Monday, May 30, 2011

PETTY-COATed inJUNCTION

How I wish that Nexus board member/co-plaintiff Peter D. Freeman - psychotherapist, would stop giving me so much to write about. Last December, Judge Rosenbaum denied his motion for an injunction to abolish Hannabelle's First Amendment Rights. Freeman claims that Hannabelle had "embarrassed" him, and he wanted the judge to make her stop... to Order her to stop writing on the Internet. Can you imagine abusing the court in this way? For a self-purported expert in conflict resolution to more or less run whining to teacher instead of dealing with his problem himself, well... I guess I'd be embarrassed too, if I were him.

Now he's crying about an article I wrote in the Mille Lacs News back in January 2010. "No Blood on My Hands" is an explanation of the analogy I used in the private, confidential email I sent to Freeman's superior back in 2007, asking her to help us by convincing Freeman that convicted sex offenders in an unlocked sex offender facility do not belong next to day care and elderly widows. Now, that might have been the end of it, but Freeman sued me - placing that private, confidential email into the public record. In my opinion, that was kind of stupid. What did he think would happen when someone Googled him? Duh. But that's just my Constitutionally protected opinion.

I felt I had to explain the analogy - where I told how Freeman, who isn't part of our community, was making decisions that "destroyed a village". I wanted there to be no misunderstandings about my analogy. I went through it quite thoroughly. And I stand by what I said. In my opinion, it was the perfect analogy. Certainly, the "village" was destroyed for yours truly. I don't think Onamia will ever be the same. A lot of people suffered because of Nexus. Being their scapegoat, it was worse for me. Freeman and D'Angelo and their Nexus corporation displayed their "cornerstone values" as they destroyed my life. Mission accomplished.

So Freeman is now seeking another injunction to force Hannabelle to remove "No Blood on My Hands", charging her once again with "defamation". I wouldn't be surprised if this article I'm writing here doesn't show up in his next attempted injunction. I suppose he could drag me back into court every time my fingers touch the keyboard.

What's troubling about this current injunction is that Freeman wants to blame me for his failure to draw clients for his new consulting business. According to his own sworn testimony:

Freeman: "I can only conjecture, because I can't prove it's happened, but someone considering me for a contract and Googling my name and considering other people at the same time, seeing "bad professional judgment", "bad professional behavior", they might go, well, we don't know if this is true; but it's also, if it was me, quite frankly, I would likely go, maybe we should take a pass because I would feel too embarrassed to go back to this Peter Freeman and say, you know, we saw this on the web, can you explain it to us?" (Freeman testimony from the transcript in the Freeman and D'Angelo vs. Hannabelle trial. Thank you Victor.)

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO YOUR OPINION - ONLY AS LONG AS IT IS THE "RIGHT" OPINION? THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES GRANTS EVERY CITIZEN THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH - UNLESS WHAT YOU SAY EMBARRASSES PETER FREEMAN? No Dear Readers... this is not the American way. We must all be accountable for what we say and what we do. Even Peter Freeman.

It is my opinion that Freeman keeps making mountains out of molehills for himself. If he hadn't sued me, this pissing contest would have been over three years ago with the slaying of the first 200 year old pine tree on the ill-fated building site. I wouldn't have published the private, confidential email I sent. I wouldn't have felt the need to defend my analogy in an article about the Freeman/D'Angelo lawsuit. And I wouldn't be writing this now.

My mission was only to save my neighborhood from Nexus' sex offenders and from the malfeasant local government that was circumventing laws to make it seem "legal" to put a juvenile sex offender treatment center in an R1 residential area. (Mission Failed.) It was never about Peter Freeman or his business or his career or anything about him personally. I have no vendetta against him. Look - I didn't lodge a formal complaint about him; I asked someone with influence to help convince him he was making a mistake - a mistake that could very well embarrass him in the future. I didn't harass him with lawsuits; I wrote about the lawsuits he harassed me with. I don't know - and don't care - how good or bad he is as a psychotherapist. To all of you potential Freeman clients - hey, go ahead and give him a try. Don't let anything I said about his role in the Mille Lacs Academy relocation stop you. Who knows - maybe in other circumstances Freeman is the best damn psychotherapist in the world. But I stand by my opinion that in this particular situation of putting sex offenders next to day care, he exercised poor judgment. And in suing me, he continues to do so. He extends his spot in my limelight each time he abuses the Justice System to bully me into silence. Why does he keep repeating the same strategy? I don't know.

I believe with all of my heart that we still have the Right to Freedom of Speech, even if it means telling ugly things that people have done to us. Even if it embarrasses them. As long as it is the Truth. Our opinions are still Constitutionally protected, at least for now. We'll see if they still are after Judge Rosenbaum makes her decision at the June 22 injunction hearing.

If I were you, Dear Readers, I'd keep my fingers crossed for Hannabelle on this one. If I lose my Freedom of Speech, you will also lose yours. And Peter, this includes you; You will also lose yours.