Submitted by Charlton Stanley (aka Otteray Scribe), Guest Blogger
It has happened again. This time in Logan, West Virginia. Schoolteacher Nikki Bailey came home from visiting a sick friend in the hospital, only to find a work crew from CTM Industries removing the last few pieces of her belongings from her house. The workers told Ms. Bailey they had been sent by a bank to clean out her house for foreclosure.
There is one minor detail. Her house was paid off in full twenty-five years ago. She showed reporters around the house, and everything was gone to the bare walls. Her pictures, diplomas, awards, and all her belongings.
There is one additional important detail. Ms. Bailey lives on Godby Street in Logan, WV. The house in foreclosure is in Godby Heights. That is in Chapmanville, ten miles away.
Mrs. Bailey told a reporter from news station WSAZ, “Everything was gone. Living room furniture, my Marshall diploma, my high school diploma, my pictures, my history. I was teacher of the year. All of that stuff is gone. It’s all gone.”
Adding insult to injury, the workers from CTM Industries told her they had inspected her things and considered them junk; therefore, they took everything to the dump. They had a couple of items remaining on their truck that had not yet been taken to the landfill. The repo company employees returned those things to her house on her insistence. Photographs of her house show it has been stripped of everything but the carpet…and the few items she was able to prevent them from hauling off
Ms. Bailey has retained an attorney, but the identity of the bank in question remains unidentified. The repossession company is not talking about who their client is. When reporters contacted CTM Industries to get a statement, the person answering the phone hung up.
Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants indicated he was not going to pursue criminal charges. Prosecutor Plants opined, “It’s a lot like taking someone’s luggage at the airport. If I take a black bag, a black piece of luggage, get home and realize this is not my bag, that’s not a crime. That’s an accident,” He went on to say that no doubt somebody would have to make restitution, but no crime was committed.
Sorry Mr. Plants, taking someone’s life history from them and destroying it deliberately is not exactly like picking up the wrong suitcase at the airport. How do you make a victim whole when her diploma from Marshall University, her teacher of the year awards, her pictures and her memories are taken from her, pronounced as junk and hauled off to the landfill? A suitcase indeed, Mr. Mark Plants.
If there really is nothing they can be charged with, you could have talked all day Mr. Plants, and not say what you said to the reporter.
Television station WSAZ has the story with a video of their broadcast of the story.
This story is getting repetitious. A similar incident happened In Ohio. In that case, the bank is demanding sales receipts for all the property wrongly taken and sold at auction before they will consider making restitution. Several more incidents have been reported on this blog, here, here and here. That is just a sampling.
Please discuss. What do you think?
lets hope they have adequate insurance
“lack of intent to commit a crime.”
Tell that to the judge on a traffic citation for a mistake.
CTM can be sued in civil court and is responsible for the millions of dollars worth of memorabilia and antique furniture and a place to reside in the mean time. How to get big bucks for all that junk.
Dredd, I think that Plants’ position is that there was lack of intent to commit a crime.
Photos, home videos, are precious. When there’s a flood or hurricane approaching, that’s what people pack up first.
If a bank or corporation does it its a MISTAKE if a human did it you better believe it would be a crime. It is really time for these people to have PERSONAL RESPONSIBILTY for the “mistakes” they make. Start putting a few CEOs in prison and the culture of gross negligence would change.
The supreme court of W. Virgina went to great length to discuss that state’s burglary and criminal trespass law:
(State v Slater, 665 S.E.2d 674, 2008). So, if they “broke” anything (forced door open, broke window, etc.) to get in then the WV law for “daytime burglary” has been violated.
If they had a key, not breaking anything, criminal trespass would still be in play.
From Mark Plants’ Official Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s web site:
Oh really.
http://www.kanawha.us/prosecutor/
Here is the story as covered by the Daily Mail. Their story includes a number of photos of her home. Isn’t it interesting that we have to go to the UK to find this kind of photo coverage of a very visual story?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2404053/Repossession-company-wrong-house-entire-contents-Nikki-Baileys-home-dump.html
I agree with Gene, except would add criminal trespass to the list of charges. They do have a trespass law on the books in W. VA.
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/Code.cfm?chap=61&art=3B even though the first offense is a misdemeanor. The county prosecutor’s position shows how “The Law” works in most of this country. No prosecution , no outrage and even a justification/trivialization of this act. Had Plants had an ounce of intelligence, even if he is without conscience as I assume, he would have made a big deal of this and helped his political career. Then again I assume that corporate money is far more important to his political career that the good will of the voters.
Here is focus on West Virginia law:
(West Virginia State Code). I am next going to take a look at defenses to burglary and criminal trespass.
While the prosecutor’s remarks may be legally correct (although it does appear that the repo company intended to permanently deprive Ms. Bailey of her possessions) his callousness in the light of this catastrophe is jaw-dropping. And that he has not summoned the company in for a very serious talk about the identity of their client and the source of the address information is more jaw-dropping still. I guess we can see who it is he thinks his office serves, and it’s not the citizens of his district.
Wait until this happens in a castle doctrine state and the homeowner starts shooting. Then it’ll be national news and maybe somebody will finally realize that something needs to change.
My question is why she did not call the police and have the workers arrested on the spot. That would have forced the company and its workers to face criminal charges immediately. The nice thing about Texas law is that she could have legally shot and killed the crooks as they were driving off. That would sure put a crimp on repo companies and make them a lot more cautious. It is also my understanding that an officer from the Sheriff dept is supposed to be on site to keep the peace when such things are being done and to ensure that the paperwork is correct. There is a major screw up in that regards as well. So the DA and the Sheriff are at the very least crooked, and/or incompetent.
I would think that if I were a friend of this teacher, I would form a company to get a bid on doing this kind of work, and go to the DA’s home while he was at work, and strip his home of everything and take it to the dump. Then if he chooses to file criminal charges, I would rely on jury nullification of such charges. That is a good old Southern tradition too, especially back in the civil rights days when murder of blacks by a white was not considered a crime.
I thought taking luggage was a crime. Can I really pick up someone’s black bag and walk off with it? It’s only “not a crime” if they don’t catch me. Sure — they’re not likely to press charges if I still unknowingly have the thing, and its contents are intact. What if I dumped the contents in the garbage? Is it a crime then?
My best to this woman. I hope she can squeeze blood out of this company. It won’t bring back most of what she lost, though.
Prosecutor Mark Plants indicated he was not going to pursue criminal charges. This man is more clown than lawyer. He’s clueless to the point of absurd. If CTM and the bank responsible return ALL items as they were before they were landfilled then you have a shoddy suitcase comparison, but this Neanderthal company simply junked a person’s life history. I can only think that the prosecutor knows the banksters behind this mistake and has received substantial campaign offerings. Banksters and their minions are never punished to the extent demanded or deserved. Two-tiered justice where you can serve hard time for grabbing a pair of jeans from Walmart while banksters pillage the country without fear of punishment.
Theft. Plain and simple. Conversion at best.
I want to know why criminal charges are not pending.
They should be.
Without question.
A lot like losing someone’s luggage? I’m speechless.
Trespass used to be a crime:
(Caldarone Law Group).
Photo credit for the sign at the top of this page goes to a friend of mine who blogs under the username rb137 at Daily Kos. She took this photo while on vacation and emailed it to me. It has come in handy several times when posting stories like this.