In a courtroom decked out for Christmas, Steve once again managed to fight off the attempted taking of his property for a dangerous natural gas pipeline. A wreath of colored balls hung above the judge's head and between U.S. and Texas flags. But the mood was not festive.
This case is a textbook example of an unjust system tilted in favor of a lying and scheming corporate Goliath. The sordid details have been described elsewhere and are now common knowledge.
Steve's humble yet determined actions are helping protect his and his neighbors safety and property. Standing alone on an island of unselfish hope, he has sent his message in a bottle asking for help.
Is there anyone out there who will take this case? Is there anyone willing to stand up to Chesapeake and help Steve help us all?
DY
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Dear Don,
Thank you for your thoughtful observations of what we witnessed Friday at Tarrant County Court as Steve Doeung's case passed another hurdle. I would add three main thoughts & comments::
1. Steve is a smart, humble, principled individual who is willing to fight for the rights for which his immigrant parents risked their lives in coming to America. I was struck by the enormous amount of work he's had to put into this effort to simply defend his homestead, (a fight neither he nor other Carter Avenue residents ever wanted) and how grateful I am that he is willing to do whatever it takes. Having to stay on top of the paperwork and procedures is no easy task, and he's done an admirable job.
2. Having personally had paralegal training, I know that a case can often be won or lost by the failure of either party to complete the simplest of procedural requirements in a timely manner and by certain deadlines. Steve was able to call the court's attention to the fact that Chesapeake's attorneys had failed to perform one of these simple procedures, then tried to gloss over that fact. When the judge questioned them on it, the attorneys had to admit their error. It was a beautiful, victorious moment! However, one cannot bank on that kind of fortunate occurance; IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT STEVE HAVE GOOD LEGAL COUNSEL.
( I must admit, I did enjoy the rare pleasure of watching Chesapeake's usually arrogant, slick, cocky legal staff SWEAT and scramble to dig out of the hole they'd dug for themselves!)
3. The fact that Steve Deoung is having to go through this ongoing legal and court battle begs the question: WHY, in light of the fact that at the Dec. 2nd Public Information Meeting in Ft. Worth Chesapeake's Engineer presented their proposed plan for rerouting the proposed pipeline to the North side of I-30 instead of running that pipeline across the properties/yards of the homeowners of Carter Avenue? WHY is Steve Deoung still being harrassed with this needless legal action and WHY isn't Chesapeake being told to BACK OFF while they work on the viable option of the I-30 route? If Chesapeake is not going to "pull a fast one" at the last minute and go down Carter Avenue, then WHY THE ONGOING LEGAL ACTION NOW? Doesn't Chesapeake realize that in doing this, they are only perpetuating the GROWING DISTRUST that citizens have of them, and that they really CAN'T be trusted, no matter how big their PR budget?
Our NCTCA organization - North Central Texas Communities Alliance - is committed to standing with and supporting Steve Deoung and all the residents/ homeowners of Carter
Avenue who've been harrassed and pressured regarding the eminent domain issues.
Remember: CARTER AVENUE IS THE LITMUS TEST!
"Together we bargain; divided we beg." - Calvin Tillman
Esther McElfish
Co-founder
817-495-2260
We know that most of FW and Tarrant county have been bought off or castrated/intimidated in some way by these invaders from north of the Red River, but aren't there lawyers all over north Texas, Texas, and the nation willing to "serve justice" (without a juicy check at the front or back end of the case, that is)? How about so called independent law schools as academic institutions? You talk about hands on real life issues and experiences. Sorry, forgot they're lawyers, too. Take it away, Mr. Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteSure love to hear a recording or even just a transcript of that hearing. Good thing I wasn't there 'cus I'd probably be sitting in jail right now for cheering and hollering (and booing and hissing at the slick ly-ers and the crookedy judge). Keep kicking their $%^&, Stevie boy!Yeah!! (see what I mean?)
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