LF: Homesteading Army Vet, Elderly Couple Face Eviction for Being Unable to Pay Predatory Code Enforcers

Title: Homesteading Army Vet, Elderly Couple Face Eviction for Being Unable to Pay Predatory Code Enforcers
Source: From The Trenches
URL Source: https://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/
Published: Aug 25, 2019
Author: Jack Burns
Post Date: 2019-08-25 19:32:20 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1026
Comments: 11

Joshua Killeen, a U.S. Army veteran, entrepreneur and homesteader, thought he’d done his research when searching for a state in which to build his homestead. The vision was to open a sustainable homestead to be used as a wellness retreat featuring classes on how to homestead and health and wellness clinics such as yoga, with his wife is an instructor. In 2016, he chose Arizona and settled in Yavapai County where he bought 10 acres. That’s when he says the nightmare began.

Less than two years after purchasing the property, a Yavapai County code enforcer named Jacob Lane blocked the entrance to Killeen’s farm. He told the budding homesteader he was guilty of breaking several building codes and if he didn’t come into compliance he’d have to pay a $7,500 fine.

Lane gave Killeen a hearing date to meet with the County. But after showing up to the hearing, Killeen said he was pressured into signing an affidavit saying he was guilty of violating multiple county codes or face the $7,500 initial fine as well as $500 per day per violation until the land was “returned to vacant land.”

To Killeen, the violations seemed much ado about nothing. There was a fence, a few outbuildings, and a tiny home in which he and his wife lived. We asked Killeen why he didn’t just go ahead and secure the building permits for the structures and he said the county simply wasn’t doing it’s job to ensure the permits were issued in a timely manner. So after waiting months on a septic tank permit, for example, the Army veteran had enough. He went ahead and used his land the way he wanted to—you know, like all Americans did before municipal codes were invented to control how people use their own land.

Killeen said not only was he taking it from Yavapai County officials but was giving it back as well. He threatened to turn in the county to the federal government for corruption because of the pace of their permitting was unacceptable in his mind. After threatening to get the feds involved, Yavapai County quickly gave him his septic permit.

Wanting to use his land the way he wanted to use it, Killeen said he preemptively started advertising his retreat on Facebook. The county, he said, had a fit over it and actually printed off pages from his Facebook account and brought them to the hearing. Killeen agreed to remove the advertisements but thought it odd the county would actually stalk his page to uncover dirt to be used in a “conditional use” permit hearing.

The army intelligence veteran soon realized he was not alone in being what seemed like a target for county officials to go after code violators. A retired couple in their 80’s is currently facing foreclosure after being fined $9,300 in code violations. Those violations now have gone to debt collectors. They say they don’t have the money to pay the fines and are being forced to sell their homestead over an incomplete home renovation (which originally had been permitted), and a few outbuildings on their land. The couple says the code enforcers violated the law by coming onto their property to take pictures.

Lind Storebo bought her property in 2016, and paid cash for it only to find out she too would be a target of intimidation and harassment by Yavapai County code enforcers. Like Killeen, Storebo was also asked to attend a hearing with the county. She said Yavapai County official David Williams was screaming at her, hurling profanity, spitting in her face as he did, and threatened to have her arrested if she didn’t sign the affidavit for allegedly violating county codes when she put a camper on her land. Storebo was afraid of going to jail, and instead of fighting, simply vacated the land by removing the buildings and the camper. She now has land she paid cash for and cannot use.

Killeen says the ordeals could all have been avoided had the county respected the landowners’ rights to do with their land as they wish. He says the fees for permitting and land studies are staggering. He’s already paid out $11,000 in permit fees to the county. Killeen and his wife are determined to see their dreams come true at any cost but can’t keep wondering why the county simply doesn’t give individuals who want to live a more traditional homesteading way of life a pass on frivolous fees.

It seems in the land of the free, even if you pay cash for your multi-acre homestead, want to install a clean septic system and live a sustainable life, you cannot. If you do you’ll be extorted by your local government for attempting to do so, threatened with going to jail, and harassed until you comply.

Below is a video Killeen made after interviewing Storebo about her ordeal. Please like, share, and comment below.

The feds should get involved. Send in the FBI with warrants and dare these turds to lie to them. Then throw the book at 'em.

What good are the Constitution's guarantees of liberty, property, due process if the feds sit back and allow some puny county government to shake down the citizenry like this?

I was totally serious. I do want to send in the FBI and prosecute those assholes for public malfeasance and dereliction of duty. There's no excuse for what they are doing as lawfully elected officials and there is no reason to shield them personally against lawsuits.

So if elected county officials publicly vote for constitutional county codes, they should be prosecuted by the FBI for public malfeasance and dereliction of duty should they ever attempt to enforce those codes?

I see no evidence that was not the case here. Have you seen any such evidence? If so, I ask that you please share it with me.

I checked extensively and I could find no record on any violations of Yavapai County – an area I dearly enjoy visiting and 4-wheeling in – codes by Joshua Killeen. The article indicates there should be and there probably is.

Apparently this isn't the first time David Wlliams has harrassed one of the locals.

