Just got another call from Werner. He was taken out of the holding area yesterday (Sat.) at 11 AM and placed into Pod A-1 in the Monmouth County Correctional Institute, Freehold, where he is confined 22 hours a day in a 2-man cell with three people in it. He gets two hours out of the cell, one at a time, but the hours are chosen randomly. One cell-mate must sleep on the concrete floor. Werner alernates between the floor and sleeping with a toilet in his face. Werner slept on a concrete floor in the holding area, prior to being processed, which included an injection for tuberculosis. There was no choice - the nurse said, "you have to take it," says Werner. She was reluctant to tell him what it was for. The move to the Pod means Werner has to wait, possibly a week, for his own PIN number to make the only calls he's allowed to make - collect. For now he must borrow another inmate's PIN to call out. And the calls cannot be made to cell phones. Werner says he obtained the refinancing necessary to comply with the repairs the city wants him to make on his house. He showed this documentation to municipal court Judge Apostolou along with the contract with 3C&G, a Middletown contractor, for the first phase of the repairs. He planned to select other contractors for subsequent work as things progressed. