Broward County Court Cover Up Fails to Hide Florida Land Grab Corruption of Pompano Beach CRA

Aug. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- The Broward County Court recently made a public relations attempt to quiet the outcry against the county’s land grab racketeering schemes by criminally staging a fake jury trial as a coverup to the corruption in the county’s most highly contested and well-publicized eminent domain case. The respondent was not allowed to appear or participate in the trial, and the jury was instructed under penalty of jailtime to return a “preordained” verdict to try to end the case that has been haunting Broward County and Pompano Beach officials for years. However, what was supposed to quiet matters has now only become more fuel for the fire of outrage against the city, county and court as a clear example of egregious abuses of power and blockades of justice in what is reputed as the most corrupt county in the United States.

The Broward County Court has previously been implicated in the land grab conspiracy to profit developers and politicians by initially facilitating the illegal grabs through the court system, and next by blockading respondents’ access to justice, but now in this Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency v. Gil Eriksen Properties LLC landmark case, has gone so far as to stage a kangaroo court trial without the property owner whose very property was taken and destroyed by the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Irony is not lost on a case involving fraud and constitutional abuses being ended by an unconstitutional and fraudulent jury trial.

The abuses initially came to the fore in the eminent domain action brought by the petitioner, Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency who filed to take the multi-million dollar prime non-blighted historical property from Gil Eriksen Properties LLC to resell for private development, when another Broward Circuit Court ruling found that at the time of the filing, the Community Redevelopment Agency wasn’t authorized to be formed, let alone seize properties. This combined with the Florida State Constitutional Amendment banning the use of eminent domain of private citizen’s property for private development, and the fact the CRA had been taking properties illegally for a decade prior, made it clear that this case would be a hotbed of political and legal upset with potentially many liability ramifications, including criminal ones.

The case history shows that the historical property was indeed taken by the Pompano Beach CRA, destroyed, and sits abandoned while Gil Eriksen Properties LLC has not yet been heard in the case, five years later, to include this final blockade against appearing at the case trial. This is particularly brazen in that the right to own land is a Constitutional right, the right to due process is a Constitutional right, and the Florida Constitution has strict requirements regarding eminent domain procedures and requires that respondents be allowed to defend against a government land taking with provisions to financially provide for a property owner’s response in a twelve person jury trial of one’s peers, which never occurred in this case.

At the recent one and one half day “trial”, the presiding judge on the case, David Krathen only allowed the petitioner, the Pompano Beach CRA, to appear and present evidence, while ordering the property owner to sit in the gallery of the court, and not speak, leaving the respondent table empty. All potential jurors were threatened by Judge Krathen repeatedly and those who spoke out against eminent domain abuse or questioned the lack of two sides being represented were immediately dismissed by the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment’s attorney Mitchell J. Burnstein of Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Pastoriza, Cole, and Berniske. Jury selection was made by Judge Krathen and Attorney Burnstein without the respondent. During proceedings, the property owner’s rights, evidence and testimony were not allowed to be represented at all, and a one-sided and unchecked propaganda fest ensued. The property owner was continuously vilified and referred to by Judge Krathen and Attorney Burnstein as the “defendent,” and the CRA was continuously referred to as the “plaintiff,” deeming the proceedings a criminal proceedings instead of the civil proceeding that it is, with the necessary civil legal terms of “respondent” and “petitioner,” respectively.

The jury was threatened by Judge Krathen that if they did not obey the law, that they would be sent to jail on judge’s order as facilitated by his bailiff who, according to Krathen, “must do whatever I order.” The jury were told repeatedly by Attorney Burnstein that the verdict in the case was “preordained” and was “already determined” and to obey the law they must return that preordained verdict. The jury was told by Judge Krathen that this trial was only a matter of “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” and by Attorney Burnstein to disregard the fact that there was no other party represented and not be concerned with the legality of that, as he knows it is legal. The jury took three minutes to dutifully return the only verdict allowed. The verdict is one of the property owner owing money to the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency that took the owners’ multi-million dollar prime property. So in a five year long eminent domain case, the Pompano Beach CRA, an agency without proper authorization to be formed or to take properties, seized the owner’s property, is further awarded money from the owner, and the owner has not yet got to have a trial or be heard in the court system in any fashion.

So was the trial a coup for the Pompano Beach CRA? An end of inquiry into the land grab schemes? Not likely. Civil rights advocates and constitutionalists are up in arms. The property owner, although seemingly shocked at the brazenness of the corruption, thinks the recent “faux trial” is a smoking gun of the criminality, and doesn’t plan to stop seeking justice. Passersby of the courthouse, when asked for comment said,  “How can the government take someone’s land and then they don’t even get to show up at the trial? How can that be legal? They should sue,” along with “That’s Broward County for you, killing the constitution one case at a time. The courthouse needs a real renovation, and I’m not talking cosmetic,” and lastly an attorney who wished to remain nameless said, “Judge Krathen? He’s the most crooked of them all, and he needs to go down.” Perhaps even the Pompano Beach Community Redevelopment Agency knows this is not to be the end of the scandal, as during proceedings its representative, Chris Brown, executive director of the CRA, had to take a break as he appeared to be having breathing difficulties and was slumped over clutching his heart and gasping for air. The following day Brown did not even make it court and was replaced by the CRA’s deputy director Steve Spalding. Even Attorney Mitchell J. Burnstein appeared a bit defensive telling the jury, “This is not a sham proceeding!”

For a county that has so little public confidence, with its own county commissioners recently being sent to jail for fraud schemes, a one-sided jury trial featuring the respondent bound and gagged in a corner, in the most highly contested case of illegal eminent domain, brought by an agency without authority of eminent domain, seems no less insane, and certainly no resolve to the county’s corruption scandals.

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For the latest information on the Pompano Beach CRA illegal land grabs visit
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For more information on the 19th Statewide Grand Jury on Public Corruption visit
http://myfloridalegal.com/19thstatewidegrandjury

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