive a contempt citation for violating an antiharassment order against the author/publisher that Mitchell claims applies to all tenants (it does not apply to tenants). [Washington Supreme Court]
Mitchell wrote to Doenyas (19 Sep 02). This is also a warning that your residency at Council House is in jeopardy. The house rules signed by you clearly states that rude or abusive behavior directed toward staff or residents may result in eviction. This letter is a warning that continuing this behavior may result in Council House pursuing eviction proceedings.
Mitchell classified private political discussions Doenyas had with other tenants as rude and abusive behavior, then he threatened to terminate her “residency”. Mitchell refers to “residents” and “residency” in an attempt unlawfully to control tenant lifestyles. He falsely gives the impression that Council House ranks as a nursing home with himself as fiduciary and tenants as vulnerable adults when, in fact, the owners (landlords) employ him as nothing more than a building manager.
Council House grants annual leases for independent living apartments subject to landlord and tenant laws in the same way as any commercial apartment block. HUD involvement relates only to rent subsidies and oversight of eligible tenants. Doenyas has an annual, renewable lease. [Elder Abuse - Preface]
Mitchell previously tampered with Doenyas as a witness by offering her financial relief from an outstanding debt. He then accused her of extortion after she refused to accept his bribe. He has a five-year history of witness tampering and suborning perjury to support frivolous court action against tenants whom he does not like or who do not conform to neo-fascist dictates.
Mitchell follows a pattern of not defining terms in lease addenda and uses the catch-all phrase “rude and abusive”, at will. However, he does not interpret his own ad hominem remarks as rude and abusive. He uses undefined terms arbitrarily to suit his own purposes, mainly to restrict speech protected under the First Amendment that criticizes his management of Council House.
Six of the eight witnesses who filed declarations against Hawk previously filed perjured declarations against other Council House tenants. Directors and their thugs have consistently suborned a tenant elite since 2001. In addition, six directors committed perjury which they used to pervert justice. Corrupt judges have repeatedly disallowed discovery and cross-examination that would have exposed those crimes: instead, they granted impunity. [Impunity]
In Washington state, perjury by signing false or misleading declarations classifies as a class B felony. That offense carries a maximum punishment of ten years in a correctional institution, and/or a $20,000 fine, on each count.
Doenyas, a native of Bulgaria, suffered under the regimes of both Hitler and Stalin. She now has to contend with similar abuse at Council House. She says that Mitchell has spent time "coaxing tenants to go along with his slandering, which includes the spitting accusation" and "this is a retaliation for my being by Ms. Hawk at the courthouse (30 Jun 05)". She says that Mitchell approached her the following day, near the Council House front desk, then shouted: "You will be evicted. You are spitting at residents." as she exited the building. [Lest we Forget]
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Doenyas provided an example of Mitchell's harassment that day (01 Jul 05):
There is a lady, Christie, who is a fairly new resident at the Council House. Christie and myself were visiting sitting on the bench in the new entrance to the building. She was waiting for her church's van that was going to come for her. We were visiting almost half an hour and then the van arrived and she left.
When Christie returned to the building later in the afternoon, the person at the desk stopped her and said that Steve wanted to talk to her. Christie told the front desk person that she needed to put some things in her [apartment] and that she would return.
She went to her [apartment]; as she entered, her phone was ringing. It was Steve. Christie told me the story the same day later in the evening as we ran into each other; she was getting in a friend's car to leave when I was returning to the Council House. She made her friend wait and talked to me.
Christie said that the phone call went as follows:
Mitchell: "Christie!"
Christie: "Yes Steve! Did you want to talk to me?"
Mitchell: "Yes, the woman you have been talking to is spitting at residents. She will be evicted."
Christie: "What are you saying, Steve? Pola is a very spiritual person. We were talking about scripture. I do not know what to tell you, Steve.
Christie: (Later in front of her friend) "They are watching who we talk to!"
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Investigations at Council House for more than five years show an extensive pattern or practice of elder abuse and denial of civil and human rights, also due process of law. "Pattern or practice" means an intentional violation of rights granted by the Civil Rights Act evidenced by more than an isolated instance, or by regular repeated conduct in violation of that Act.
Legal action can occur under the Fair Housing Act when there is reason to believe that a person engaged in a "pattern or practice" of discrimination against an individual or a group of people that raises an issue of "general public importance." Council House, Seattle, discriminates against both individuals and groups. [Fair Housing Act]
Courts have found a "pattern or practice" when evidence establishes that the discriminatory actions relate to regular practice, rather than isolated instances. This does not mean that a complainant has to prove that defendants always discriminate or that their actions always affect a number of people. A "pattern or practice" means that defendants have a policy of discriminating, even if they do not always follow that policy. Council House has a policy of discrimination and has a history of implementing it.
Individuals who believe that they rank as victims of housing discrimination on account of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability may file a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD must investigate each complaint to determine reasonable cause that landlords have violated the Act. HUD must then issue a written determination of reasonable cause or no reasonable cause. If reasonable cause is found, HUD also prepares a charge of discrimination.
