Jeremiah, Diogenes and Ed Loring

Jeremiah 5: 1 – 9b

Jeremiah 1 describes the prophet’s call. He is obedient but reluctant. Jeremiah 2 announces judgement on the nation of Judah whose flagship capital is Jerusalem. Jeremiah 3 offers rescue for the city and nation already condemned. Jeremiah 4 pictures the destruction of Jerusalem and the prophet agonizing over what he sees coming.

Jeremiah 5:1-9b employs the language of the courtroom. Jerusalem and the nation of Judah have been indicted and found guilty. The sentence has been served. How and why has this happened? Some Bible translations insert headings at the beginning and inside chapters. One New International Version (NIV) publication at the beginning of Jeremiah 5 reads, “Not One Is Upright.” Verse one of Chapter 5 sends Jeremiah scurrying through the streets of Jerusalem looking for one upright person, one who tells the truth and one who does the right thing. The image of an old man, the prophet, with his beard flying and his robe flowing brings a smile. This image brings to my mind two great men, one from long ago, the other from today. The long-ago man is the Greek philosopher, Diogenes. The today one is the Presbyterian cleric, Eduard Loring.

Picture this. Diogenes, lantern in hand, slips inside the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce looking for one honest person. Ed Loring is searching too. He’s downtown at Central Atlanta Progress. Clutching his Bible he looks for one person who tells the truth. Neither the philosopher nor the clergy finds one. Together, the two tip-toe through City Hall security. High and low they look. In City Hall they find only federal agents looking through files. Leaving this third Atlanta monolith, Ed Loring asks his Greek friend if he found one honest person. Diogenes reports the truth, “No, how about you?” The Presbyterian reports the truth, “Hell, no!”

An early definition of “upright” is “vertical.” And “vertical” takes us to plumb line. The Prophet Amos uses the image plumb line to show how far Israel has wandered from her calling, her raison d’etre. The well-fed “kine” of Bashan (Amos 4:1) refers to the women who order their husbands to bring drinks at cocktail hour. Amos knows the cows of Bashan are the best fed and most carefully groomed in the land. Amos is not joking and he’s not making fun. He is exposing the spoiled and arrogant people of the apostate northern kingdom, Israel, whose demise came in 722 b. c. e., 136 years earlier than the fall of Jerusalem. These women are party with those who “sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals.” (Amos 8:11)

The plumb line tells all. In construction, failure to adhere to
its instruction causes the structure to collapse. In covenant, failure to adhere to its instruction causes spiritual collapse. Both Samaria, the capital of northern Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital of southern Judah, collapsed under the weight of their social injustices.

Chapter 5 focuses on Jerusalem’s moral depravity, the charges leveled against her and her unrelenting wanderings. She faces a lawsuit. The searchlight of Yahweh’s scrutiny comes in the form of a court trial, a lawsuit. Jeremiah, strange enough, speaks as a defense attorney in the first six verses. William A. Holladay (Jeremiah, Vol. I, Fortress, 1986) shows Yahweh and Jeremiah talking to each other. Verses 1 and 2 show Yahweh instructing Jeremiah to scour the streets of downtown in order to find one person who acts justly and seeks honesty. At this point Yahweh is saying that this search is taking place so that “I can pardon you. I will forgive this city.”

Holliday sees the first nine verses as a dialogue between Yahweh and Jeremiah. In verses 1 and 2 Yahweh orders the search that could pardon Jerusalem. In verses 3 through 6 Jeremiah tells the results of the search. Verses 7 through 9 record Yahweh’s response.

Note: Whether leadership in Atlanta or California or America believes that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible spoke God’s Word is immaterial. What is pertinent is that quality of life is a universal right for everyone, mandated by God. Universal rejection of the mandate lessons its urgency not a scintilla.

Jim Beaty

Jeremiah 22:16

February 7, 2019

 

 

Passersby

WATER SHUT-OFF SCHEDULE ALERT!!!

