Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [96]
What is the Institute for Justice? Tom Londregan wondered. He had never heard of the outfit until he got word that the institute had sued the city. Before a copy of the suit reached his desk, Londregan started getting phone calls. Reporters from outside New London suddenly wanted to know why the city was trying to force people from their homes.
Londregan wanted to know what the hell was going on. He believed in arguing cases before judges and juries, not in the court of public opinion. Apparently, the opposing lawyers were holding press conferences and issuing press releases. They had changed the rules—and he didn’t like it one bit. His firm employed lawyers, paralegals, and secretaries, not PR specialists.
After three years on offense, the city had suddenly been forced into a defensive posture. Rather than simply answering a lawsuit, Londregan and the NLDC had to answer to the national media. Irked, Londregan decided right away he didn’t care for the institute’s brand of justice. Convinced the city had the right to take the homes for economic development, and determined to prove it, Londregan planned to play hardball in defending the city’s interests.
Christmas was barely over when Billy Von Winkle received a certified letter from the NLDC reminding him that it now owned his properties and that it expected all of Von Winkle’s tenants to start turning their rent payments over to the NLDC.
A few days later, Von Winkle got another surprise. The NLDC had entered one of his apartment buildings, forced the tenants out, and padlocked the doors to prevent them from reentering. Some of the tenants hadn’t even had a chance to grab their shoes before being forced outside into the cold.
Von Winkle called Bullock and told him what was going on. Besides being outraged at how his tenants had been manhandled, Von Winkle complained about the immediate loss of income. “Bull, how am I going to live?” he said.
Bullock struggled to control his temper. It seemed the city was out to bankrupt his clients just a few weeks into the lawsuit.
“Is there a way to stop this?” Von Winkle asked.
“We’ll do our damndest,” Bullock said.
Ever since losing the freedom-of-information battle with the Day, Claire had suffered a series of negative portrayals in the press. No matter what she said or did, her public image kept getting worse. And the NLDC’s credibility kept sinking.
Claire blamed a lot of this on Reid MacCluggage. As the Day’s publisher, MacCluggage didn’t write the stories, but in Claire’s eyes he was Darth Vader, a dark, powerful figure working behind the scenes to destroy the NLDC’s vision for the city. When a feature writer for the Day’s primary competitor, the Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s largest newspaper, called with a request to follow her around for a cover story in the paper’s Sunday magazine, Claire figured she finally had a chance for an unbiased story.
Jane Dee arrived at the president’s residence at Connecticut College for the first time on a cold January day a few weeks after the lawsuit was filed by Susette and her neighbors. But Dee hadn’t come to talk legalese. She had come to check out Claire and all the talk she had heard about her eye-catching wardrobe, her seductive mannerisms, and her controversial style. She entered the house and waited for Claire.
“Excuse how I’m dressed,” Claire said, appearing suddenly and removing a stylish winter parka. “I didn’t feel like dressing like a college president today.”
Dee had trouble taking her eyes off Claire, mesmerized by her intensity and flair. Dee also had trouble getting a word in; Claire totally dominated the dialogue, and Dee felt she had to interrupt just to ask questions. Claire had a lot to say, occasionally lowering her voice, reclining in her chair,