Saturday, August 15, 2009

All That and a Bag of Chips

What can I say? We were invited. Everyone was. Nowhere did it say "everybody EXCEPT Hannabelle". So Poncho and I attended the Mille Lacs Academy Open House celebration. Of course, since Nexus has proven itself to be a total detriment to my life, I wasn't in any mood to celebrate the completion of the sex offender facility. I was, however, curious to see how Nexus spent our money (I mean, if they can spend something like $40,000.00[*1] on lawsuits against me, what can they do with $18 MILLION taxpayer dollars to play with?[*2]).

Another reason I decided to attend the big gala was that I was curious to see if I could catch a glimpse of my Accusers. After all, I'm just a disabled old musician and now that I'm not going to all of those horrible city council meetings to stop Nexus, I don't get out much. Well, except for court. I've only actually met suers Jim D'Angelo and Dave Hutchinson. (Always exceedingly unpleasant...) I've never even seen the other people who are suing me - Peter Freeman (suing me twice, once for embarrassment and again as Team Nexus board chairman), Janet Benway (AMERIPRISE) Father Jerry Schik (YES a CROSIER PRIEST!!!!!), Laureen Carlson, Darnell Allen (SUPERVALU), Jeff Talley, Kevin Gray (MNDOT CFO), Larry Riesselman, Francis Smith (father of Michael D. Smith - you remember the Jack Abramoff scandal? Smith was Jack's partner.), and Laurie Zenner... Do these suers actually exist? So I hear. In this country, we have THE RIGHT to face our accusers. I, however, have to research mine on the Internet because I have no idea of who they are. (They aren't from MY neighborhood... They just dumped their 94 sex offenders here.) I've been to court THREE times and have yet to see anybody from Nexus except Vic, their lawyer. And as diligently as I TRIED to communicate with all of these ... people, they gave me the Nexus Silent Treatment until the sheriff's deputy showed up in my yard with the lawsuits. HEY! WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, NEIGHBOR!!! WANT TO BORROW A CUP OF .... MY SOUL?

Anyway, it wasn't my intention to cause any trouble. I didn't expect to talk to any Nexusians. To tell you the truth (and I always do), I haven't set foot on that 38.81 acres since Nexus purchased it from the Onamia Corporate Real Estate Office (i.e. City Hall...). Jim D'Angelo might have given me permission when he talked about giving me an "easement" to use the land, but this is a fellow who lied on a sworn affidavit while suing me for calling him "Poopsie". I'm certainly not going to trust him not to shoot me for trespassing. So no, I haven't been there since they ruined it. And I don't plan to go back. Today was MY day to visit the Mille Lacs Academy. So I did. I was invited.

My first impression of the "Academy" was utter shock. YIKES! The buildings, which I knew from the plans would be ugly, also looked so CHEAP! Really tacky. (How sad for poor Councilman Jerome Kryzer - whose proudest life acheivement was to put sex offenders next to day care... "aye-ing" at every opportunity - those few months he actually resides in town, that is ... ) But then, that is just my opinion. For all I know, J.F.K. is thrilled with the ticky-tack. (Please note: I don't know Jerome's middle name, but here the F. does not stand for Fitzgerald...)

For $18 Million taxpayer dollars, I expected much more. But then, perhaps the inside of the buildings are nice??? I don't know. I didn't go in. I never will (unless it is to drag "home" one of the escaped sex offenders I round up on my property, in which case it will definitely be my intention to cause trouble. A lot of it).

You know, it just occurred to me that perhaps, for a non-creative kind of person, these buildings might be ... like... the ultimate. I don't mean to brag, but I've composed symphonic music, have a couple of paintings in a museum, and designed and built my own dream house. I've been creative all of my life. Thusly, maybe I'm being harsh in my judgment. Maybe building sex offender facilities that resemble Nazi concentration camps made out of paper mache' is the best they can do, and they should be commended for their attempt at creativity. Still.... $18 million taxpayer dollars... Maybe it wouldn't be so ugly if it was in an appropriately zoned area such as commercial or institutional. Maybe it just doesn't belong where they built it. I tried to tell them...

The next thing I noticed was that I was looking directly at the director Paul Smith - you know, the one who has been indicted for embezzlement, fraud, mail fraud etc. down at Marie-Detty in Oklahoma where he used to be the director there too. He was standing in the parking lot laughing along with Pat Rookie. They seemed happy. Well, until they saw yours truly. Now there isn't any love lost between Smith and me. (I mean Paul, not Francis or Michael D.) Just seeing him made my skin crawl. It always does.

"Now why isn't that man in jail?" I said. But then, it hit me... Paul and I have something in common. We're BOTH defendants! NEITHER of us has yet to face our Accusers! (Of course, he keeps getting his trial POSTPONED while I'm seeking to get these frivilous lawsuits against me dismissed.) And NEITHER of us wants to live next to .... a school. I almost felt sorry for him. At least I'm not facing 30 years in prison .... or even Brazil.

A nice looking young man with a Mille Lacs Academy tee-shirt ran up to our vehicle. Poncho rolled down the window. The nice looking young man looked happy as he invited us to join in the festivities. We declined. I have to say, he was very nice. (Contrary to your Pronexus beliefs, my fight has never been with the employees - just the location and the incompetent Onamia government's malfeasance -and finally, of course with the suers.) Obviously, this young man didn't realize he was talking to Hannabelle or maybe he wouldn't have been so pleasant. (Orders from the old boss and all...) Maybe later he'd send me some nice death threats or nice creepy comments on my blog... But he was really nice. He told us we could at least come over for a bag of chips.

I looked at the ugly mess of ugly "cardboard" buildings and sweeping my arm across the view, I said:
"Gee. All that AND a bag of chips."

We drove away.


[*1] That figure is just a rough estimate I based on what I've spent defending myself so far while being persecuted in two lawsuits - for 1. calling former CEO Jim D'Angelo "Poopsie" and embarrassing Pete, and 2. after I brought really, really unwanted attention to a child killed by a Nexus employee at another Nexus facility. Judging by their case against me, coupled with the old adage "you get what you pay for", I figure their lawyers are cheaper than mine.

[*2] Nexus charges county governments (last I heard it was about $245.00 per sex offender per day- with 94 of them, you do the math...) for "treatment", thus receives its primary income from taxpayer money. Nexus, a company that made $40 Million last year, is a "non-profit" company and does not pay taxes. It also got 15 years tax ABATEMENT from the Onamia Government (along with other "deals") and 7 years tax abatement from the county. We pay taxes so Nexus doesn't have to. But Nexus couldn't exist without our tax dollars.... Something to think about.

CORRECTION: I had written that Nexus made $40 Million "in profits", but that was an error in speakage on my part. According to Jim D'Angelo's resume:

NEXUS; Minneapolis, MN.
A $40M+, 720 employee, not for profit behavioral health agency with operating locations in Minnesota, and Illinois.


Anyway you look at it, that's a lot of tax dollars...