A City of Atlanta attorney and the City’s Commissioner of Watershed Management met this morning, September 18, 2014, with the Task Force’s attorney S. Hall, Task Force Board Member Carl Hartrampf and Task Force Director Anita Beaty. The Commissioner informed the Task Force that the water at the Peachtree-Pine Facility is scheduled to be shut off on Monday, September 22. Only a payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the City’s water department by Friday afternoon can avert the shut-off of water at the emergency facility where last night 432 people resided. Of this total 432 people, 42 are women and 28 are children. Let me ask you to do one thing or three of three things that will help you. One, go to the Task Force website, http://www.atlantataskforceforthehomeless.org and send a donation of money. If you earmark your donation for “water” we will get it to the City of Atlanta Water Department. Two, bring all the bottled water you can gather to 477 Peachtree Street (Pine Street door). Three, pray for the soul of a City of Atlanta that can wrongfully cut funds and then turn around and shut-off water keeping homeless women and their children from water, a basic necessity of life.

Whatever your political persuasion, TEAM GOLIATH conspirator or a sensitive human being, surely you see the cruelty of a shut-off of water to people who have no place to go. The Task Force Attorney Steve Hall inquired about the hundreds of huge debtors to the City for back water bills. Mr. Hall didn’t mention any businesses but he could have. An AJC reporter said recently that the Water Department has “forgiven” many water bills far in excess of what the City claims is owed by Peachtree Pine. The city attorney told Mr. Hall that ONLY the Task Force’s bill would be discussed. Where is Mayor Reed in all this? Could the Superior Court of Fulton County be in all this? Is United Way offering dollars per head to struggling churches for the people they will take in when the county or the court or gog or magog close Peachtree Pine?

Micah 2:1-2, if I may quote Emanuel “God with us” Fialkow’s middle name: “Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, For it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and then seize them, and houses and take them away. They rob a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.” I beg you for water.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
September 18, 2014

Exhibit 12 Sister Jane Gerety: “…we should pass the hat immediately.”

Exhibit 12 Tab 12 Sr. Jane Gerety: “…we should pass the hat immediately.”

Baker Donelson Attorney Steve Hall filed Exhibit 12 along with 27 others in Judge Craig Schwall’s Superior Court of Fulton County on July 11, 2014. Judge Schwall responded with a ruling that permitted attorneys for Manny Fialkow to move toward the dispossession of the property in question, the Peachtree-Pine Center. Also the Judge affirmed his Special Masters’ ruling that asserted that defendants Fialkow, Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement face eight claims that need the decision of a jury. The following four e-mails were written and sent on November 12, 2008. They show the collaboration among TEAM GOLIATH members, the Nun-run Mercy Housing, Inc., The City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District and Emory Health Care, Inc. Steve Hall entitles Exhibit 12, “Sister Gerety email to Diane Leavesley.” I have quoted the four emails verbatim in the order they were written.

“From: Gerety, Sister Jane
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:14 AM
To: Julie Gould
Subject: call

Julie,
I got your voice mail. Thanks. I wanted to talk to you about the possibility of foreclosure on the Peachtree and Pine property in Atlanta. I’ve talked with Pete (Walker) and with others representing the city and believe that foreclosing is what we should do. It needs to be part of a plan to move the men living in the shelter to other facilities where there are supportive services and a proposal from Mercy Housing for affordable housing on the site. There may be some negative publicity, but I think that can be mitigated by the plan and the proposal. Moving the men is very doable and represents a philosophy that is much more enlightened than warehousing them in the present facility. In addition, if Mercy Housing can accomplish this, I believe we will be in the debt of the city, the business community and the foundations. Horace Sibley, who chairs the Mayor’s commission to end homelessness, told me that if we can get this accomplished, we should pass the hat immediately.

That’s the gist of what I wanted to talk about, but if you get a chance, and I will fill in more details.
Safe travels,
Sr. Jane”

Handwritten notes by Diane Leavesley, Head of Mercy Loan, Inc. during a conference call follow, ”Anita’s vision meets people where they are; Horace wants to get people out of homelessness.” “1 by 1 her funding sources have dried up; a proposal to rehab the building to maintain the shelter w/SRO hsg above.” “Foreclose sensitively & delicately; Horace has a plan to move men.”

Note: Diane Leavesley’s notes read that Anita meets people where they are. That is true; however, her note implies that nothing but sheltering takes place. Every day of the year for 17 years the Peachtree Pine facility has provided, intake and assessment, case management, three recovery meetings each week, GED classes, basic computer-skilled classes, computer lab: job search, resume building, COMPASS access, e-mail access, clothing closet, weight room, resident volunteer training and housing, transitional housing program, art studio, roof-top vegetable garden and a monthly health clinic. Sister used TEAM GOLIATH’s favorite term, “warehousing.”

There remain monolithic differences between Horace Sibley, Debi Starnes and the Task Force. The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Inc. has fed, sheltered, clothed and housed hundreds for years while Horace Sibley and Debi Starnes worked feverishly to crush every move of the Atlanta Task Force. Neither Horace nor Debi nor United Way nor the City has ever had a plan to house the men at Peachtree-Pine. Their plan consists solely of disappearing people unsightly in their kin.

Don’t miss Good Sister Jane’s exclaiming with glee that the City, the business community and the foundations will all owe the Nun-run Mercy Housing, Inc. if these sisters, married to Jesus, “can help to accomplish this” the shutting down of  a shelter for homeless people.   Sister Jane Gerety did more than pass the hat. At the time of these collaborations the Nun-run St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was going belly up. That defunct disaster got bailed out by none other than conspirator Emory Health Care, Inc. I look at Emory’s new sign often. Today it is Emory St. Joseph. Pass the hat, please.

Last night, September 2-3, 2014, forty-two children with their mothers spent the night on mats at Peachtree and Pine. Calls from well-wishers and do-gooders alert us that we are to be evicted soon We’ve received these calls for 5 years. Some are TEAM GOLIATH pranksters; some care that homeless people will be left at the mercy of United Way. Come now BEFORE the Court closes the doors. Come now before Emory swallows the place. Come before Manny Ahab steals Naboth’s vineyard. Why wait United Way? Why wait Fulton County Commissioners? Why wait urban and suburban churches? Why wait Synagogues and Mosques? Why wait travelers aid? Why wait to reopen, Gateway? We welcome you all. You come and succor the 100 perishing ones. Please come, Sisters of Mercy!

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
September 3, 2014

Exhibit 5 Tab 5″Sammy….we are keeping the pressure on…”

The title of this exhibit 5 Tab 5 “Sammy…we are keeping the pressure on….” is borrowed from Exhibit 2 Tab 2 “Who REALLY Runs Atlanta.” The pressure that is being applied to plot against the Task Force for the Homeless and homeless people present in downtown surfaces clearly in the October 23, 2006 meeting held at Central Atlanta Progress. Remember Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office hosted this meeting while CAP furnished the place to meet and United Way gathered other conspirators to attend this gathering. The subject line reads: Meeting about Peachtree and Pine. Wardell’s points listed below are to be covered in the November 20, 2006 meeting. Same song, different verse.

David E. Wardell, CPP, Vice President, Operations and Public Safety, on Friday, November 17, 2006 informs CAP Boss Robinson of the “Things that people are going to look into:”
– Look at emergency shelter standards (Public Works and United Way/Homeless Commission staff)
– Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of Homeless TF (Code enforcement and Homeless Commission;
– Who is on the Board of Directors of the Homeless Task Force? Want to go to the source of their resourcing and/or political support.
– Data to be collected: Volume of Complaints, Bad capacity there and at other shelters (Homeless Commission Staff;
– Law Department was going to look at the applicable or prevailing ordinances (Lem – Law Department)
– What is required to declare it a public nuisance?
– I delivered the copy of the Homeless Master Plan for their expansion program that City Planning requested. Looking at Grandfather Clauses and Fire and Safety Codes.
– Zoning as SPI (City Planning)
– Develop Public Affairs Component (? – Did not determine responsibility for putting this together) Lynette is looking for recommendations for solutions at this meeting
– We delivered the Executive Summary of the incidents in the area to Lynette (she acknowledged receipt).
– Since our last meeting (Ko Hassan’s Oct. 23rd meeting) Judge Green rebutted the information (Will not let it happen in the future) about the ordinances the police were allegedly being challenged by the Municipal Court for enforcing. Urban camping and something to do with tampering with vehicles in parking lots.

