Isabella County Tenants Beware! Sheriff's Department Can & Will Evict You Without Due Process!
Michigan State Representative / Kevin Cotter
Thinking that I could get a lawmaker to take a serious look at this I contacted Michigan State Representative, Kevin Cotter and he starts in, supporting and defending Isabella County by questioning the lease itself! The lease (contract) between two other parties. This is of course after his office sent me my very own copy of the Landlord/Tenant Act that defines "Self-Help" evictions as being unlawful in Michigan...
From Kevin's website:
"During the Primary, I was humbled by the support of thousands of voters across the 99th District. Now, as we continue our grassroots campaign I ask for your vote in November so I FIGHT FOR YOU and stand up for our voice and our values in Lansing as our next State Representative."
The state is now... going to defend it's "State Action" by challenging a contract that does not involve them!?! In a Communist society, No person or individual has any personal claim or stake in "Real Property" (land). The government, our local and state government, is challenging our claim or stake in "Real Property" as if they "The State" were the owners of the "Real Property" that my family was forcibly removed from! The "State" want's to Civilly nullify a contract that does not involve them in any way shape or form in an attempt to justify the actions of the state after the fact!?!
Send me a copy of the lease, says Kevin Cotter! The validity of our lease Mr. Cotter is not what I asked you to take a look at. What I wanted you to look at was the fact that my family was forcibly removed from our home in the absence of due process by an actor of the state while under color of law AND under threat of arrest! Even if my family were squatters on this property, state action would not have been authorized or justifiable but you just told me that it is and that it was. Validating or invalidating our lease after the fact brings no justification to "State Action" in the absence of "Due Process". This type of thing can only happen AFTER Michigan State declares itself a Communist State and not before!
PEOPLE!!! The time to question the validity of any LEASE is not AFTER a family is kicked out of their home and made destitute by the STATE!
But they already know this... What amazes (and really bothers) me is that we finally start getting some Republicans in government and then find out that they are communist implants!
I will post his letter and follow up email here shortly if I'm not snuffed out before then.
What a freaking disappointment!
Let's take a Pole!
This is not just for renters! This is for anyone and everyone that lives in a house or an apartment regardless of whether you own or rent!Who thinks that the government (our government) should be allowed to remove you from your home without notice and under threat of arrest without Due Process in a court of law and then stand idly by and watch as your home and it's contents are looted?
Email me here and vote! Vote Here!
This is exactly what happened to my family. This is what Deputy Steinert did to us. This is what Undersheriff Tellis tells me that there is nothing wrong with. This is what Sheriff Leo contends is someone else's problem. This is what the Isabella County Board of Commissioners tells me is outside their purview. This is why Prosecuting Attorney Larry Burdick is ignoring my family. This is what Michigan State Representative Kevin Cotter (as a lawyer and a lawmaker) claims is because of a potentially faulty lease and is better suited for the judicial branch of the government.
Isabella County Michigan is already a Communist State and I didn't get the friggin MEMO!
Like the headline says! Isabella County Sheriff's Department can and will evict tenants in Isabella County without a court order (without Due Process) and they claim that there is nothing wrong with this practice and are not interested in doing anything to change it! How do I know? Because they did it to my family leaving us decimated and destitute!
This website has become our only means to tell what happened to my family on September 27th, 2010. Directly below is the short version and on the rest of the pages we go into much more detail.
Summons and Complaint
As I prepare to sue the County of Isabella and the Sheriff's Department, as instructed by Undersheriff Tellis, I am looking for guidance in the
drafting of the complaint. My complaint will be filed in Federal Court on May 1st, 2011 (May Day).
We are looking for input here. If you would like to suggest anything to do with the drafting of this complaint please email it to
us here or simply call me at 989 954 2814.
Short Version
Isabella County Sheriff’s Deputy Clinton Steinert unlawfully seized my family’s home, papers and possessions, downgraded (concealed) crimes against my family, allowed for the flight of our perpetrators, denied us a police report and then arrested me for filing a complaint.
On the same day, Undersheriff Tellis, Steinert’s boss who had recently retired from the Portland Police Bureau Internal Affairs Division as it's Commander, without any investigation, took my complaint and shook it in his fist proclaiming that I could fill out complaints until the cows come home but his deputy did nothing wrong and I needed to sue him.
Isabella County Sheriff - Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski, Undersheriff Tellis’s boss and recipient of the Police Officers Association of Michigan's 2010 Horse's Ass award, took my complaint and has been stonewalling us for months.
Judge __________ heard a portion of my complaint before I - (correction) "HE" ran out of time in a PPO hearing against deputy Steinert who was represented by the Isabella County Senior Prosecutor (paid for by my tax dollars) and did not speak a word himself in court.
The Isabella County Board of Commissioners heard these allegations at a board meeting on March 15th, 2011 and thanked me for coming in after telling me that allegations of police misconduct and civil rights violations upon children and their parents residing in this county were outside their purview.
Letters (email) sent to Larry Burdick, the Isabella County Prosecutor on March 16, 2011 have gone unanswered.
When the government fears the people
there is liberty; when the people fear the
government there is tyranny.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for
people of good conscience to remain silent.
All tyranny needs to become absolute is for
Government to force people of good conscience
to remain silent.
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This is too difficult for most people to even comprehend. Imagine, if you can, going home tonight after work and not having a home. Your home and it's contents gone. Your possessory interest in both your home and your property completely and utterly abolished. Now imagine that you have no one to tell... No one to complain to... No one to help you... No one to protect you... In looking for help and protection or a place to complain you are met with threat of arrest.
Doesn't sound like America does it?
I called the FBI, Michigan State Attorney General, Isabella County Prosecutor’s Office, ACLU, US Attorney's Office, the Governor’s Office, Michigan Legal Aid, the Michigan State Bar Association just to name a few and none of these organizations knew how to help me or direct my call. I actually got the most information out of the US Attorney's Office but they don't have an investigative branch.
