Wettlaufer's BOS wasted $68,540.48 on unnecessary lawsuits and counting.
For some time now, the Law Firm Bacon Wilson from Springfield is hired to provide legal services to the town of Holland; attorney Benjamin M. Coyle is doing most of the necessary legal work for the town as town counsel.
Picture: Annual town meeting, May 27, 2014. James Wettlaufer, chairman of the Board of Selectmen on the left, sitting; William Hardy, moderator, standing on the right.
Even so the town has legal representation through their town counsel Coyle, Wettlaufer is hiring Tani Sapirstein from Sapirstein &
Sapirstein to do his dirty work.
Why is that?
Does attorney Coyle from Bacon Wilson not get involved in Wettlaufer's personal vendetta? Is Wettlaufer hiring someone like
Tani Sapirstein to represent Brian Johnson because Coyle does not want any part of it?
I could imagine that Coyle advised Wettlaufer that using tax dollars to secretly pay for a frivolous private lawsuit is
unethical and could potentially incriminate Coyle himself.
I obtained copies of invoices for attorney Tani Sapirstein's services to the town of Holland. The invoices only include invoices from Sapirstein and no invoices for services provided by town counsel Coyle. The invoices are totaling
$68,540.48.
These invoices for unnecessary lawsuits are being paid for by the trusting taxpayers of Holland.
To see the invoices,
click here!
Included are invoices with the remark Carlson, Frei, LaMountain, and Johnson.
Invoices with remark “LaMountain:”
As the readers know, Wettlaufer filed repeated lawsuits against the LaMountain's in and attempt to prove that they are not
farmers and lost. In the end the Appeals Court of the Commonwealth found that Mike LaMountain's and Chadd Brigham's property was
being used for farming but lost the farm to foreclosure anyway. The lives of two young men of our community, both have a young family
with two children, was put upside down because Wettlaufer did not like the change to his view from the other side of the valley
where he lives.
To read about Wettlaufer's final defeat,
click here!
Wettlaufer filed three lawsuits and appealed the decision of the last suit. He lost all of them but one. In that suit decided in his favor,
the paralegal handling the LaMountain's defense died in a car accident. A pending request from the town's lawyer for documents during
discovery reached a deadline which LaMountain's attorney missed and the Judge entered rightfully a default judgment on behalf of the town.
The Lamountains eventually won a lawsuit for legal malpractice and received a settlement for more than $600,000.00.
Invoices with the remark “Carlson:”
Timothy Carlson had the audacity to buy a buildable lot from the LaMountain's. The Planning Board signed LaMountain's
Approval Not Required, or ANR plan, but Brian Johnson, elected Highway Surveyor, arbitrarily refused to issue a driveway
permit to access Chaffee Road. An ANR is only endorsed by a Planning Board if access to the lots shown on the plan is granted. M.G.L. c.41, s.81P.
Johnson's arbitrary refusal prompted another lawsuit paid for by the taxpayer!
Invoices with the remark “Frei:”
After I was assaulted on the ice less than 50 feet from my house that February 19, 2011, I filed a Criminal Harassment
Prevention Order against Brian Johnson. Johnson was ice fishing that day and not on duty according to his own testimony under oath
during trial.
<Invoices with the remark “Johnson:”
Johnson filed a private lawsuit for damages against me and was found guilty on my counterclaims. Johnson was found guilty
in the very lawsuit he filed and the town paid for with Wettlaufer's blessing.
The jury found that Brian Johnson,
“intended to inflict emotional distress, or knew or should have reasonably known that emotional distress was likely to result from his conduct;”Mr. Johnson’s conduct was,
“extreme and outrageous, was beyond the bounds of decency and intolerable in a civilized society.”
And:
“A reasonable person under the circumstances of this case would have suffered emotional distress.“
Mr. Johnson knowingly and falsely accused Mr. Frei of having committed a crime. Mr. Johnson communicated said knowing and false accusation of crime to at least one other person.
Regarding the latter, it is a criminal offense in Massachusetts to make a false report of a crime to a police officer. M.G.L., c.269, s.13A . Although not prosecuted for this offense (I never pressed charges,) Johnson’s knowing and intentionally false allegation to the police that I threatened to kill him was the basis of the jury’s defamation verdict against Johnson.
It is difficult to understand any set of circumstances in which a taxpayer should have to pay for a public official’s on or off-duty conduct toward a resident found to be extreme, outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency and intolerable in a civilized society.
In light of the Select Board’s awareness of my allegations; their further awareness of the knowing and intentional falsity of Johnson’s statements to the police; and the Board’s well documented animus toward me, it is equally difficult to perceive any set of circumstances in which the knowing and intentional offer and receipt of legal representation by attorney Sapirstein paid for with public funds is not a violation of M.G.L. c.268A, s.23(b)(2)(i) and (ii).
Wettlaufer is not going to change, if you approve his personal vendettas paid for with your money, if you approve lawsuits which in the end find the accuser to be an uncivilized liar and bully, go vote for Wettlaufer. If you think he abused his position and betrayed the very voters who elected him, please don't stay home. Please spend the 15 minutes necessary to cast your vote for a change, vote for Larry Mandell. He will put your hard earned dollars to better use!
June 7, 2014, Peter Frei