Well...it certainly has been one hell of a year for us. I wanted to take a minute and explain my long absence to all of you and work towards answering so many unread private messages.

My fiancée and I were living in Visalia California in a rented home since November 2004. Shortly after we moved in, we began having problems with our landlord, the president of the College of Sequoias Teacher's Association, also located in Visalia.

At first, her actions were simply annoying, but as time progressed, they became more and more blatantly discriminatory in nature. Since my fiancée' (Tameka) is of African-American decent, this was especially troubling for her.

Neighbors would come to us and reveal that the landlord had entered our home while we were away. Often, we would return home to find things moved around on the kitchen counter and other evidence of unannounced visits. We began writing to the landlord and advising her she was in violation of the California Civil Code and requested she stopped immediately.

This would only make matters worse.

Before we go any further, keep in mind I am a 10-year veteran police officer, 4 times decorated for lifesaving, served as acting Lieutenant, Chief of Police and currently serve in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Counter-Terrorism Specialist.

On the other hand, Tameka is a full time medical student and Explosive Ordnance Technician in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

This doesn't make us who we are, but it is simply an example of the kind of people and neighbors we are. We were well liked by neighbors and everyone told me they appreciated a patrol car parked on the block. We liked the location...close to the college where my 19 year old son would attend computer networking training in December 2005 and close to the Hospital where Tameka serves as an intern. Many plans would be shattered by the landlord.

We made a number of improvements to the yard and landscaped the area at our own expense, but the landlord complained continually that "We were using too much water." In fact, the City of Visalia is on a flat-rate for water usage and no meters exist. This fact was documented in court.

The heater was inoperable for several months, but we were not that concerned because it was spring/summertime, so we notified the landlord and gave her plenty of time to repair it. She never took any action to correct this matter.

On July 8 2004, our A/C quit working on a +100° day and we called the landlord to ask about repairs. She told us to call her contractor American Air of Visalia to correct the problem. They told us it would be several days before they could come out.

In desperation and with Tameka's asthma becoming critical, we called a local company to come out and examine the unit. They came right away and charged us only $75.00 to declare the unit beyond repair. On the 11th, American Air came out on behalf of the landlord and patched the A/C unit, but left the heater inoperable.

The A/C would run for a few minutes, and then stop blowing air. It would have to be shut off and restarted continually. American Air felt this was acceptable, so we called the previous contractor out for a second inspection. He found exposed wiring, burnt connections and a generally unsafe air conditioning unit, proof of which he provided us in writing.

We confronted the landlord in writing and deducted the $75.00 service fee from our $950.00 monthly rent amount on August 8th 2005. The next day, she served us with an eviction notice.

From August 8 until the matter went to court on October 13 2005, we have been locked into a very costly legal battle. Since she is a prolific member of the College of Sequoias Faculty, several Visalia attorneys’ we consulted told us, "We do not feel it would be in the best interests of our firm to take your case." Others claimed to have a political/financial interest in the college and declined. One attorney told me, "You will never win this case, so why don't you just cut your losses and leave?"

We were fortunate that the discriminatory actions of the landlord were brought to the attention of the NAACP. They provided us with a legal representative who guided us through the legal process of fighting the eviction.

At the date of trial, our attorney looked over all of our documents, letters to the landlord, letters from witnesses describing dates and times of unauthorized entry to the premisies, cancelled checks, bills, photos and statements from the air conditioning contractors. Everything looked good and we went to trial confident that the case would be tried fairly.

After about 45 minutes of testimony from both parties, the judge decided to take the case into consideration and render a decision in the next few weeks. We had been diligently paying the rental amounts into an escrow and all evidence was presented in our case. Even the landlord's acceptance of utility payments was brought out in court and immediately nullifies the eviction process under California law. However, there was to be no justice in this case.

On the witness stand, she admitted trying to influence us to move and when asked what her grounds were for the eviction she replied, "I just want my property back."

When the attorney showed the judge the photos of the exposed and heat damaged wiring in the A/C unit he said, "I'm not interested in any of that."

Following the October 13 2005 trial, we went back about our daily lives and waited for the verdict.

On November 9 2005, my 40th birthday, an employee of Southern California Edison arrived at our home to shut off the electricity, which has always been in the landlords name and we paid it as part of our rental agreement. When we explained the situation to him, he said, "No way am I going to turn off the power...man...that's bull****." He provided us with the disconnect order bearing the landlords name.

Since the landlord had been refusing to accept our payments, we kept putting the money into the escrow account as prescribed by law. Proof of this account was on file with the court. The battle would prove to be very costly indeed. Every time we filed a legal brief in Tulare County Superior Court it cost us a $289.00 filing fee. I lost countless hours of work preparing documents, interviewing neighbors and going to the court house.

On November 22 2005, we were notified that the judge ruled against us, but no official opinion was listed. We were ordered to pay about $2,000 in rent and the landlord's filing fees and ordered to move out no later than November 27 at 6:01 am.

I am not at liberty to fully disclose some of the associated factors in this case, but there are some rather unusual circumstances at work in this matter.

Later on the afternoon of November 22nd, an employee from SCE came out and said, "I have to turn off your power because your landlord is giving my supervisor trouble. I am so sorry."

We spent Thanksgiving night sleeping on the floor, with no heat or lighting.

The local police department (I work in another county) said there was nothing we could do about it since shutting off utilities is a violation of the California Civil Code and not technically a 'crime' under California law. Instead, it is a 'tort' which carries with it only a fine of $100.00 per day for each day the power is turned off. Even unauthorized entry into your home while you are away is not a crime, but a 'tort' punishable by a fine and you must sue in civil court, bearing 100% of the cost yourself, in order to have any hope of justice.

We would discover the legal process is genuinely biased towards the property owner, even in the face of wrongdoing.

Since we had lawful possession of the property until November 27 by lawful decree, the landlord's actions were in fact unlawful. This fact was confirmed by the attorney in our defense. However, we were denied an appeal in the matter because nothing that took place after the initial hearing could be admitted. It would require us to file a civil lawsuit. Since we didn't have any more money to launch a lawsuit, we had to abandon the case and try to survive.

We managed to move out by 2:30 am on the morning of November 27 2005, but Tameka was forced to give up her dog and 2 cats. We were virtually without a place to stay on such short notice and as a result of impending eviction proceedings; we could find no one to rent to us. I spent $300.00 on rental trucks and $250.00 a month on a storage.

We cleaned the house to perfection before leaving. Our next door neighbor took a battery of photos of the interior and exterior of the home to prevent the landlord from damaging her property and seeking compensation from us.

Fortunately, some mutual friends at the local Naval Base took us in for a few weeks and we were able to put up a camp trailer in the RV park there until we can recover financially and put a down payment on a home.

On top of all this, my Naval Reserve Unit was notified of an impending deployment to the Middle East in the near future.

The good news is, the Department of Fair Housing has filed suit against the landlord for her discriminatory actions, but the legal battle could take several years to resolve. In the meantime, I am trying to get our life back together again.

To those of you who may have wondered where I have been hiding, you now know the whole story. I will try to catch up on all the private messages and I also owe at least one member payment for a part that got lost in this shuffle.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent about this matter.

Hope everything is going well with all of you...Bert