Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [98]
The lawsuit alleged the NLDC had acted unlawfully when taking title to the plaintiffs’ properties. With the case headed for trial, Bullock figured, the NLDC surely had to suspend any demolition plans until a judge sorted out the legal questions.
In early January, Bullock telephoned the NLDC’s in-house lawyer, Mathew Greene, and asked the agency to hold off on the demolitions until after the case was resolved. Greene said he’d get back to him.
When NLDC president Dave Goebel learned of Bullock’s request, he approached it as he would an enemy. He didn’t want to give any assurance that his agency wouldn’t demolish the houses. He hoped that might force the issue.
Greene informed Bullock that the NLDC would not take up the issue of whether to delay the home demolitions until its next board of directors meeting, on February 13.
That would be eight days too late, Bullock insisted. The mandatory sixty-day waiting period to exercise the demolition permits would expire on February 5. What was there to stop the NLDC from demolishing the properties that day?
Bullock asked Greene if the NLDC would at least agree to hold off any demolitions until the agency’s next board meeting. Greene checked and came back with the same answer: no.
Incensed, Bullock huddled with Berliner. “These people are so arrogant they won’t even agree to stop demolitions until the court hears the case,” he said.
Bullock and Berliner decided to hit back. First, they helped Von Winkle write and submit a tough op-ed piece to the Hartford Courant titled: “Eminent Domain Abuse Puts Owners, Tenants Out In The Cold.” The piece ran on January 29. In it, Von Winkle hammered the NLDC:
Earlier this month, a tenant in my New London apartment building found himself being locked inside: Someone was padlocking his door from the outside.
I wish I could say this was a prank, but it was a deliberate act by my town’s government and a private development corporation to make property owners like me give up what is rightfully ours. …
The NLDC claims the right to collect any rent these properties generate. In the middle of January, it forced my tenants out into the street in their stocking feet. This is no exaggeration. This is what happens when government power gets out of control.
The essay had its desired effect, thoroughly embarrassing the NLDC and the City of New London and sparking an outrage among readers across the state.
The day after Von Winkle’s piece ran, Bullock and Berliner asked the court to intervene. They filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the NLDC from taking any action to demolish or alter buildings or homes on the plaintiffs’ properties until the court conducted a hearing. They also filed a motion for a temporary injunction to prevent the NLDC from evicting any plaintiffs or demolishing any plaintiffs’ homes pending the outcome of the trial. Both motions stressed the urgency of a ruling before the fast-approaching February 5 expiration date on the NLDC’s demolition permits.
Bullock and Berliner’s motions ended up on the desk of Judge Robert A. Martin at the New London Superior Court. A New London native, Martin had the administrative responsibility for assigning cases to fellow judges. He knew some of the plaintiffs personally. The judge also knew some of the defendants and most of the lawyers involved in the case.
Until the case was assigned, Martin had hoped things would remain low-key. Martin called a conference with all the lawyers in his chambers at noon on February 5, 2001, the same day the sixty-day waiting period would expire.
At first relieved that a conference had been scheduled, Bullock then immediately recognized a major concern. The judge planned to take up the demolition matter twelve hours after the NLDC’s ninety-day waiting period for exercising demolition permits expired. Nothing was in place to stop the NLDC from bulldozing houses