John Hoff's Rule of Law

I read this the other day and laughed so hard that I just had to post it here as it applies to John Hoff aka Johnny Northside to a TEE!

If the facts are against you, argue the law.

If the law is against you, argue the facts.

If the facts and the law are against you, yell like hell!

Copied from "Murphy's Law, book three." Arthur Bloch 1982

Johhny Northside Loses in Court

It seems Johnny Northside aka John Hoff, was in court again a few weeks ago. From what the court record shows, John was given a speeding ticket in October of 2009 but, do you think John simply accepted responsibility for his wrong-doing and paid the ticket?
Of course he didn't!!!
John had to waste more of the courts time by fighting the ticket he was issued in Stevens County and he was found...GUILTY!

What could have been a $40 fine if he had admitted he was speeding and paid the fine, turned into a hefty $125 fine AND it shows he was convicted of a "Petty Misdemeanor."
Hoff speeding conviction record

Interesting note:
John paid the $125 fine after he was held accountable but, he apparently has yet to get caught up on his child support payments.
Looks like John STILL thinks that laws and rules do not apply to him. WAKE UP, JOHN!

John Hoff's Non Pay for Child Support Results In Custody Suit

Image from the Johnnynorthside Blog, used under First Amendment Fair Comment And Criticism

While Dick Tracy wanna-be A.K.A. John Hoff A.K.A. Johnny Northside, tries to identify a murderer (which, I hope he does without screwing up the police investigation) on his blog by publishing interviews with family & friends of the victims family, John faces his own family issues... Legal issues.

Thats right, John's ex-wife has taken John to court over "enforcement" of child support Click HERE to see court document and it has now turned into a custody suit.
The following was copied off of that record:
"1/25/2010     Support order (Judicial Officer: Flynn, Mary H. C.) "
One can assume that John has failed to deliver on the order of support and that is why John now finds himself in danger of losing some or more of his parental benefits.

Here is the link to the court document for the new custody suit... Hoff's custody case
Is it possible that No-Mi's number one crusader could soon become a Deadbeat Dad? Stay tuned for more info as the story unfolds.

What is sad about this is that his son (I am not going to name his son since none of this is his fault) seemed like a very smart, well behaved and polite young man, when I met him the day John met me for a lunch meeting in april, 2009. It is obvious to me that John has done a good job as a "hands-on" father (the same credit is hereby given to his son's mother) but, for whatever reasons, John has made it a habit of not living up to the financial responsibilities of being a father.

Lastly... John did not pay his court fee's (as usual) as his payment was made using "In Forma Pauperis." Meaning, he still has no money and takes advantage of the legal system again.

Question for Johnny Northside Supporters...

For all the Johnny Northside a.k.a. John Hoff supporters who have stood by him and stated on various websites and blogs that you think John Hoff is a great asset to the community and he is an activist that is clearly doing good... I ask you the following question.

As few of you probably know, John Hoff has a degree in Law. He has stated in past interviews how he wants to open offices that specialize in "Lesbian issues, International Space Law and Freedom of Information." While those may be on the back burner for now, I wondered to myself, "Here is a guy who has a degree in Law and all he needs to do is pass the State Bar exam to become an Attorney. I can't begin to count the ways he could contribute to the community in BIG ways if he were an attorney doing legal work "pro bono" (meaning he does it for free).
However, not only has he made no indication of using his law degree to do some good for the community, he actually detracts from the community and legal system because, he has filed motions for "In Forma Pauperis" in his recent child support case (among others). A recent post dedicated to this explains what In Forma Pauperis is but, in short it means that John admits he does not have enough money to hire legal representation but, he has the right to a fair trial. The court system then waives his legal fees.

Getting to my question now.... Do you feel John Hoff really has the communities best interests in mind rather than himself? A Law degree that was obtained using any number of student loans and grants but, John won't use that degree to give back to the community.
Side note: To date, John has yet to pay his 2008 or 2009 property taxes either.

Public activist? Or Public... Leech?

Something out of... Something: Minneapolis Settles Law Suit Vs. SunTrust Mortgage.

In the comments section in the previous post, the first comment (Anonymous of course) claimed I am always trying to make "Something out of nothing" with regards to the city settling a law suit against SunTrust Mortgage. That suit stemmed from the trumped up law suit the city had filed against TJ Waconia where Mayor Rybak claimed, "This is personal."

A quick rundown on the FACTS: (don't worry, I always post links to back them up)

The city files a law suit against TJ Waconia to gain control over 140+ TJ Waconia owned properties. The city announces and the StarTribune's Steve Brandt report that the city won their case and that they were now in control of those properties.
OOOPS!!!

The city's attorneys who filed the suit never bothered to have a title search done to see who actually owned the houses. They merely went to the County site which still listed TJ Waconia as the owners but, all of the houses had already been foreclosed and were owned by SunTrust Mortgage.
The blatant mistake the attorneys made was that they didn't bother to inform SunTrust of the suit. Why? Well had they done that, they would not have been able to have Rybak do the bullshit press conference to announce the law suit.

SunTrust countered the law suit and the city was caught red-handed. They SCREWED UP! Where was the press conference to tell the public that they were wrong?

So, here is the details to the settlement or what the city had to do to buy their way out of the mess that they got themselves into with SunTrust Mortgage. Note that TJ Waconia is no where to be found in the settlement because... They were not involved at that point.
I sure hope that anonymous commenter comes back to question this proof but, just like John Hoff a.k.a. Johnny Northside would say, "Do as I say, NOT as I do."

Here is the part that I have copied for the readers as well as the link to the site.
____________________

http://www.finance-commerce.com/publicnotices.cfm?mode=mpls&display=html&id=279
MOTION


Lilligren moved to approve partial settlement of the case of City of Minneapolis, et al. v. T.J. Waconia, et al., Hennepin County Court File No. 27-CV-08-7880 by approving settlement of claims against SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. (“SunTrust”) according to terms that substantially comply with the following:

A. SunTrust, shall agree to sell to the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation 48 real properties either held or serviced by SunTrust (“GMHC”) that are subject to the jurisdiction of the Hennepin County District Court or the Court-appointed administrator.

B. That SunTrust will sell 30 certain listed properties at its list price less ten percent discount.
C. That SunTrust has three properties under contract with third parties. In the event those sales do not occur SunTrust will sell to GMHC at ten percent off list price.

D. That SunTrust will sell 15 certain properties when they become available for sale at their list price less twelve percent.

E. That SunTrust shall make a payment of $75,000.00 to the City of Minneapolis; $50,000.00 to be payable to the Housing Maintenance Code Revolving Repair Fund for Tenant Remedies Actions; and, $25,000.00 to be applied toward the Inspection Division for pending or levied special assessments.

F. That SunTrust will agree to dismiss any appeals it has in the above-captioned lawsuit; that Plaintiffs will dismiss their claims against SunTrust but the District Court shall return jurisdiction over certain properties for the sole purpose of ensuring that certain properties not be sold to GMHC shall be remediated of existing code violations prior to sale.
G. That Plaintiffs shall release any notices of lis pendens that were filed in the lawsuit relating to properties owned or serviced by SunTrust.
H. That the City Attorney is further authorized to execute any documents necessary to effectuate the settlement.
I. That the proper City officials are authorized to waive any pending or levied special assessments on properties owned or serviced by SunTrust that are purchased by GMHC. Seconded.
Adopted 10/10/2008.
Absent – Remington, Benson, Glidden.
___________________________________

I wonder if Steve Brandt will pick this info up and do an article about it? Hmmm I doubt it.

Question for the Hawthorne Hawkman

Note: The end of this post has been updated. An anonymous commenter on the JNS blog asked Jeff if he had seen this post. Jeff responded on that site rather than here so, I have copied his reply and pasted it here. To avoid any complaints, I am disclosing that he did not post his reply on this site. -Anti Johnny

On the JNS blog, Jeff Skrenes a.k.a. the Hawthorne Hawkman made it a point to highlight the applause that was given in response to the principal owners of TJ Waconia being in prison (even though the story is well past yesterday's news).

So the Mis-Adventures of Johnny Northside is reaching out to Jeff personally to answer the following (or at least offer an opinion).

The city council did such an amazing job of taking a stand against fraud as it has been reported in the case of TJ Waconia. The city filed a civil suit that was announced by Mayor Rybak and a few No-Mi neighborhoods joined that lawsuit as well (Hawthorne was not among them).
1) Can you comment on why the Hawthorne neighborhood did not join in that suit?
2) Can you offer an opinion on how the buyout the city agreed to with SunTrust Mortgage has had an impact on No-Mi?
Note: As part of the settlement between the city and SunTrust, the city bought a slew of properties from SunTrust's REO department that were previously owned by TJ Waconia for a mere 10 to 12% discount. The suit was dismissed soon after. TJ Waconia was not the focus of the suit soon after it was filed because, SunTrust Mortgage was not notified of the law suit prior to it being filed and announced. The significance of that was that SunTrust was actually the legal owners of most of the properties included in the suit as TJ Waconia had already lost them to foreclosure. SunTrust countered the law suit and the city ended up buying many of the houses from SunTrust because of it. It is undetermined how much money the city wasted by pursuing the civil suit and having to buy houses when a simple title search would have disclosed that SunTrust owned the houses and did not need to be put under city control as was reported.
Here is the link to the dismissed case. http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=1611672898 And here is the link to the related case that was also dismissed: http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=1611685450

