Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [1]
The Kelo case is infamous. But the stirring story behind what drove Susette Kelo—a divorced nurse—to take on a powerful governor, a billion-dollar corporation, and a hard-charging development agency to save her pink cottage is a hidden drama that begs to be exposed. On one level, it’s a uniquely American saga about power and defiance that makes the Supreme Court decision even harder to swallow. But at its core, this story is about pride, a virtue that breeds self-respect and a condition that is first among the seven cardinal sins.
Little Pink House is an inside account of how a political street fight over a neighborhood escalated into a high-stakes federal case. It’s the unsanitized version that the Supreme Court never heard. And it’s told by the people who lived it—the residents whose homes were taken; the local officials who authorized the takings; the development agency that designed the plan; the state officials who supplied the money; a Fortune 500 company that stood to benefit; and lawyers who fought ferociously over whether this was right or wrong. All of these parties cooperated for this book.
Between November 2005 and March 2008, I conducted close to three hundred on-the-record interviews. I also received via e-mail well over one hundred written responses to factual queries I posed to participants. Most of these queries involved detailed follow-up questions to prior interviews.
I also had access to deposition transcripts, video and audio recordings of meetings and events, and many documents (internal corporate correspondence, internal government memos, and lawyers’ private notes), as well as private papers and correspondence, such as journals, diaries, and e-mails. In all, I obtained enough documents—including voluminous records obtained under the freedom-of-information laws, court papers, press reports, and photographs and maps—to fill more than a dozen large, plastic storage containers.
My primary objective in this is to tell a compelling story that is true to the characters who shaped this historic case. I am deeply grateful to individuals on all sides who afforded me their time and helped me understand this complex story about people whose struggle ultimately shifted one of the most enduring principles of our democracy.
Perhaps no writer had more influence on English common law and American jurisprudence than seventeenth-century English jurist Sir Edward Coke. He penned one of the most famous lines of all time: “A man’s house is his castle—et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium.” The Latin portion of the sentence is less well known. The loose translation is: “and where shall a man be safe if it be not in his own house?”
Amazingly, after Kelo v. City of New London, Coke’s comment may be more relevant now than when the American colonists rebelled against the king.
Jeff Benedict
April 8, 2008
Buena Vista, Virginia
CAST OF CHARACTERS
THE PRINCIPALS
John G. Rowland, governor of Connecticut
Peter N. Ellef, chief of staff to Governor Rowland
Jay B. Levin, lobbyist and attorney
George Milne Jr., president of Pfizer, Inc.
Dr. Claire Gaudiani, president of New London Development Corporation and Connecticut College
Susette Kelo, lead plaintiff
Billy Von Winkle, plaintiff
Matt Dery, plaintiff
Rich Beyer, plaintiff
Byron Athenian, plaintiff
Michael Cristofaro, plaintiff
INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
Chip Mellor, president
Scott Bullock, attorney
Dana Berliner, attorney
John Kramer, communications director
CITY OF NEW LONDON
Lloyd Beachy, mayor
Tom Londregan, attorney
Tony Basilica, Democratic Party chairman
NEW LONDON DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (NLDC)
David Goebel, chief operating officer
Stephen Percy, member of the board of directors
Mathew Greene, chief counsel
Edward O’Connell, outside counsel
COALITION TO SAVE FORT TRUMBULL
Kathleen Mitchell, speech writer and organizer for Susette Kelo
John and Sarah Steffian, financiers behind the litigation effort
Professor Fred Paxton, co-chairman of the coalition
Steve and Amy Hallquist, grassroots opposition leaders