Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee of Watergate fame is the Baker of the Baker Donelson Law Firms scattered across the country. Senator Baker played a huge role in the Watergate Hearings that felled Richard M. Nixon and sent a bunch of his cronies to prison. One of those buddies that went to prison is the Paul Kelman lookalike, Gordon Liddy. During those hearings Senator Baker asked a question that reverberated in every village and hamlet and town throughout the world. He asked, “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
Irony is sometimes sweet, sometimes sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. How ironic that in Atlanta thirty-five years after Watergate, Baker Donelson Attorneys Steve Hall and Bob Brazier are asking a cabal essentially the same question, “What do they know and when did they know it?” In my writing I refer to these conspirators as TEAM GOLIATH. Most people know that Goliath was a nine foot giant, the champion of the Philistine army. The odds of anyone defeating this monolith were about 1 to 99, if that good. Poor little shepherd boy, David, with his slingshot and five smooth stones was no match for this massive enemy.
TEAM GOLIATH in Atlanta rules the day. The movers and shakers in this group call the shots. The late Dan Sweat, then president of Central Atlanta Progress, told me at a Junior League gathering in Buckhead that mayors of Atlanta come and go, but CAP was there to stay, running the City. Mayors surely come and go. That mayors could and would “go to jail” was not mentioned. Subpoenaed discoveries show CAP as the common denominator in a plan to remove homeless people from downtown, to remove the leadership of the Peachtree-Pine Community and to foreclose on the 94,000 square foot property. The snowball of heavy hitters in the plan to disappear and steal the building has grown to a mountain.
Each page of the thirty-thousand page stack reveals fresh dirt. TEAM GOLIATH boasts both squeaky neighborhood cranks low on the totem pole as well as the powerful huddled in the not well-lighted background. Schemes and lies and tricks and exaggerations abound in these documents. This clique for fifteen years has worked regularly to close the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. Micah 2.1-5 perfectly parallels scoundrels in Jerusalem with scoundrels in Atlanta who stay up late at night plotting the taking of land from their fellows. Three thousand years later and the Manny Fialkows still run rampant.
As I pour over these depositions and other documents, I wonder how well these power brokers know the law. In civilized places, people go to jail for manipulating foreclosures. Cutting funds with the expressed intention of taking one’s property in some places makes the foreclosure null and void. Did City of Atlanta pawn, Greg Pridgeon, when he signed 3 annual letters from Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office not know that the feds would one day be asking questions. The City of Atlanta’s Office of Grants Management had approved funding for Peachtree-Pine three years in a row, 2007, 2008 and 2009. His letter blocked funds that were intended to sustain homeless people who had nothing but the clothes on their backs. Did it cross this man’s mind that some day he would have to answer who made him sign such a letter, 3 years in a row? Who ordered the writing of these bogus letters? Did Pridgeon actually write the letters?
When Debi Starnes fabricated her lie describing a “lice infestation” at Peachtree-Pine, did she dream that she would be asked UNDER OATH to explain her yarn?
Did David Wardell of CAP dream that a brilliant lawyer would “box him in” after tying him in knots?
Horace Sibley ran all over town asking donors of the Task Force to stop their giving. As the mayor’s commissioner he was breaking the law committing “tortuous interference.” Did Richard Orr stacking the deck at the Tri-Jurisdictional Continuum of care know that he was breaking a law inviting objectors to come lobby against the Task Force? He celebrated his success with glee.
Many will be asked to answer many more questions. Following is a list of those who may be asked their part in this almost endless conspiracy.
Ask Manny Fialkow of Ichthus, Inc., Benevolent Community Trust, Inc., and Premier Financial Solutions, Inc. Ask Brad Curry of RockTen, Inc. Ask A. J. Robinson of CAP. Ask Jack Hardin of United Way fame. Ask Tom Bell of Cousins Properties, Inc. Ask Al Blackwelder of Emory Health Care, Inc. Ask Dianne Leavesley of Mercy Loan Fund, Inc. Ask Protip Biswas of United Way. Ask Pete Walker of DeKalb Housing Authority. Ask Renee Glover of Atlanta Housing Authority. Ask Debi Starnes of no authority. Ask Horace Sibley of the Mayor’s Commission. Ask Phil Hunter of Gateway (trained at The Pine). Ask Hilda Jackson of Gateway (trained at The Pine). Ask Earl Shaw of Gateway (trained at The Pine). Ask Whole Foods, Inc. Ask Lamar Willis of Atlanta City Council. Ask Shirley Franklin. Ask Julie Boyd in the City’s Office of Grants Management. Ask Steve Riddell of Troutman Sanders about a corporation called 477 Peachtree Street. Ask Sam Williams of The Chamber about Baker Donelson. Ask Dan Matthews of St. Luke’s Episcopal. Ask Rector “Doing Justice” Hoare. Ask Sister Jane Gerety of Mercy Housing, Inc. Ask the Peachtree Corridor Clerics. Ask honest, honest Iago. Ask Brutus. Ask Judas Iscariot.