As long ago as 2006, eight years back, this conspiracy has boiled. The fight against the poor in the streets of Dr. King’s city has been relentless and endless.

Note: Dave Wardell’s to do list speaks for itself. However, several points are worthy of notice. Involved in plans to disappear the largest emergency shelter in the Southeast are the very persons mandated to give relief to those in need. Rather than help, suggest, aid, support and rescue; these charlatans form the largest conspiracy imaginable against the weakest people and the most vulnerable of non-profit organizations. Look at the organizations in the cabal: United Way, City Hall, City Council, The Chamber of Commerce, The Homeless Commission, headed so long by the Venerable Horace Sibley, the churches on Peachtree Street (for God’s sake). Atlanta had the opportunity to make Peachtree-Pine the finest example of a city’s caring for its little ones. What did they do? They plotted ways to declare it a nuisance. What did they do with a workable plan for mixed housing? They sabotaged the plan and looked for those who might have been responsible for it. They “got to” the nuns who held the mortgage. Boatloads of evidence of tortious interference, fraud and racketeering come out later in the remaining exhibits masterfully presented on July 11, 2014 by Baker Donelson attorneys. Watch for Exhibit 6 Tab 6 where monolithic Emory Health Care, Inc. raises its holy head.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
August 5, 2014

“Jeremiah, look around downtown Jerusalem”

Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, carried a lantern lifting it eye level in hopes of finding an honest person. Now, in Chapter 5 of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah becomes the Hebrew Diogenes. I don’t know that Jeremiah carried a lantern. I do know that Yahweh sent him to the streets of downtown Jerusalem in search of a rare commodity, a person who acted justly and who loved the truth.

Chapter 5 begins, (New Jerusalem Bible),
“Rove the streets of Jerusalem,
now look and enquire,
see in her squares
if you can find an individual ,
one individual who does right
and seeks the truth,
and I will pardon her,
Yahweh says.
Although they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’
they are, in fact, swearing a false oath.
Yahweh, do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them; they have not felt it.
You have annihilated them, for they ignored the lesson.
They have set their faces harder than rock,
they have refused to repent.
I thought, ‘These are only the poor!
They behave stupidly
Since they do not know Yahweh’s way
Or the ruling of their God.
I shall approach the great men
And speak to them,
For these will know Yahweh’s way
And the ruling of their God.’
But these, too, have broken the yoke,
Have burst the bonds.
And so, a lion from the forest will slaughter them,
A wolf from the plains will despoil them,
A leopard will be lurking round their towns:
Anyone who goes out will be torn to pieces—
Because of their many crimes,
their countless infidelities.”

Note: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his INFERNO nineteen centuries after the writing of the Book of Jeremiah. In Canto I of the INFERNO, Dante, age 35, finds himself in a dark forest of worldliness and sin. As he struggles to escape, the poet encounters three beasts, a leopard (luxury and lust), a lion (pride) and a she-wolf (greed and avarice). Jeremiah 5:6 says that a lion, a leopard and a wolf will tear to pieces anyone who goes out. Luxury, lust, pride, greed and avarice dealt Jerusalem a bad hand of doom in the form of Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah, the Hebrew Diogenes, could not find one citizen of Jerusalem who acted justly and loved the truth. Jerusalem’s rich and powerful downtown leadership of Jerusalem proved to be as stupid as the weak and helpless poor.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
September 6, 2012

Scoundrels In Downtown Jerusalem

Scoundrels In Downtown Jerusalem

The New Revised Standard Version translates the first noun in Jeremiah 5:26 as SCOUNDRELS. The first clause in that verse reads, “For scoundrels are found among my people;…” At least seven other translations that I know translate that Hebrew word as wicked men. A student in my class today suggested that “scoundrel” is a bit less harsh, even gentler than “wicked men.” Others in the class disagreed. So off to the dictionary we went. A SCOUNDREL turns out to be a “mean, immoral, wicked, unprincipled, dishonorable person. Scoundrel may very well have derived from the French infinitive, escondre which means “to abscond.” Scoundrels among other things are evil people who take from others.

