Truth Hurts
Judge denies Caltrans’ request to keep longtime critic from talking with PW about eviction proceedings
By Kevin Uhrich 08/12/2010
Nearly four years and two legal proceedings later, Caltrans is once again trying to evict longtime tenant Don Jones and his family from the state-owned home they’ve been renting for nearly two decades. Only now, lawyers for the state’s largest and arguably most negligent landlord have asked the judge hearing the case to prevent Jones, a longtime critic of the state transit agency, from speaking with the Pasadena Weekly, which Jones and his attorney recalled one Caltrans lawyer telling the court caused her “anguish” with its coverage since January 2009.
Superior Court Judge John P. Doyle denied the state’s request to place a gag order on Jones and set trial for Aug. 24 in Dept. 3 of the Glendale Courthouse, said attorney David Etezadi. But Doyle also ruled that Jones cannot claim his eviction was retaliation for his years of criticizing the agency, a key component to his defense. Officials and lawyers for Caltrans have refused to comment on the Jones case, citing litigation as the reason.
Jones is accused of verbally abusing a contract worker for the agency who messed up repairs on his Madeline Drive home in summer 2006. Jones maintains he has long been a thorn in the agency’s side by organizing tenant rights groups and claims the resulting eviction proceedings are the result of his opposition to Caltrans’ plans to build a connector route for the 210 and 710 freeways through the area in Pasadena where his home sits.
Because his wife, Gloria Lucio, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and recently underwent brain surgery, Jones said he asked Caltrans officials if they would reconsider their position and allow the couple to stay in the home until Lucio was stronger. But even though they admitted seeing a story in the Los Angeles Times about Lucio’s surgery, Jones said Caltrans officials rejected that idea.
“I have never seen any agency so paranoid and so arrogant. Those two things together don’t make for good governance,” said Etezadi.
“They actually believe they are above the law, and all these politicians seem to be afraid of them,” Etezadi continued. “But this isn’t just about Don Jones. It’s about the hundreds if not thousands of people who are living in Caltrans-owned houses.”
Jones believes Caltrans is trying to get rid of him because of his involvement in a class-action lawsuit against the agency in 1995, his advocacy for other renters and his efforts to stop plans to bulldoze a path for the proposed 4.5 mile freeway extension from El Sereno through South Pasadena and the southwest portion of Pasadena.
The overland connector idea has been all but abandoned, replaced by an even pricier proposition: putting much of the connector route underground through two gigantic tunnels. Jones is a vocal opponent of that idea as well.
Jones appeared this week on “Uprising” with Sonali Kolhatkar on KPFK-FM to talk about Saturday’s Community Music and Arts Festival sponsored by La Red de El Sereno, a residents’ action group Jones helped form that, according to is literature, “is a community-wide network for community self-determination, environmental dignity, urban farming, the promotion of housing as a human right, and autonomous education that is critical, relevant and community based.”
The festival features a number of vendors selling healthy foods and local bands playing hip-hop, banda, dance, roots reggae and spoken word from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Christian Presbyterian Church, 2241 N. Eastern Ave., El Sereno. Of the 486 homes owned by Caltrans in the so-called 710 Corridor, 265 of them are located in El Sereno, a predominantly Latino working class neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“Gandhi said it best,” Jones said. “There are four steps: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win. First they ignored us, then they laughed at us, then they attacked us, and I suspect they can’t take it for the long haul. ”
Following are stories on the more than two-year legal battle between Caltrans and Don Jones:
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/the_man_who_knew___and_said___too_much/8571/
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/double_trouble/6927/
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/when_a_house_is_not_a_home/6846/
Superior Court Judge John P. Doyle denied the state’s request to place a gag order on Jones and set trial for Aug. 24 in Dept. 3 of the Glendale Courthouse, said attorney David Etezadi. But Doyle also ruled that Jones cannot claim his eviction was retaliation for his years of criticizing the agency, a key component to his defense. Officials and lawyers for Caltrans have refused to comment on the Jones case, citing litigation as the reason.
Jones is accused of verbally abusing a contract worker for the agency who messed up repairs on his Madeline Drive home in summer 2006. Jones maintains he has long been a thorn in the agency’s side by organizing tenant rights groups and claims the resulting eviction proceedings are the result of his opposition to Caltrans’ plans to build a connector route for the 210 and 710 freeways through the area in Pasadena where his home sits.
Because his wife, Gloria Lucio, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and recently underwent brain surgery, Jones said he asked Caltrans officials if they would reconsider their position and allow the couple to stay in the home until Lucio was stronger. But even though they admitted seeing a story in the Los Angeles Times about Lucio’s surgery, Jones said Caltrans officials rejected that idea.
“I have never seen any agency so paranoid and so arrogant. Those two things together don’t make for good governance,” said Etezadi.
“They actually believe they are above the law, and all these politicians seem to be afraid of them,” Etezadi continued. “But this isn’t just about Don Jones. It’s about the hundreds if not thousands of people who are living in Caltrans-owned houses.”
Jones believes Caltrans is trying to get rid of him because of his involvement in a class-action lawsuit against the agency in 1995, his advocacy for other renters and his efforts to stop plans to bulldoze a path for the proposed 4.5 mile freeway extension from El Sereno through South Pasadena and the southwest portion of Pasadena.
The overland connector idea has been all but abandoned, replaced by an even pricier proposition: putting much of the connector route underground through two gigantic tunnels. Jones is a vocal opponent of that idea as well.
Jones appeared this week on “Uprising” with Sonali Kolhatkar on KPFK-FM to talk about Saturday’s Community Music and Arts Festival sponsored by La Red de El Sereno, a residents’ action group Jones helped form that, according to is literature, “is a community-wide network for community self-determination, environmental dignity, urban farming, the promotion of housing as a human right, and autonomous education that is critical, relevant and community based.”
The festival features a number of vendors selling healthy foods and local bands playing hip-hop, banda, dance, roots reggae and spoken word from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Christian Presbyterian Church, 2241 N. Eastern Ave., El Sereno. Of the 486 homes owned by Caltrans in the so-called 710 Corridor, 265 of them are located in El Sereno, a predominantly Latino working class neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“Gandhi said it best,” Jones said. “There are four steps: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win. First they ignored us, then they laughed at us, then they attacked us, and I suspect they can’t take it for the long haul. ”
Following are stories on the more than two-year legal battle between Caltrans and Don Jones:
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/the_man_who_knew___and_said___too_much/8571/
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/double_trouble/6927/
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/when_a_house_is_not_a_home/6846/
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