In this video I present the facts about the attack against Adam Kokesh. Adam bought some land in Arizona, it is located within the imaginary boundaries called Yavapai County. These lines are no different than the parish boundaries for a the Catholic Church; just because you are physically within those boundaries, doesn't mean you re within the church.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLBudksQUSI

David Williams, an employee of the county government, did not like that Adam started building and doing improvements on land Adam owned outright. I spoke with Williams on the phone and he was unable to provide any evidence his claim against Adam is true. He believes the constitution and code apply to Adam because he's physically in Arizona, but he admittedly cannot prove it.

Rather than leave Adam alone until he had evidence of jurisdiction, Williams chose to escalate the matter. While he is telling people Adam chose the hearing, he neglects to mention he only offered Adam a false choice, either an admin hearing or a criminal prosecution. Despite a third option, acting in good faith and consistent with due process by dropping his attack until he had evidence of jurisdiction, Williams went with escalation.

I contacted the County Board of Supervisors in an effort to stop escalation, I spoke to Jack Smith, the chairman. Smith was admittedly not able to prove the constitution and code applied to Adam and agreed to speak with Williams and ask that the matter not be escalated until evidence of jurisdiction was presented. Smith did not keep his word, instead kicking the can to Craig Brown, district four supervisor.

Despite many messages by phone and email about the situation, Brown never responded. No one on the Board of Supervisors could present any facts proving the constitution and code apply to Adam just because he's physically in Arizona. Neither could one of their attorneys, Jack Fields.

Despite the lack of evidence, Williams was permitted to escalate the matter and Adam has been summoned to an administrative hearing in Prescott, Arizona on 9 August 2016. I will be assisting.

One thing is certain about the hearing, Williams and his accomplices will still not be able to prove the constitution and code apply to Adam just because he is physically in Arizona.

Well then the county can do whatever they want with Adam -- including incarceration or even the death penalty -- since Adam insists constitutional protections don't apply to him.

Well, Adam is a little sketchy at times. This does sound like a sovereign citizen defense. I've started to think that is Kokesh's likely path in the future from some of his past events like dancing at the Jefferson monument or brandishing a loaded shotgun in D.C.

I'm just saying that Kokesh has a bit of history revolving around constitutional issues.

Doing my own brief search, I'm not finding much on this story outside the constellation of Free Thought Project websites and affiliates. Very little info turns up on the names of those claimed to be involved. That doesn't prove it didn't happen but normally you do expect there to be some supporting info, official complaints filed, a statement from a state or federal source that someone had made an official complaint against county officials. There are reporting laws in most states.

We'll see if there is more info or an investigation. Maybe this is just some clickbait generation by a couple of people who are only making accusations without any proof. The internet creates such stories regularly.

Deckard –

This article you posted is titled: Homesteading Army Vet, Elderly Couple Face Eviction for Being Unable to Pay Predatory Code and it was published on August 25, 2019. [Keep that date in mind].

I call to your attention this NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING & AGENDA held by YAVAPAI COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 9:00 A.M. in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona. [This precedes the information in your article by over four months].

During the meeting on that date and at that time [Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - 9:00 A.M.] the Board of Supervisors approved a Use Permit to allow Joshua and Emily Killeen to operate …

… a retreat center to host small wellness retreats, workshops, community building events, and intimate weddings on a total of approximately 20-acres in a RCU-2A (Residential; Rural; 2-acre minimum lot size) zoning district; with the recommended stipulations. APN: 302- 07-174A and 302-07-174C; H19006; Joshua and Emily Killeen. The subject property is located on the west side of Wayne Road at the end of Java Drive in the Juniper Ranch Area, south of the Community of Ash Fork. S33 T21N R02W G&SRB&M. (District 4 - Supervisor Brown).

Joshua and Emily Kileen were never HOMESTEADING. They were setting up a business venture – which is “a retreat center to host small wellness retreats, workshops, community building events, and intimate weddings.”

The Spirit Harvest Wellness Retreat is a branch of their business operation and it is in full operation in Sedona, Arizona with Emily Killeen hosting a Women's Transformational Retreat there from October 12th through October 16th.

I have made a check of the Yavapai County records and The Daily Courie [The Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona newspaper] and I can find nothing that reflects in any manner whatsoever the dire problems the article states faced Joshua and Emily Killeen. If any information is there – or available elsewhere - that you can find, I urgently request that you immediately post it on this thread in order in order to validate the charges – along with the alleged trials and tribulations caused to Joshua Killeen – made in this article.

I respectfully await your informative reply.

In the absence of any validation from you – or anyone else – I will be compelled to say about your posted article …

In WA state now, you have to file an environmental impact statement and of course the study of the effects for a water well on your own land.

This is a control mechanism of course, to keep people within municipal boundaries. The government doesn't make enough money from usage of water without metering and the ability to charge per gallon.

I don't know enough about the UN 2030 mandates, but I suspect the absolute need to control living space, and the human beings need for a place to call it their own, drives this.

THIS IS A TAG LINE...Exercising rights is only radical to two people, Tyrants and Slaves. Which are YOU? Our ignorance has driven us into slavery and we do not recognize it.