It would be interesting to hear the housing director's take on this as he can see first hand at what impact the neighborhoods have had as a result of the city controlling so many houses (as a result of having to over pay for them, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more).
I hope Jeff will respond as this blog does not pick and choose which comments to allow. His comments are not only allowed but, welcomed.
______________________________

The Hawthorne Hawkman said... @ anon 1:34 - I read that post now, thanks. I will not respond on that particular site because it is entirely dedicated to smearing the name of a good friend and neighborhood advocate. The article posed two questions to me: why wasn't Hawthorne involved in the TJ Waconia suit, and then a second, very technical question.
Hawthorne was not involved in the TJ Waconia lawsuit because there were only a small handful of TJ Waconia properties in the Hawthorne neighborhood. That doesn't mean we weren't affected at all by Helgason's and Balko's fraud; only that the staff and volunteer resources that would have been used up if we'd been a plaintiff would not have brought the neighborhood a large enough return on that investment of time and energy. Plus, as demonstrated by the convictions, the city and the neighborhoods primarily affected clearly didn't need our help on this one.

As for the second question, since I was not involved directly, I will not venture into that territory. Mr. Watkins can ask any of the plaintiffs about that directly if he so chooses, or someone can post an answer here or on another blog.
January 25, 2010 8:57 AM
_______________________

(Anti-Johnny's follow up)
Jeff: First, let me thank you for answering (even though it was not directly on here.
Second, I would be thrilled to ask the 2nd question I posted directly to some of the Plaintiffs as you suggested (I have asked a handful already but, there has been no reply). Which site or forum would be the most appropriate place to ask the question? On a side note, I am wanting to know the answer to that question as it does go way beyond TJ Waconia and the mis-handling of that case. The fact that you did give a response to the question leads me to believe that you agree (at least somewhat) that the events that took place in that case, could very well have a significant effect with the neighborhoods and residents of No-Mi.

--Anti Johnny

John Hoff Makes City Council into a Game Show

It still amazes me how much messed up information is available online about John Hoff. Just last night I came across this article about John Hoff when he was a member of the Grand Forks City council (It was a short stint).

Here is what I found:

Grand Forks, N.D., City Council Members to Compete in California Game Show.

Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, ND)
July 27, 2000
 
Byline: Stephen J. Lee

ul. 27--John Hoff is going to Hollywood.


Friday, the new Grand Forks City Council member flies to LAX, expenses paid, to appear as a contestant on a new TV game show being taped for an autumn airing, Hoff told the Herald Wednesday in a news release.


Wednesday, Hoff dropped off at the Herald a rambling, five-page news release about it.


"Hollywood is a decadent place from the pit of hell. But it is full of money and possibility amid the nearly overwhelming evil, and it is my personal playground where I know people, or I get to know them, and I know how to hustle and make money."


He could win "up to $10,000," Hoff said in the news release.


Hoff is scheduled to be a contestant on a new syndicated game show airing on national television this fall, said Scott Smolev, the segment producer on "To Tell the Truth." That segment will be taped Saturday in the NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif.

I am going to guess here but, based on recent court records that show John has not paid his taxes or child support, I would say that Johnny Northside's game show career never took off. It wasn't long after this article was published that John Hoff was removed from the city council in a recall election. And yes, John fought that one every bit as hard as he did for the right to sit on Seattle sidewalks.
Don't take my word for it, though. Click the link below.
Grand Forkis City Council Member John Hoff

Johnny Northside Goes to Court for Child Support

Question: Should an individual who blogs in an attempt to clean up neighborhoods of crime, drugs, etc., be given a "pass" on having to pay property taxes and child support?

The more I look into John Hoff's past and present, I keep finding public and court records that say John Hoff is behind or does not pay as he is required.

On January 12, 2009, a hearing was held in a Dakota- West St. Paul court. John Hoff's ex-wife filed a "Notice of Hearing for Enforcement" on 8/7/09 and on Christmas eve, John filed an "Affidavit for Proceeding In Forma Pauperis." Johnny Northside rants about people living like "royalty" on his blog but, he fails to pay his child support, prompting his ex-wife to take him back to court. http://pa.courts.state.mn.us/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=760369299
For those who are not familiar with "In Forma Pauperis" this is the definition as published on dictionary/law.com:

"in forma pauperis
(in form-ah paw-purr-iss) adj. or adv. Latin for "in the form of a pauper," referring to a party to a lawsuit who gets filing fees waived by filing a declaration of lack of funds (has no money to pay). These declarations are most often found in divorces by young marrieds or poor defendants who have been sued."

This attitude by John makes me wonder if part of his revitalization plan includes funds collected for property taxes? Why think such a thing, you might ask? The following is a screen shot taken from the Hennepin county property website:

Note the text in red above.
I urge the Johnny Northside supporters to ask John about these two matters. Better yet, ask Don Samuels, Barb Johnson or even Mayor Rybak, if this type of behavior is acceptable by any citizen, regardless of whether they promote them on his blog.