My family lost everything! The Isabella County Sheriff's Department seized our home and gave it to our landlords during an illegal eviction. Not just the home but everything in it as well. To us it was like our house burnt to the ground and without the benefit of insurance.
It is time to test the 1st Amendment here in Isabella County Michigan! Isabella County isn't really familiar with the 4th and 14th Amendments so we will have to see how this goes. Freedom of the Press! That’s why this site looks like a newspaper!
Hey before I get started here I would like for you to know that this site is being added to and modified live. Please excuse us for being a little disorganized (sloppy) here while I am getting our thoughts together and for not running spell check after every update.
The reason for the haste in these updates is because I am scared and living in fear of the Sheriff's Department and the people they employ here in Isabella County Michigan! This isn't a joke either! We are getting started on this site now that my family (wife and two kids) are tucked away in another state and very far away from Isabella County!
What is Due Process?
For those of you that don't know what Due Process is I will try and break it down quickly for you. Any lawyer types out there that want to comment on this section are encouraged to do so!
Say you are a landlord and you have a 3- bedroom house that you are renting or leasing to a family of four. Say you don't like the tenants and you want them out of your house for whatever reason. The reason needs to be related somehow with a breach of the rental or lease agreement. There are a lot of different ways a tenant can breach the lease but non-payment of the rent is the most common.
So now comes Due Process! You as the landlord will claim that the tenant has stopped paying the rent. Supposedly this is true but just because you say it doesn't make it so. You need to initiate the eviction process. The eviction process brings your claims in front of a judge or arbiter. It also allows for your tenant to submit information and testimony to the contrary and in defense of the allegations against them as tenants. This is Due Process.
At this point you have to prove that the tenant is in fact delinquent on the rent and the tenant can either submit information to the contrary or not. If not, the judge will rule in your favor and grant you a “Writ of Restitution” and this will generally give your tenant a certain amount of days to peaceably vacate the property. In the dead of winter, your tenant may be given a little more time to vacate. If the time expires that the judge has given to vacate the property, you as landlord can act more forcibly and ask the Sheriff's Department to help you carry out your "Court Order" and physically remove your tenant. This is Due Process.
If your tenant proves to the judge that they are in fact current and not owing on the rent, your eviction stops dead in its tracks and is dismissed and you could be looking at a harassment suit. This is Due Process.
An eviction through due process is the only lawful way to evict your tenant. Without a "Writ of Eviction" signed by a judge, any attempt at forcing your tenant to leave is generally considered a "Self-Help" eviction and is against the law.
In our case, our landlord was in the process of an unlawful self-help eviction and we called the police. The landlord had invaded our home and changed the locks so that we couldn't get in. The police, our police, Isabella County Sheriff's Deputy Clinton J Steinert (CJ) in fact responded to our call with the landlord and became an armed agent of the landlord and for the landlord. When I insisted to the deputy that the landlord did not have an order of eviction he just got mad at me for telling him how to do his job and I guess I was telling him how to do his job because he was doing it wrong. His wrong decisions were having a really bad effect on my entire family and he didn't care. He didn't care because the only testimony he took was that of the landlord and their accusations were very harsh but also were all flat out lies.
So, as the armed agent for the landlord, deputy Steinert told us that the landlord can change the locks as they please because they own the home and then threatened us with arrest if we didn't leave.
Isabella County Sheriff's Deputy Clinton Steinert refused to recognize the actual crimes taking place while ruling as our self-proclaimed Judge, Jury and Executioner in the Civil matters that existed between a landlord and a tenant and ruling in favor of the landlord and awarding them our home, papers and possessions.
The actions of the deputy have utterly decimated my family and I believe that this was his intent specifically.
After pleading with deputy Steinert to look into the back of the landlords truck he not only refused but he forced me under threat of arrest to get into my truck and to go and park anywhere off my property. While in the curtilage of my own home, this deputy forced me to leave the same or be arrested. At this point Steinert knew that the back of this truck that was unlawfully trespassing on my family’s property was or could have been full of our possessions and papers. Then the landlord claimed to actually have a court order but it was elsewhere. Deputy Steinert allowed the landlords to leave with a truck full of stolen property to fetch the signed court order that they didn't have and they returned after about 45 min driving a different car and without any signed court order!
Deputy Steinert was more than a significant player. This wasn't law enforcement… This was an officer of the law participating in crimes against my family. Crimes that have left my family with no means to report this crime. Crimes my family has sought some shred of hope to find resolution to without any success. Crimes against my family that if brought to light would or should impact our perpetrator's livelihood and therefore placing my family in a much graver danger than simply losing our home and our property.
My family feels as though we have just squarely faced off with the mafia and have been living in fear for the last five months.
What I find to be simply appalling here is this… How many others has this happened to? How many other families have been cast into destitution that cannot create websites or have the courage to make a stand for what is right and are simply written off as victims of the economy? More importantly though! How many future victims will there be because the police do not police themselves? How many more victims of these types of crimes will there need to be before our elected officials take an affirmative stand to correct this problem?
It should be a crime for Undersheriff Tellis to not take my report. It should be a crime for Sheriff Leo to take my report and then spit on me. I think that it is actually a crime to not report a crime so why wouldn't it be a crime for police to refuse to take a report of a crime? The fact of the matter is that it is a lot easier for our police to say "shut the FU or I will arrest you" than it is to actually take a complaint.
It has been an overwhelming task to try and overcome all of the negativity associated with that given a tenant that doesn't pay their rent. I know that there are a lot of tenants out there whom you might think deserving of this treatment but I assure you that I would not wish this upon anyone! Not even Steinert!