This powerful passage 5:25-28 in the ever powerful fifth chapter of Jeremiah reads in the New Revised Standard Version as follows:
Verse 25: Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have deprived you of goods.
Verse 26: For scoundrels are found among my people: they take over the goods of others. Like fowlers
they set a trap; they catch human beings.
Verse 27: Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great
and rich,
Verse 28: they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not
Judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the
rights of the needy.

What did these scoundrels do? What were their deeds?
1. They set traps for their fellow citizens.
2. The lay in wait to make money off them.
3. They stole their goods.
4. They lurked in waiting to catch them.
5. They judged not with justice.
6. They did not defend the cause of the fatherless.
7. They did not defend the poor and the needy.

What words describe these scoundrels?
1. They are fowlers, hunters who cage their prey.
2. They have houses that are full of deceit; their fullness are similar to their cages that hold people.
3. They are fat and sleek (shine).
4. The list of their evil deeds is without end, boundless.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
September 4, 2012

Depositions April 1, 2011: Dave “Great news!” Wardell and Greg “bogus letters” Pridgeon

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

Remembering Debi Starnes

My recently published SACRED GRAMMAR is selling. It teaches the basics of grammar using verses from the Bible. It shows why, “I seen him when he done it.” is incorrect and how “I saw him when he did it.” is correct. My next book is PEE WEE, the true-life novel of South Carolina’s most notorious mass murderer, Donald Henry Gaskins. I interviewed Pee Wee 52 times in the South Carolina pen in Columbia. Charleston Attorney O. Grady Query introduced me to Gaskins years ago and furnished expertise on Gaskins having defended Pee Wee’s facing the death penalty. The State of South Carolina murdered Pee Wee in 1991 for his last murder of Rudolf Tyner. PEE WEE could be available by the end of the year.

Two other books in the making are FIFTY FAVORITES and PALACE POLITICS, TEMPLE THEOLOGY. FIFTY FAVORITES features my commentaries on 50 of my favorite poems that I have taught in English classes over the years. PALACE POLITICS,TEMPLE THEOLOGY is a comparison of ancient Jerusalem and current Atlanta as seen through the eyes of my favorite Hebrew prophet, Jeremiah of Anathoth.

Readers of my blogs have suggested that I publish my pieces as a book. I can’t imagine such as I blog only for my own sanity. However, I do want to publish DESPERATE DEPOSITIONS, a book featuring the explosive discovery that exposes the myriad of players on TEAM GOLIATH. The magnitude of this conspiracy has grown to such proportions that many books could follow. The sleaze of downtown Atlanta leadership grows as the clock ticks. This cancerous growth flourishes out of a fertile heap of greed, racism and exclusion.

I mention these books in order to feature the fragile Debi Starnes, clearly one of GOLIATH’S pawns. The words in her two depositions make the reader laugh, cry, chill, thrill, spill, gasp, grope and pray. A drinking man would. If I didn’t know her victims, I would be tempted to feel sorry for her. The following questions and answers from her September 02, 2009 deposition give an example of what will fill the book, DESPERATE DEPOSITIONS.

My title for this piece is, “Remembering Debi Starnes.” Relax, Debi Starnes is very much with us. Her emotional state wavers and her spiritual condition teeters, but like Virgil’s Rumor she refuels herself through her good work. She’s The Czar.

