Doug Damon for congress?? God help Maine…

“Being Bangor and all, the GOP should just elect someone who’s already in jail, and save the taxpayers some money….”

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EDIT: You may be happy to hear that Damon lost the election with about 42% of the vote. Apparently 58% of the folks in Bangor value integrity more than money and power.

At an “ethics” Hearing, this man stood beside me and  lied under oath for 45 minutes. When I pointed this out to the “authorities” present, he accused me of “Defamation” for calling him a liar.  I jokingly told some friends that he must be practicing for politics.  So it wasnt’ a joke after all. 

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It looks as though Bangor Maine’s Judson M Grant (aka Bubba the Hutt) has done gone and bought hisself a polly-TISH-un.  Realty of Maine’s Doug Damon, the REALTOR who so glibly relieved me of my home , is the GOP’s candidate for House of Representatives in Maine’s District 16, of which we can assume that Bangor is a part.

(Why am I not surprised?)

Check this out:

http://www.gopbangor.com/ :

“Bangor City Republican Committee is proud to announce that Tom Sawyer will be running for State Senator in District 32; Doug Damon will be running for House of Representatives in District 16; and John Cashwell will be running for House of Representatives in District 17.

Deadline for signatures to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office is March 17th.

Anyone wishing to consider running should contact the Secretary of State’s office in Augusta or call Cary Weston in Bangor at 945-9999 for information on papers and procedure.”

I left a comment on that blog, with the secure knowledge that it would be deleted, and it was.

After over a month. 

So for one month, everyone who read about Damon’s candidacy was immediately referred directly to this blog. If I had not not written to a right wing newspaper about it, it would still be there now.

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The rest of this post is a bit esoteric, but read on if you like.]

Boss Hawg lives… Life in Bangor, Maine

America’s dumbest criminals are alive and well in Bangor, Maine/
In 2005 I moved to Bangor Maine from near Boston and bought a mobile home in Birch Hill Estates, a park owned by the much-maligned Judson (Bud) Grant. Local folks have likened Grant to this guy:

Jabba the Hutt .  (I’ve affectionately re-dubbed him “Bubba the Hutt” – just to keep George Lucas off my back.  According to Bubba’s lieutenants, he is currently still in competition with Stephen King for the title of Maine’s biggest single taxpayer. “Realty of Maine” was selling Grant’s high-priced sub/sub divisions at Judson Heights.

When filling out the P & S agreement, my supposed “Buyer’s agent”, Doug Damon of “Realty of Maine” asked me if I wanted a mold inspection, and I replied with an emphatic “Yes”.

But he paused for 3 seconds and pursed his lips, before checking the “Mold inspection” box, and moving on to the next category.

[He apparently thought about obeying the law, but decided against it.]

Not only did he break the law by not disclosing that a mold inspection requires certification, but he then immediately (and illegally) recommended his friend Donald Corkran, a completely unqualified and uncertified “inspector” who, conveniently for Damon, did not inspect at all. The home when I bought it was virtually unsellable.

At the time, I didn’t know it was illegal for him to recommend an inspector. But he did.

In my past experiences with small towns where everyone knows everyone else, people are afraid to act with such brazen dishonesty. I thought he would never dare. I was wrong. ______________________________________________________

I had Googled Doug Damon, who turned out to be a colonel in the Air National Guard, the coach of the John Bapst High School hockey team, and the president of the Bangor Kiwanis Club. (Ostensibly the guardian of the “Golden Rule” in business transactions.)

But there was no golden rule involved in my deal.

After buying the home and putting many thousands more into trying to make it livable, I sold it for about 1/4 of what I spent.

Thanks to to Bubba the Hutt, Realty of Maine and their extended network of Good Ole Boys, every effort at finding legal help had been thwarted… due to a seemingly universal “Conflict of Interest”.

And locals in the know repeatedly told me:

“Give it up”.

Not only did Bubba own the trailer park and the glibly mendacious agent who sold me the home, but he by all accounts owns city hall as well.

Maine – a Crooked REALTOR®‘S Paradise

When hearing what my agent did, realtors from away, and a few from Maine all told me:

“He can lose his license for that!”.

I was encouraged.

Even Governor John Baldacci assumed that Doug Damon could lose his license.

The Baldaccis immediately forwarded my letters to the Maine Real Estate Commission.

But alas, not only do criminals in Maine enjoy the lowest crime enforcement rate in the nation, but in Maine, it seems that mobile homes in parks are not considered “real estate”. So the Maine Real Estate Commission has no jurisdiction.

The licenses of any criminal professionals involved in mobile home sale fraud are in no jeopardy whatsoever.

(HOWEVER, REALTOR®s may still put their signs on the lawn, and use all the legal real estate forms – conning you into assuming that it is a legal transaction. The town sends you a legal real estate tax bill on a legal real estate tax form which you are legally obligated to pay.

And so in Maine, unless a fraud victim is prepared to spend as much on a lawsuit as what their mobile home is worth, they are simply SOL.

But it gets more interesting….

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Enter the Board of… Bimbo’s

I took my complaint to the Bangor Board of REALTORS®, of the Maine Association of REALTORS®, of the National Association of REALTORS, with a very valid ethics complaint.

See Article 11:

http://www.helleniccomserve.com/realestate.html

They blew me off for 5 months, but after I blogged it and after several emails from me, they finally decided to get back to me.

It’s interesting to note that every correspondence from them was stamped with the ominous and officious-sounding warning:

“CONFIDENTIAL”

…undoubtedly an attempt to intimidate me into silence, since they had absolutely no legal authority to place any such gag order on me. This irony applies to something that happened later on.

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Long story short—at the hearing, Doug Damon made a lot of completely untrue statements. When I pointed them out, he accused me of defamation for calling him a liar. (Really)

And of course the women on the board blew me off (again) and cleared Damon of all charges.

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…But not before the women on the Board had illegally (and immorally) forwarded every one of my professional and personal emails to them, to accused REALTORS® Doug Damon and David Sleeper.

(I’ll wait while you gag…)

Apparently in Bangor, Maine, privileged information deemed “CONFIDENTIAL” by quasi-literate phony power figures does not apply to Good Ole Home Town Boys and Girls, but only to their hapless victims.

While I sat dutifully silent and “Confidential” — for 5 (more) months, trusting in their phony “REALTORS®’ Code of Ethics”, they were brazenly broadcasting my personal correspondence to several of the most distasteful and sleazy characters I have ever had the misfortune to meet.

I actually deferred to this “ethics” Board, since I thought they were honest professionals.

Silly me. 

But the plot thickens…read on… ________________________________________America’s Dumbest (alleged) criminals You would think that with accomplices like these 6 greedy gum snappers, the accused REALTORS® would have it ‘made in the shade’.

But, alas for computer illiterate Damon and Sleeper, the recipients of this altruism, they did not understand the concept of a forwarded email. Seeing my name on the headers, they thought the emails were coming directly from me.

They subsequently hired a barely literate lawyer (apparently also technologically challenged) who threatened to sue me for “Harassment”.

The lawyer misquoted a law which did not even remotely apply to the matter at hand.

(And, oh yes –he spelled my simple name very wrong.)

I admit I was confused as to how 3 emails and 2 registered letters in over a year could be considered “harassment”.

It was at the phony “Ethics” hearing that I learned what had happened….when the accused REALTORS® complained about a “Litany” of emails from me, and then accused me of making esoteric statements that I had only disclosed in those private (”CONFIDENTIAL”) emails to the women on the N.A.R’s phony “Ethics” committee.

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So that’s about it, although some even more outrageous events have ensued as a result of all this.

It’s pretty easy to see that the bad guys of Hazzard had absolutely nothing on the good ole boys and girls of Bangor, Maine.

Maine – the Way Life Should Be…but for WHOM??

CROOKED CONTRACTORS LOVE MAINE…. CROOKED REALTORS® LOVE IT EVEN MORE

There is need for some very BIG CHANGES in some of Maine’s archaic and unfair laws:

Peter Degennaro’s recent scams just illuminated yet another outdated legislation that is still on the books in Maine. It’s increasingly well publicized that contractors in Maine needn’t be licensed, and the word is apparently getting out to questionable characters from far and away.

In Maine, any incompetent or dishonest handy man looking for an upgraded resumé can decide to call himself a “General Contractor”. This has resulted in some painful lessons to citizens who have been victimized.

Nearly everyone knows someone who has been taken by a phony “Contractor”. Some people I know were burned, and as it turns out, that same “contractor” has left a trail of unhappy former clients up and down the mid coast.

(Nobody bothered to leave an online review–which in my opinion is every citizen’s moral obligation.)

What does Augusta do about this epidemic of criminal activity?

Alas, nothing.

The laws favor the crooked “Contractors”. Without any licensing requirements, there’s really no practical way to keep tabs on these wandering wannabes.