Within 20 days of the issuance of the charge, the complainant or the party alleged to have discriminated may choose to have the charge tried in federal court, otherwise the charge is tried in a HUD administrative law court. If the HUD officials believe that the individual complaint forms part of a larger pattern or practice of discrimination, they may also include broader charges and seek relief for other individuals and other relief, including civil penalties. [Fair Housing Act]
Disingenuously, Council House managers tell tenants to call Department of Housing and Urban Development/Bremerton Housing Authority (HUD/BHA) with their complaints knowing that officials will do nothing because they effectively support landlords against tenants by using laissez faire policies. They ignore the mandates of US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Housing and Civil Enforcement Section. [HUD-Seattle and Bremerton Contract Administrator]
[Articles covering a discriminatory pattern or practice at Council House, Seattle]
Until exposure in Contra Cabal, Council House managers withheld information about HUD/BHA complaint procedures for many years. When tenants realized that they had a legal right to complain, the managers manipulated the rules and colluded with BHA to deny due process. They have since manufactured evidence to evict tenants who complain to HUD or other government agencies and have brought capricious lawsuits against them.
Council House directors have shown indifference to tenant abuse by their managers and thugs for an extended period and several organizations now have them under investigation on racial discrimination issues. Directors have denied tenants their right to complain in violation of constitutional rights to freedom of expression.
Mitchell, and Audrey F. Dunbar (35), his rental agent, started a chain of unsupported accusations and discrimination when they unlawfully inserted a catch-all clause "rude and abusive" into lease addenda several years ago. They use the term repeatedly to trump up charges that have racist undertones but they have never defined it. Their accusations and evictions under that clause have predominantly related to constitutionally protected speech. They use elitist tenants to manufacture evidence and commit perjury to support their contentions.
Primarily, problems occur from Council House apartment block housing two distinct constituencies - “the haves” (an elitist group primarily affluent Jews) and the “have nots” (primarily impecunious immigrants and minorities). The elitist group pays market rents while the minorities pay rents subsidized by government agencies. The discrimination mainly occurs from applying subsidies, grants, and benefits obtained for minorities to an elite. Directors and managers divert funds intended to help minorities to enhance real estate values and to benefit a sycophantic, affluent elite.
The elite assumes a dominant role and despises having minorities in the same building although they reap the benefits from their presence. Consequently, they harass them and discriminate against them to provoke a response that they can define as “rude and abusive”, then evict them. The minorities serve one purpose, to meet HUD quotas. Management can evict them and easily replace them to meet HUD criteria so they do not care about their welfare, only about their eligibility to support funding and meet racial or ethnic quotas.
For example, Mitchell presently has Hawk under an eviction notice and a no-contact order for rude and abusive behavior (obtained on allegedly perjured testimony filed by an elite). He obtained those orders by constantly harassing and humiliating that tenant publicly with ad hominem remarks designed to provoke a rude and abusive response so that he could evict her. This tactic has allowed Mitchell to manufacture “evidence” for eviction proceedings for several years. [Hawk and the Raven]
A blatant contradiction occurs when Mitchell does not interpret comments that he uses to provoke negative responses or his own ad hominem remarks, and those of his Kapos, as rude and abusive. Felippe Jacques (72±) (a violent Kapo) repeatedly distributes outrageous comments about minority tenants and attaches them to locked bulletin boards. When tenants complain Mitchell evicts them.
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Jacques published these remarks about Doenyas and black tenants (19 Jun 04):
You should see poor Pola, she looks like a Bulgarian cow wondering about her bareness, intellectual and physical bareness that is. . . . she has trouble hiding her Euro-trashness. . . . Euro-scum really, in the end are always exposed for what they truly are. Mental deficient morons from the old country. She looks so beaten, poor cow. About an half-hour ago I had the pleasure to celebrating [sic] your defeat on her face. She threatened me with mace and them [sic] called the police. . . . they are forgeries, mental and intellectual forgeries. It is a shame that Victor is no longer here so I could have more fun with that simpleton, another piece of Euro-trash. Not the last one alas, we still have Pola and her big Bulgarian tits to contend with.
[National Origin]
As for the few African-Americans in Council House. . . they were born stupid, grew up to stupid and will die stupid they . . . give a bad name to their ethnicity. . . . Gene Autr-y . . . personifies the ghetto mentality as no other here at Council House. For the likes of her, everything is a black or white thing. Reason is not part of her vocabulary. By the way, say hello to Leon Harris, for me, that consummate jerk may resent [it] if I had omitted to mention him.
[Race] [Trials of Leon L Harris]
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Presumably, this piece by Jacques meets the Council House community standard. Mitchell has known about its dissemination for twelve months and many similar pieces for five years and taken no steps to evict Jacques. Instead, he moved him and his woman to better apartments. [Five Kapos]
Mitchell does not define the terms "rude and abusive" in lease addenda. Instead, he uses a “wonderland approach” mainly to restrict speech protected under the First Amendment that criticizes his management of Council House.
Alice objected to his meaning of the words "rude and abusive". When I use words, Mitchell said in rather a scornful tone, they mean just what I choose them to mean - neither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things. The question is, said Mitchell, which is to be master - that's all.
Mitchell does not allow rational discussion: instead; he quashes legitimate complaints. This gives him and his thugs absolute power to terrorize residents with whom he disagrees. From fear, they decide to cooperate despite inherent ethics or morals. [Five Kapos]
Elder abuse resumed at Council House within hours of Washington Court of Appeals posting an unpublished opinion on its web site (14 Jun 04). It involved another violent assault upon Doenyas, a dissenting tenant, which required police intervention.
A Seattle Police Department (SPD) precinct officer told Doenyas that they had not kept a record when she tried to obtain a copy of the police report - a common practice when tenants complain about assault and harassment by Council House thugs.
However, police officers selectively file reports when Mitchell makes false and misleading charges against tenants to punish them for dissenting, then both SPD and City of Seattle attorneys silently withhold those reports when they receive requests for copies of them under the Public Disclosure Act. [Silent Withholding]
Doenyas claims that the precinct officer told her: "If you are not happy you move out" - a comment repeatedly echoed by Mitchell when tenants complain about his abuse. Doenyas also claimed that a police officer previously suggested that she carry mace to protect herself after suffering many similar assaults, then another officer told her it violated the law.
Nathaniel Stahl (who claims marriage to Charlene Sego), has a diagnosed bipolar condition and dubious residency qualifications. He has intercepted US mail and acts as stool-pigeon and straw man for Mitchell. He has committed perjury several times by filing false declarations against other tenants to support Mitchell.
As a computer monitor, Stahl had a violent confrontation in the computer room with Doenyas. He terrified her to the extent that she ran into the elevator to escape from him. According to Doenyas, Stahl then pulled the emergency alarm for no apparent reason. The elevator maintenance company responded and later charged a high service fee. Reportedly, Doenyas also dialed 911 for police assistance but to no avail.
Mitchell intercepts police officers when they arrive at the building in answer to 911 calls made by residents. He then feeds them his line about their mental condition and his responsibility as a fiduciary. In those cases, police officers never know why the resident made the call. If the officers insist on interviews with residents then Mitchell holds the meeting in his office and in his presence, then retaliates against the complainant later for "causing trouble".
This evil triumvirate (Mitchell, Jacques, and Stahl.) still prevents this educated, computer-literate woman from using the computer lab, normally available to all residents, more than four years after the original altercation. Doenyas goes to the public library for computer access and to download her email. Her only sin - she had the audacity to instruct other residents on how to use computers, a teaching function reserved by the computer censors Stahl and Jacques.
Council House directors could care less about her plight or similar suffering by other residents. Doenyas had the chutzpah to speak out about injustice. Mitchell used her tenacity against her by arranging for other residents to ostracize her. He used her story to increase his hold over other residents by threatening anyone else who speaks out with similar treatment.
Others have suffered unlawful eviction as a result of speaking their minds. Several relocated with help from colleagues or other contacts. Others probably recovered some of their dignity by speaking out despite the risk of eviction. Some now communicate with friends and relatives using email as a result of gifts of personal computer equipment and time spent educating them about its use.
The gifts of basic communication tools using telephone lines overcame the censorship and unlawful restrictions placed upon use of Council House computers. It also allowed tenants to keep informed of matters that concerned them without surveillance or invasion of their privacy by administrators.
Management has unlawfully restricted broadband connections to a sycophantic elite who conform to management ideologies and help disseminate propaganda. That elite, backed by thugs, has indulged in a campaign of public castigation and character assassination of particular tenants nominated by Mitchell.
Sharon LeMire, Council House bookkeeper, ratified the agreement for a lease for Lily Dubner (70) in the absence of Audrey F. Dunbar who originated the agreement. Dubner paid double the approved market rent for a first month occupancy to see whether she liked the location. However, she made the unforgivable mistake of associating with Pola Doenyas who reads these columns and discusses the content with other residents. Mitchell, on hearing of the association, rescinded the agreement to grant a lease to Dubner and backdated the letter of confirmation. He did not refund her money. [Elder Abuse - Lily Dubner]
Council House directors use “diversity”, propaganda, and the police to silence residents and to retaliate against those who speak out. They have created an orthodoxy of dissent to suppress nonconformity and use thugs to enforce it. The public must soon bring these practices to an end - legally. [Orthodoxy of Dissent]
Directors have maintained indifference to elder abuse and condoned multiple assaults upon tenants by their administrators and thugs. They have effectively deprived tenants of their civil, human, and constitutional rights and repeatedly committed crimes.
[Nmesis]
Ages shown (30 Jun 05).
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