Hall: You said that Mr. Walker brought you a packet of papers.
Starnes: No, I didn’t. I said that when I met with him, he – – I don’t even remember. He probably had a picture, maybe gave me something. I don’t know if he did or didn’t. I don’t know if he just had big pictures of his project. I remember seeing a picture of what the project would look like, but I got no proposals, no application, nothing to review, that I recall at all. I remember no details other than a visual of what it would look like on upper floors of the building.
Hall: Ms. Starnes, have you ever been diagnosed with any type of mental problem that affects your ability to remember things?
Mr. Haymore: (City Attorney) Objection.
Starnes: Not formally diagnosed.
Hall: Are you taking any type of medication today?
Starnes: No.
Hall: Have you ever been cited or prosecuted for perjury?
Starnes: No.

Note: The “Mr. Walker” in Starnes’ answers is Pete Walker then employed by Mercy Housing, Inc. The project in the discussion is proposed mixed housing that was being discussed with The Pine. The $10,000,000 project would have provided mixed housing, possibly 180 units on top of the present structure known as Peachtree-Pine. Above I mentioned Starnes’ “victims.” Many of the African-American men living at The Pine would have qualified for that housing. Many elderly men living at The Pine would have qualified for that housing. Many of the disabled men living at The Pine would have qualified for that housing. Many African-American women and their children sent over to the Pine from The Gateway would have qualified for that housing.

Each of these groups of American citizens is a protected class, protected by federal and state laws from the Starnes and Sibleys and Rene Glovers and Manny Fialkows and A. J. Robinsons who conspire to vanish them from sight. The mixed housing that was blocked by Starnes and her fellow conspirators would have helped meet the City’s federal requirement to provide housing for the poor. The City, however, does not want to provide housing for certain people, certainly not on Peachtree Street.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
March 30,2011

Debi Starnes Tied In Knots: Thank you Barrister Steve Hall

I’ve never seen Steve Hall work in a courtroom in front of a jury. That’s ahead. I’ve seen him in depositions. I’ve watched him in hearings against five opposing lawyers. I’ve seen him at my side when I was deposed for five hours answering questions asked by City of Atlanta lawyers. I’ve read his questions in the depositions of Debi Starnes, two times, A. J. Robinson, Richard Orr, Horace Sibley, John Bassett, Rob “Water Mismanagement” Hunter, Dan Cathy and Bonnie “Where am I?” Ware. Words cannot describe the work of Steve Hall. First of all he’s young. I don’t know how young. But when an old hoary head like mine encounters a young lawyer, quite frankly, I anticipate a rookie whose arrogance may exceed his knowledge and his expertise. Not so with Barrister Hall.

I first saw Steve Hall volunteering at The Pine Community helping people get ID’s. etc. Hall’s firm, Baker Donelson, shepherded one resident at The Pine into home ownership. Neither Debi Starnes nor Horace Sibley nor Notip Biswax will mention Steve Merritt. That former resident came by recently to introduce his new wife as they enjoy their new home whose closing Baker Donalson attorneys handled. Steve Merritt completed the two-year transitional program. He is one of the Atlanta citizens at The Pine who Horace Sibley labels, “chronically homeless.” Attorney Steve Hall and others as volunteer attorneys from Baker Donelson helped many residents like Steve Merritt at The Pine.

Steve Hall saves his best for later. No one knows when “later” will come. It may be in Federal Court against the City of Atlanta’s TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE against Black men in The Pine. “Later” may pit him against a half dozen conspirators who have fraudulently “stolen” property from the Task Force through collusion and dirty tricks. “Later” may come when Shirley Franklin faces Steve Hall in a scheduled deposition. “Later” may come when Protip Biswas of Noway United Way faces Steve Hall.

I would not dare, in this blog, give you Steve Hall at his best. I have read a thousand plus pages of depositions where he questioned the unhinged A. J. Robinson, the cocky, Richard Orr, the explosive Horace Sibley and the rehearsed Bonnie Ware. I am limited with the English language. If I were not limited I would not attempt to describe Debi Starnes before Barrister Hall. He was delicate in her first deposition. He only tied her in knots. Before a jury of her peers, he very well may place the noose firmly around her vulnerable neck. The following are the words of Hall and Starnes taken from her first deposition taken on September 2, 2009. Starnes was deposed a second time, yet she still runs free. She’s out there dragging women around the floor on which they sleep at The Gateway. Please read my March 9, 2011, blog entitled “Debi Starnes, Horace Sibley and Protip Biswas, All On Bicycles.”

The following are questions by Steve Hall and answers UNDER OATH by Debi Starnes. The only other words quoted are those of City of Atlanta Attorney Laura Sauriol attempting to rescue Debi Starnes:

Hall: My question is this. You have indicated – – and I’ll define it a little bit – – you have indicated, as we’ve been sitting here today, that these private groups go – – like your citizens in your neighborhood – – go out and do things on their own and it’s not you that’s organizing them.

Starnes: Correct.

Hall: My question to you is: Have you ever directed a group of people to go to potential donors, people you believe might donate to the Task Force, and encourage them not to give money?
Starnes: I do not recall.

Hall: Okay. So from my next question from that is: You are not saying that it didn’t happen; you’re just saying, as you sit here today, you don’t recall.

Starnes: I don’t remember it ever happening, no.

Hall: But it’s not outside the realm of possibility things that might have occurred, in your mind?
Starnes: If I – – it’s back to the whole big picture, and I feel like I’ve explained this to you like five times. So if people are upset and want to try to figure out how they can improve this neighbor that’s causing all this trouble and they ask me for advice, I might give them suggestions. I don’t recall doing that. But mostly, it’s people – – are constantly contacting the city and just demanding that we respond to the – – what they’re suffering around there, and we try to help. We try to assist.

Hall: Exhibit 22. Do you recognize that as an e-mail chain with you at the top of it?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: Okay. Alll right. Bob Cramer.

Starnes: Uh-huh.

Hall: You understand that he is a member of the board of Peachtree-Pine?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: Now, I’ve said this a couple of times. I use the term Peachtree-Pine. You understand that we are referring to the facility at the intersection of Peachtree-Pine that’s owned by the Task Force?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: Now, here is an e-mail from a Steve Gower. Do you know who he is?
Starnes: Perhaps only through e-mail. I don’t know if we’ve met in person.

Hall: Do you know – – are you aware of – – you can pass on that. Do you see the byline down at the bottom on the e-mail: Cousins Properties may be considering sponsoring of Peachtree-Pine?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: Reading that, you may know what he’s talking about there, is, they may be funding Peachtree-

Pine; they may donate.

Starnes: Right. I mean, that’s what it says. I don’t know that.

Hall: Okay. But that’s what you would take it to mean?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: All right. And there’s an e-mail from Peggy Denby to you, dated September 16th 2008. Do you see that?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: “Debi, should we jump into the middle of this, or can you talk with L:isa Borders?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: Who is Lisa Borders?

Starnes: President of City Council.

Hall: Do you see above there your response on Tuesday, September 26, 2008, 9:20 a.m.?

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: So it looks to me like her e-mail may have come in the morning at 6:50 a.m. and you had a response to her by 9:20.

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: All right. “I doubt that Cousins will help.” You mean, will help them any – – will give them any money.

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: But it wouldn’t hurt to contact them.”

Starnes: Yes.

Hall: “Tom Bell would be the person.” – – who is Tom Bell?

Starnes: I don’t know his title, but the head of Cousins Properties.

Hall: “Lisa doesn’t work there anymore.:

Starnes: Right.

Hall: Who is the “Lisa”?

Starnes: Lisa Borders.

Hall: Okay. So you are telling – – you that Peggy Denby’s orientation is, we don’t want Peachtree-Pine getting funding by anybody.

Starnes: I know Peggy’s orientation, as a Midtown neighbor, is that the impact of poorly-run Peachtree-Pine drives them crazy. So Peggy calls us, writes us, speaks out a lot, so this was another e-mail from Peggy to me.

Hall: Ms. Starnes, you know – I don’t want to mince words – – you know that Peggy Denby does not want to get Peachtree-Pine funded by anybody.

Starnes: I do not know that.