CROOKED REALTORS® REALLY LOVE MAINE

And even worse, some of Maine’s flagrantly crook-friendly real estate laws make Maine a virtual paradise for thieves.

For instance, a real estate “professional” may put his licensed REALTOR® sign on the lawn of a mobile home in a park. He may lead a buyer into his real estate office and fill out all the stock legal real estate “Purchase and Sale” agreements and other legal real estate forms.

The owner of a mobile in a park in Maine will soon get a legal real estate tax bill on a legal real estate tax form, and he is expected to pay this tax bill.

All of this naturally leads a buyer into assuming he is dealing with legal “real estate”. When honest realtors heard about the scam that a Bangor, Maine REALTOR® pulled on me, they all proclaimed:

“He can lose his license for that!”

(Even Governor John Baldacci and Real Estate Broker/DECD Director Jack Cashman believed this. Governor Baldacci immediately forwarded my complaint letters about Doug Damon to Anne L Head of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation .)

Bu, alas, In Maine, Mobile homes in parks are not considered “real estate”

….even though any REALTOR® can intentionally and legally mislead a buyer into assuming that it is real estate, and that the agent will be bound by the laws governing his licensure.

He’s not. Here’s what Anne L. Head says:

“Realty of Maine” or “Realty Executives” ?

Just a quick post under the category of hindsight’s being 20/20.

Before being so badly conned by my supposed “Buyer’s” real estate agent Doug Damon of Realty of Maine (David Sleeper, CEO) and his phony (non) inspector, Donald Corkran of Corinna, Maine, I of course Googled them both, and found no complaints.

However, I did notice that Sleeper had only recently changed the brokerage name to Realty of Maine from the franchise “Realty Executives”.

And I did notice that even now, Sleeper is sharing both his email address and his “Realty of Maine” physical address with “Realty Executives”. [EDIT: Looks like he finally got wise to that.]

And Google “Realty Executives” “Maine” and look at the first hit – top of page:

http://www.realtyofmaine.com/

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Foolishly, I did not check up on “Realty Executives”. It appears to have some pretty bad press.

They seem to attract a certain “element”. I found these 8 9 10 9 11(and counting) complaints (one was resolved) in less than 5 minutes:

RIPOFF REPORT (Very slow link)

Another Mold complaint

There seems to be much more, but why bother now. Only about 5% of people who are scammed ever speak up online.

Funny. One of the Ripoff Report’s complaints was about the arrogance of the crooked real estate agent, and how he bragged that he was sure as hell not afraid of any old state regulators.

(”Mwahh-ha-ha-hahh”. It MUST be Maine… )

Sounds familiar, but this time, it’s not Maine, although “Arrogance” is the word.

It immediately made me think of this article that David Sleeper wrote in a real estate publication, back when he was still “Realty Executives” . He bragged that he didn’t like a state law that cost him money, so he a called in a favor with a “Friend” in Augusta, and got the law changed.

Here’s the Article

I really was remiss. I should have checked out Sleeper’s past associations, and wondered why the sudden change.

Doug Damon & Bangor Board of REALTORS® Caught Red-Handed

 

MAINE ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® PLAYS DEAD

The increasingly maligned National Association of REALTORS® is under fire again…not surprisingly, this time in the city of Bangor, Maine.

Bangor Board of REALTORS® gets Caught in the Act.

I had a serious “ethics” complaint against a Bangor, Maine REALTOR® …(my “Buyer’s agent” …who was also the president of the Bangor Kiwanis Club, asked if I wanted a mold inspection; I emphatically said “Yes”. He then illegally recommended his own unquailifed and uncertified associate to it. My home was contaminated with mold when I bought it.)

The Maine Real Estate Commission claimed that the transaction was outside their jurisdiction.

So I took my complaint to the Bangor Board of REALTORS®, who held an “Ethics” hearing. The so-called “ethics” committee was headed by Carolyn Fish of ReMax Advantage. I could have challenged the panel on the “Ethics” Committee, but I am new here, so I played along, and I got badly burned.

They ignored my charges, and attempted to place an illegal gag order on me.

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The hearing was held in the downtown Bangor, Maine Saving’s Bank While there, we were both sworn to tell the truth. The agent then proceeded to change the chronology, change the subject, go off on tangents, and tell several bald faced lies. When I pointed out these lies, he accused me of defamation for calling him a liar.

