''Invisible Man'' Fights For Rights
Fairhaven, Massachusetts (MMD Newswire) September 8, 2010 -- It almost seems like something out of a novel by Franz Kafka, who, in works such as The Castle, famously portrayed government bureaucracies as the stuff of which nightmares are made. For a 72-year-old Massachusetts veteran, however, the four-year-plus struggle to protect his own "castle" against a tangled and seemingly intractable local bureaucracy has been all too real. For more than three decades Robert Nightingale, Jr. has owned a beach house in the picturesque seaside community of Fairhaven, Massachusetts - but it has hardly been a haven for him, and the situation he is facing is, he contends, anything but fair.
Mr. Nightingale says he has been forcibly prevented from making necessary repairs that would bring the building up to code and make it safe to occupy. It began in 2006 when he dutifully applied for a permit to repair his building, which he had owned and on which he had paid taxes since 1977. Due to extended illness in the family, the property had not been used for many years and was badly in need of repair. So he began the long process of making essential repairs - and that's when the nightmare began. "Because my documents were stolen from three departments in town hall, and had been destroyed by the MassDEP (the Massachusetts Department for Environmental Protections), my proof rested on documents that were housed within the Registry of Deeds in Bristol County. When no government employee or agency would accept the validity of an attested, registered document, I was left with the choice of joining into a conspiracy that would cover up gross record violations, or standing by the law. I did what I thought was right, and depended upon the laws and my government officials to set things straight."
They have yet to do so, he says.
Mr. Nightingale began his battle locally and says he went through all of the proper channels, only to be stymied at every turn. He contacted the Registry of Deeds, the Fairhaven Selectboard, the Ethics Commission, various town officials, the Massachusetts Department for Environmental Protection, and more. Complete documentation of his ordeal, including copies of all of his communications, can be found on his web site, www.unfairhaven.com. (The actual chronology begins on this page: http://www.unfairhaven.com/content.htm.)
At one point, Mr. Nightingale says he was told at a local Board of Health meeting that he would "never, ever" get a permit to repair his property unless he complied with demands that he claims are patently unfair and unreasonable. "Since those in the current regime are all younger than I am, I don't have any illusions or hope unless government officials step up and do the right thing - not only for me; but for all of those who will encounter the same problems, if abuses of power and public records are not addressed," he says.
The net result of his plight is that he is being penalized for not making needed repairs to his property, while at the same time being systematically obstructed from making those repairs. (To invoke a work by yet another famous novelist, Joseph Heller, it seems like a classic Catch-22 situation.) Adding insult to injury, he notes, he still has had to pay property taxes and insurance, although he is prevented from enjoying his property. "I have all of the responsibilities and none of the privileges of a property owner. I've lost thousands of dollars in tax payments, insurance, and damages, and many years in use and enjoyment, while my building was left to deteriorate. It's just not right, and in a country supposedly founded on a system of property rights, it seems more than a little ironic."
Mr. Nightingale says the fact that various public records relevant to his case had apparently been stolen, hidden, or altered makes this a criminal as well as merely a civil matter. He stresses that it is also much more than a case of one man in a small Massachusetts town fighting for his property rights; it is relevant to the principles upon which this grand experiment in democracy we call the United States was founded. Accordingly, he has taken his complaint not only to local and state police departments, the appropriate Attorneys General, and the FBI, but also to his elected representatives and, finally, to one of the highest authorities in the land: the President of the United States. Earlier this year he sent a letter to President Barack Obama; a copy of that missive can also be found on Mr. Nightingale's web site.
Mr. Nightingale says, "I would not have lost the use of my property and my rights as an American citizen if attested, registered documents had been accepted and my questions had been answered. After four years of seeking help, supplying proof, and asking questions, I would like to ask each government official or agency that I have contacted, 'Why didn't you investigate? What are you hiding? What is so very important to cover up, that it is worth risking the accuracy of the records in the Registry of Deeds and the MassDEP? How safe and secure is the South Coast of Massachusetts if public records are not accurate? How safe is any American citizen when local public records are inaccurate or missing?"
He continues, "When government officials refuse to recognize and/or accept public records that we are required by law to register; the people are left defenseless to abuses of power and government corruption. When those who are sworn to protect will not do their jobs, investigate to find answers, or recognize the severity of the issue, I think we have a pretty big problem."
His experience has left Mr. Nightingale with some strong opinions about government employees and accountability. "Government employees need to be held responsible for their actions," he insists. As he notes on one of the Update pages on his web site (http://www.unfairhaven.com/update-10-09.htm):
There is something radically wrong with Alan N. Cote's [the Supervisor of Records of the State of Massachussetts] references to LaPointe v. License Bd. of Worster, 389 Mass. 454, 459 (1983) and Konover Mgt. Corp. v. Planning Bd. of Auburn, 32 Mass. App. Ct. 319, 326 (1992). The "presumption that all government employees perform their duties in an honest and impartial manner" and the "presumption that public officials will perform honestly and impartially" send a message that all of us who are not, in some way connected to the government are presumed to be dishonest.
He continues, "When a government employee is questioned about a complaint, and the complainant is not questioned or given an opportunity to offer proof or rebut false statements, innocent people become victims of those who abuse the power of their positions, and are left without any form of recourse or protection."
Mr. Nightingale also strongly feels that true violations, such as those that have been committed against him and his property, should be dealt with fairly. "Without the issuance of official, written orders and subsequent legal enforcement, the demands of government employees can be changed at will, allowing no recourse or defense," he says. "No person who has offered proof of records violations and abuses of the color of law, as I have, should be ignored or left without recourse or a solution." He also thinks that fines and punishments should be adjusted to more accurately reflect the severity of the violation. "The fines are so antiquated in Massachusetts that gross violations, such as those committed against me that put me into this horrendous situation, are punishable by a small fine and or little or no other punishments," he says. He was told by one official, whose name he will not mention, that those who have the power to prosecute and/or enforce the fines and punishments find them not cost effective, and not worth their time.
Complicating the matter, or arguably making it clearer for those searching for some of the reasons behind it all, is the fact that the rights of Mr. Nightingale's next-door neighbors appear to be taking precedence over his, according to him. Mr. Nightingale believes that the fact that these neighbors are relatives of one of the town employees may have something to do with the roadblocks he has encountered. That information is available on his web site as well.
Right about here it might be appropriate to quote some of those officials on the "other side" of this controversy; unfortunately, says Mr. Nightingale, very few of them responded to him in writing, and none have made any official statements about this case. So Mr. Nightingale satisfies himself with quoting FBI Director Robert S, Mueller III, who once said, "When just one of us loses just one of our rights, then the freedoms of all of us are diminished."
He also likes to quote Mahatma Gandhi, who said, "An error can never become true however many times you repeat it. The truth can never be wrong, even if no one hears it."
"The 'error,'" explains Mr. Nightingale, "is the indifference of so many agencies and officials. If we are not willing to speak out to protect our rights and freedoms, we don't deserve to have them."
Thus Robert Nightingale intends to continue his fight to tell the truth as he sees it, patiently documenting his struggle and periodically updating his web site so the nation (and the world) can follow along. While he hopes that eventually someone will step in to help, and perhaps provide a happy ending to his Kafka-esque saga, his larger hope is that he can make more Americans aware that some of the basic rights they take for granted can easily be compromised or eroded by deeply embedded bureaucracies and political game playing. "This may not be some sexy national political scandal or fodder for tabloid headlines," he says, "but it's important to me and to millions of other everyday men and women. This type of situation is extremely serious, and has the potential for negatively impacting the lives of everyone in the United States. Attempts have been made to intimidate me, but I'm not some meek senior citizen who's just going to roll over and play dead. I am not demanding preferential treatment. All I really want to do is to finally get the answers to my questions, get my records put back in place, and my rights and reputation - not to mention my building - restored."
Whether the case of the missing records is a result of mere bureaucratic bungling or a true criminal act, Mr. Nightingale intends to get to the bottom of the problem. He says, "Actions have been taken to protect government officials, and their jobs. Officials in Fairhaven were trained in records management, while my missing records were not addressed or corrected. I need to know what is being hidden that is so important to so few, that I can be left to live as an invisible, undocumented American for the rest of my life. The American public needs to be made aware of this lack of accountability that puts the rights of every American in jeopardy."
He has yet to hear back from the White House, but he remains hopeful.
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Contact/information:
Robert Nightingale, Jr.
Home address:114 North Street Mattapoisett, MA 02739
Telephone: 508-758-9793 (Please leave a message.)
E-mail:unfairhaven@aol.com
Website: www.unfairhaven.com