Hall: Okay. Your testimony under oath is that when you read this, you didn’t realize that when she said, Debi, should we jump in the middle of this, or Can you talk with Lisa Borders, that she was saying, What can we do to stop Cousins from doing anything and giving any money.

Starnes: She was probably upset with Tom Cousins or wants Cousins to know what they have to suffer from the impact of Peachtree-Pine. That’s what they talked to us about all the time.

Hall: And your response was”but it wouldn’t hurt to contact them.”

Starnes: That’s correct.

Hall: What did you mean?
Starnes: This if they want to talk to Tom Bell or Cousins – – if they want to try to find out about this, they should contact Cousins – –

Hall: Okay.

Starnes: Not me.

Hall: What’s the byline on the subject line that you wrote back? “Cousins Properties may be considering sponsorship of P. Pine. Do you see that?

Starnes: Yes.
. . .
Hall: Ms. Starnes: are you testifying to the jury under oath that you don’t know that you don’t know that Peggy Denby wants this facility closed down?

Starnes: I do not know that.

Hall: Okay. That’s your testimony under oath.

Starnes: That’s correct.

Hall: You’ve never read anything from Ms. Denby saying, we need this facility closed down. It’s a menace. It’s crime. It’s loitering. It’s drug dealing – –

Starnes: Yes, I have seen that – – I’ve seen their complaints about the crime, the loitering, the drug dealing, the prostitution, the violence. Yes, I’ve seen all that.

Hall: So your testimony to the jury is, despite having seen all that, you have no reason to believe Ms. Denby wants the facility closed down.

Starnes: I want – – I believe Ms. Denby wants all that stuff to stop so that if somebody would run a decent shelter, the crime, the violence, the drug dealing, the prostitution would stop.

Hall: Okay.

Starnes: That if someone really managed the facility, that nonsense wouldn’t have to go on. That’s what I believe Ms. Denby constantly writes about.

Hall: Is it your position that drug dealing, crime, and prostitution goes on within Peachtree-Pine?

Starnes: That’s my opinion. That’s what I hear from residents. That’s what I hear from police.

Hall: Is it?

Starnes: That’s what I hear from various people.

Hall: Have you had a confident – – have you had the Atlanta police find out through confidential informants what goes on within the facility?

Starnes: Have asked them to do what?

Hall: Your testimony now is that Atlanta police have reported to you that prostitution, drug dealing, and other crimes are going on within the facility.

Starnes: No.

Hall: That’s what I thought I heard you – –

Starnes: No.

Hall: Did I mishear you?

Starnes: It is my opinion that that’s what goes on on the inside.

Hall: What is that opinion based on?

Starnes: It is based on various reports I hear from the facility.

Hall: Okay. Now, before, you said the police. Was that an error? Was that a slip of the tongue?

Starnes: We’re talking about outside and inside.

Hall: No. My question was very directly inside. Are you saying that it was a slip of the tongue that you used the word “police” when you used it a moment ago?

Starnes: I believe the police believe that.

Hall: Okay. Let’s stop for a moment. Can we go back – – you can do this on the record. Let’s go back, and if you could read to me her answer where she referred – – my question and her answer on that.
(The record was read by the reporter.)
Hall: Okay. Now, are you saying that the court reporter got that wrong?

Starnes: No. But I thought you were talking about inside and outside.

Note: Having read thousands of pages of depositions, Starnes 2 times, A. J. Robinson, Richard Orr, Rob Hunter, Bonnie Ware and others, I have noted that the words, “I don’t recall” often send up a red flag that says, “I just lied.” Debi Starnes’ not remembering that she tried to stop funding presents a desperate difficulty for TEAM GOLIATH. Tortious Interference and racketeering surround Starnes and her fellow conspirators. The HUD investigation of the City’s spending and blocking funds for seven protected classes of people looms. The ongoing HUD investigation of the City of Atlanta’s spending of HUD $$$ is completely separate from the lawsuit against the City. It is not over until the fat lady sings. And there are several hefties, in good voice, tuning up in the wings.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22.16
March 6, 2011