All these TEAM GOLIATH members know that stealing and lying is wrong. They know the consequences. What they did not know is that they would get caught and that their transgressions would be written from sky to sky. CAP for 50 years has answered to no one.
These plotters did not know that a national law firm would take on the corrupt leadership of downtown Atlanta. Senator Baker had the courage to expose a corrupt President. Now 35 years later, lawyers from one of Senator Baker’s law firms have the courage to expose the corrupt leadership in downtown Atlanta.
James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
April 21, 2011
David “Great news!” Wardell, UNDER OATH and “boxed in”
April 14, 2011
Central Atlanta Progress’s David Wardell was deposed on April Fool’s Day by Baker Donelson Attorney Steve Hall. This doozy of a deposition is loaded with TEAM GOLIATH jewels. Here’s a teaser from that treasure chest.
Hall: At any time were there discussions about anybody affiliated with CAP purchasing the notes that the Task Force had?
Wardell: I don’t know if it was directly targeted with anybody affiliated. Just the fact that somebody could purchase the notes.
Hall: And the reason that was being discussed was because there was hope that somebody would purchase the notes and close it down, correct?
Wardell: I would say that’s a pretty accurate statement.
Hall: So the effort to purchase the notes was consistent and part of the plan to get the Task Force closed down?
Mr. Riddell (Wardell’s attorney): Object to the form.
Wardell: Well, restate that again, please. I’m sorry. I just want to be very careful – – I’ve got to be careful you don’t box me in and misinterpret me.
Hall: Oh, I think you’re boxed in.
Wardell: We’ll see!
Note: (mine) We’ll see indeed! Rummaging through “Great news’s” rhetoric is a harrowing chore. He and fellow member of TEAM GOLIATH, Rector Hoare may have attended the same rhetoric class. Soon I’ll post at least a half dozen sections from the April Fool’s Day deposition.
James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
April 14, 2011
City Lawyers Depose Mercy Housing’s Pete Walker
April 10, 2011
In an attempt to defend the City of Atlanta against charges of tortuous interference, collusion, corruption, racketeering, false claims, violations of protected classes’ civil rights and sundry other crimes, city lawyers on Thursday, April 7, deposed Pete Walker, former head of Mercy Housing, Inc. Southeast. One of the many mountains the City must climb is to dissociate itself from some of its fellow conspirators. The City wants to distance itself from Mercy Housing, Inc. who sold $900,000 worth of notes to Ichthus, Inc. the highly suspect “company” creation by the deeply-tainted Atlanta developer, Manny”Do you smell a fault?” Fialkow.
Mercy Housing, Inc. and its twin sister Mercy Loan, Inc. chose to receive $700,000 to $900,000 from Ichthus, Inc. rather than from Central Atlanta Progress. For some reason the nun-run Mercy must have believed that the Las Vegas created, “Christian” Ichthus, Inc. was the less of the two evils. How Manny “Do you smell a fault?” Fialkow could have dirtied the nuns’ linens less than A. J. Robinson’s CAP, no one knows.
And no one on the little David side knows the exact amount of $$$ the nuns received, thus my stating above “$700,000 to $900,000.” And another question asks did the nearly one million dollar payment come from Manny Fialkow personally or did that money come from the deep pockets along Peachtree, those honorable business interests that form the corridor from the gold dome to the coffers of Buckhead. Cousins Properties, Inc. comes to mind. Hallowed Coca Cola comes to mind. Emory Health Care, Inc. lifts its head. Notes on somebody’s pad at Mercy wrote that one million was available in a day.
Pete Walker no longer works for the nuns. He is currently the top man at DeKalb Housing Authority. I believe that the City of Atlanta wants to remove itself from the fraudulently taking of the Peachtree-Pine Building. And to do this the City brought in a thoroughly coached Walker who appears in e-mails from the key conspirators, A. J. Robinson, Horace Sibley and Debi Starnes.
Baker Donelson Attorneys Steve Hall and Bob Brazier prohibit my writing about a deposition before that deposition has been “made public.” There are many valid reasons for this prohibition, and I honor the reasons and these capable attorneys.
On the other hand, when the Baker Donelson attorneys receive the documents after they have been filed, I am free to “write them across the sky.” For example, I know what Pete Walker said April 7, 2011, UNDER OATH, but I cannot speak of it or write about it. I have to wait until I get that green light. The pitch count so often against these court jesters is three balls, no strikes. I cannot swing for the fences until I’m given the green light by my third base coach, Attorney Steve Hall. Then the fences move in like MacBeth’s Birnam wood. TEAM GOLIATH’s tasteless atrocities bring in the fences.
I cannot quote Walker yet; however, I have two full depositions with Debi “not on top” Starnes’ answers. Read the following lines to determine if The City was joined at the hip to the nuns.
The questions and answers are lifted from Debi “not on top” Starnes’ deposition taken on September 2, 2009. Steve Halls’ questions begin on page 166, line 18.
Hall: So your recollection of the events is that you went and saw Pete Walker. He’d gone so far as to have a mockup or a drawing of the building, a picture of the building that he wanted to build.
Starnes: Uh-huh.
Hall: And then you thought it was a great project.
Starnes: Uh-huh.
Hall: And then you went back, and when you heard about it from Ms. Glover in this e-mail, you said that basically the City and the Atlanta Housing Authority need to leverage Mercy into this by saying that the project does not go forward if the shelter stays. True or false?
Starnes: I don’t know what you mean “leverage Mercy into this.”
Hall: It’s your word.
Starnes: No: but – – no, you just – – you made up a whole new sentence.
Hall: “I believe Mercy needs the leverage of the City and AHA saying, No, if the shelter stays.”
Starnes: Right.
Hall: Okay. So you had seen the project, you liked the project; but you did not – – you were not going to allow – – you were going to get the City and AHA to say no to the project if the shelter stayed.
Starnes: That’s not my memory, no.
Hall: That’s what you wanted to happen.
Starnes: No. My advice, which I have said to you multiple times, is that nobody, Mercy or no one, would be successful at putting housing on top of hundreds of people in a mismanaged shelter.
Hall: Do you know – –
Starnes: I wouldn’t advise anyone to put housing on top of Gateway either. It’s an odd concept.
Hall: Is that because Gateway is mismanaged?
Starnes: No. It’s too many people in one location.
Hall: Okay. So you wouldn’t put it on top of any shelter.
Starnes: Of that many people, no.
Hall: Are you aware of other cities that are doing it? Seattle?
Starnes: No.
Hall: You’re a Ph.D. in these types of studies. You’re not aware of any other cities doing this?
Starnes: No.
Hall: What did you do to research how this type of proposal had worked in other cities before suggesting that the – –
Starnes: No research.
Hall: – – City and Atlanta should leverage our partner, the Task Force partner, into not doing something? You didn’t do anything?
Starnes: (Shakes head negatively)
The tight connection between the City of Atlanta and Mercy is exposed by its relationship with individuals throughout the conspiracy. Sister Jane Gerety in an e-mail to Diane Leavesley, then the top dog of Mercy Loan, Inc. states that Horace Sibley assured Gerety that the City and downtown Atlanta would be in huge debt to their organizations if Mercy put the Task Force in defauld. Sister Gerety wrote in another memo that having spoken with people in “the city” she had decided to pull the plug on negotiations between Mercy and The Pine. Lawyers on both sides have stacks of emails that have Mercy and the Ciy and A. J. Robinson all talking. The Ms. Glover in Starnes’ e-mail is the indomitable Renee Glover of the Atlanta Housing Authority. She’s HUD’s darling for having successfully rid Atlanta of those poorest of the poor who have been thrown out of public housing. What she has done is commendable, lovely housing for a few. What she and HUD have not done is damnable, blocked housing for the poorest of the poor. She promised NOT ON TOP to help block housing at The PINE. The plot thickens.
Note: The depositions of Shirley Franklin, CAP’s Dave Wardell, City’s Greg Pridgeon and Pete Walker have not been given me. Stay tuned. A reader from California told me that he searches Atlanta media daily for info on the lawsuits, to no avail. He understand; he lived in Atlanta.
James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
April 10, 2011
Depositions April 1, 2011: Dave “Great news!” Wardell and Greg “bogus letters” Pridgeon
April 1, 2011
What could be more appropriate than deposing two TEAM GOLIATH stooges on April 1, April Fool’s Day. At this moment, as I write for you, Attorney Steve Hall of the Baker Donelson Law firm is questioning Dave “Great news!” Wardell at the Troutman Sanders Law Firm. Wardell one of the muscles at Central Atlanta Progress earned his middle name when he responded to the Chief of Security at Georgia State University. Chief Mullins was so happy that homeless people would have no water, he had to tell Wardell. Wardell emailed for all the world to see, “Great news!” Wardell also headed Central Atlanta Progress’s program called “Wake Up Atlanta.” That program is now called, “Wake Up, Stay Up!” That is the program where Atlanta Police and Dave Wardell wake up homeless people who are sleeping on private property. Don’t let it be said that CAP doesn’t do anything for homeless people. They wake them up!
City of Atlanta’s goffer, Greg Pridgeon, three different years, 2007, 2008 and 2009 signed letters to DCA, the state’s Department of Community Affairs. The letters blocked funding each of those years. The letters came from Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office. The City’s Office of Grants Management all three years had given full approval for full funding to The Community at Peachtree-Pine. Pridgeon’s letters overroad that funding. Greg “bogus letter” Pridgeon is a pawn who may or may not have written the tortious interference letters. Starnes may have written them. It is not known if Pridgeon wrote the letters or if he could write them.
I will have the printed depositions in two weeks. I cannot wait to read “Great news!” What can he possibly say? But whatever he says, you’ll know because I’ll tell you. Don’t forget these community leaders are UNDER OATH, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me god.
James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
April 1, 2011
Dr. Jim Beaty 