Posted on 12/21/2006 8:42:35 AM PST by Graybeard58
NEW LONDON -- The woman at the center of a national battle over property rights has sent some not-so-joyous tidings to people involved in taking her house to make way for private development.
Susette Kelo's holiday cards feature a snowy image of her pink house and a message that reads, in part, "Your houses, your homes, your family, your friends. May they live in misery that never ends. I curse you all. May you rot in hell. To each of you I send this spell."
The cards were conceived and produced by a friend of Kelo's and sent to city officials and members of New London's development agency.
Kelo said she also considered sending the cards to five U.S. Supreme Court justices who ruled in June 2005 that New London had the right to take homes in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood to make way for a riverfront project slated to include condominiums, a hotel and office space.
On Wednesday, after news accounts carried details about the cards, Kelo apologized in a statement released by the Institute for Justice, which represented the homeowners in their legal battle.
"My card was meant as much in humor as it was in frustration," she said in the statement. "What I wrote shouldn't be taken as my literal wish for anyone. I'm heartbroken that this will be my last Christmas in Fort Trumbull and what I wrote rose out of that fact, but the bottom line is, it was over the top."
Kelo, one of the last holdouts, earlier this year accepted a $442,155 settlement, more than $300,000 above the appraised value of her home in 2000. Her pink cottage will be moved elsewhere in the city. She has until June 15 to move.
"It's amazing anyone could be so vindictive when they've made so much money," said Gail Schwenker-Mayer, a supporter of the development project who received one of the cards.
New London Development Corp. member Reid Burdick said he put the card on his mantel with his other Christmas greetings.
"I think the poor woman has gone around the bend," he said. "I haven't gotten any mail from her in years. I still feel bad for Susette. The sorry part of this is that the things she's angry about were not done to be mean-spirited toward her personally."
Fellow NLDC member George Milne, a former top executive at Pfizer Inc., called the card "immensely childish."
"It's sort of sad she elected to do this," Milne said. "We were trying to do things for the city. It was nothing personal."
Kelo, a nurse who handles lead paint and lead poisoning cases for the city of New London, said the card was her idea.
"This all could have been solved and ended many years ago," she said. "They didn't have to do what they did to us, and I will never forget. These people can think what they want of me. I will never, ever forget what they did."
If one's homestead is not safe from government seizure, what is?
Wow. I don't understand, how could they stop you from selling the home to someone who wanted to buy it for 40k, though?
How much would you bet that this broad is a lawyer?
CA....
It is an entity recognized by the state. It is not an institution of the state.
Although it has many public requirements, it is a thoroughly private entity. In fact, in the eyes of the law, a corporation is viewed just as you and I are - as an individual entity.
CA....
Many of us are already not considered private individuals, and when National Health Care becomes reality it will be a short step to declaring all citizens property of the state. All institutions are institutions of the state; the Gov't itself is an institution of the state. Individuality is a quality not related to public or private.
What would she have gotten if she didn't get involved in a case that was protracted enough to get all the way to SCOTUS?
"...how could they stop you from selling the home to someone who wanted to buy it for 40k, though?"
Because the garage had deteriorated to such an extent that they condemned the building. They declared it to be a dangerous building, condemned it and ordered it to be demolished. Coincidentally, the Dangerous Building Officer who inspected the property just happened to live directly across the street from the house and had inquired into buying the house when we were ready to sell it.
I had to go before the township board and appeal to them to change the demolition order. Their solution was to allow me and a licensed builder to pay $250 for the privilege to ask for a variance to allow repairs in excess of $5000.
The building inspector is miffed that the board and zoning board of appeals agreed that it would be best to allow someone to make the repairs. In other words, they overrode his decision. He is now going to be a hard nose and try to force delays, so the investors do not meet the ZBA's deadlines and the house will then be demolished.
He has driven away two buyers since the ZBA meeting on 12/13. He is telling all of them that they will allow no extensions to the deadlines - not a second.
It's amazing anyone could be so vindictive when they've made so much money
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It doesn't matter what the payoff is when it's against your will and done so illegally according to our constitution and our common sense.
If someone steals my home under color of law, and destroys it to build a WalMart, that's personal whether they intended it to be or not. Duh.
Several months removed from this SCOTUS decision, I STILL believe this is a decision that rocks the foundation of this country.
Our government has just told us that your land is NOT yours, but whoever wants to pay enough money to get it.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Or bury some old American Indian bones....
By the time they figured it out...
CA....
Ooops!
CA....
Me too. I'm not sure that I would have been able to stop myself from committing mass-arson on as many of the houses of these criminal/politicians as I could.
Oh Yes! There will be all those black flies swarming inside and clinging to the windows of every condo or house built on her property! She has cast a spell ... irrevocable!
You really think $400,000 is an OBSCENE amount of money? There are actualy people out there who wouldn't sell their homes for ANY amount of money. Don't they have THAT RIGHT? they're the ones who realize money isn't everything. My God, what is happening to this country?
Not only that, but once the decision came down, the developer sued all the homeowners for RENT on their own homes back to 2000 when the case commenced.
!!!
The language that properly describes these people would get me banned.
One issue is wether the values had been depressed by the project before the value was set.
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