(I suppose I should have just called him “Truth Challenged”…)

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I made special reference to article 11 of the National Association of REALTOR® Code of Ethics, clearly violated when the agent recommended his own agency’s unqualified inspector to do my mold inspection.

Article 11:

“REALTORS® shall not undertake to provide specialized professional services concerning a type of property or service that is outside their field of competence unless they engage the assistance of one who is competent on such types of property or service, or unless the facts are fully disclosed to the client. Any persons engaged to provide such assistance shall be so identified to the client and their contribution to the assignment should be set forth. (Amended 1/95) “

In the Bangor, ME Board’s decision, there was not even the slightest mention of or reference to these very valid points, even though it was the only point I specifically brought up at the hearing.

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But it gets more interesting. I had previously written several (potentially embarassing) personal and professional emails to a female REALTORs® involved in my case. At the hearing, the agent mentioned a statement that I had only confided in a private email. I later discovered that these Bangor, Maine lady ‘Realtors’ had forwarded all of this personal “Girl talk” to the accused male realtors involved.

This is not only a forfeiture of legitimacy, but also of human decency. (I of course never received any forwarded mail from the real estate company.) We taped this kangaroo court. I would be very surprised if their tape did not meet with an accident.

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But it gets even more absurd. Please recall the afore-mentioned lawyer’s letter, threatening to sue me for “harassment”.

http://advocatesresponse.blogspot.com/

At the hearing, the CEO complained of a “Litany” of emails from me. (3 emails in 10 months is hardly a “Litany”…) As it turns out, these emails were not directly from me, but they were – yes, you guessed it – the very same personal emails that had been illegally forwarded to the accused realtors by the Bangor Board of REALTORS®’ astoundingly unethical “Ethics” committee.

Apparently, the ‘ladies’ of the Board were clicking “Forward” to the accused agent and his CEO with no explanation. The CEO did not understand the headers, and thought the emails were coming directly from me. So he had his lawyer threaten me for the emails that were sent to him by his own accomplices.

So, in threatening to sue me, these Bangor, Maine town bullies were only bullying their own.

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When Flatlander and mother of twin babies Karen Wood was shot twice and killed while hanging out laundry in her own back yard, the Bangor jury nullified the law and aquitted the hunter who shot her. Locals of course blamed and villified the victim, who was not wearing orange.

The jury’s verdict was announced over the loudspeaker at a high school football game, where the crowd cheered loudly.

Eventually her widower of course had to explain what happened to the orphaned twins.

“I’m not sure they really have all the details,” Kevin Wood said. “I think that at one point they were of the belief that — as young people would expect when someone does something bad — that the bad person gets punished and that’s the way it is.

At some point, he says, he told Lindsey and Laura that wasn’t the case.“

 

Wood has lived in several states during his life, including Virginia, Arizona, New York, Iowa and Maine. He said the reaction of some Mainers after his wife’s death stunned him and made him feel uncomfortable.

“Based on [my] life’s experiences, that provincial attitude of protecting their own and victimizing the outsiders, I don’t think I’ve ever seen in any other place I’ve lived,” he said. “Or certainly not experienced it to that degree.”

Wood said that because he and Karen were not Mainers, he thinks Mainers viewed the situation differently from how they might have had both grown up in Hermon rather than relocated there.

And if they’d been Mainers, and the shooting had taken place?

“My honest opinion? I think it would have made a difference. I think it would have made a difference.”

 

ANd Kevin Woods is right.

As a matter of fact, committing crimes with full impunity is still what, to me, Bangor, Maine is all about, and it probably will be for some time to come.  These good and true loyalpeople stand up for each other.

No matter what.

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If people want to reap the benefits of civilized adult professionals, they should learn to behave like civilized adults. But this probably will not be the norm in Bangor, Maine for some time yet. The  Bangor Board of REALTORS® ‘ behavior was that of a cheap gang of high school goons and hoodlums.

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It has now been over a year since both the National Association of REALTORS® and the Maine Association of REALTORS® learned of this travesty. Yet still they remain silent, and these patently tacky members of the N.A.R.’s Bangor Board of REALTORS® remain in place.

Contact: Scammedinmaine@hotmail.com

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Anyone else who is outraged by this behavior can contact the New England N.A.R.representatives here:

jfreeman@realtors.org

jsaunders@realtors.org

(These are now the correct email addresses – thanks)_______________________________

PLEASE SEE THESE LINKS AS WELL:

http://non-inspection.blogspot.com/

CLICK these PHOTOS:

http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l129/Outsider_album/

(MAINE STATE COMMISSION) More links: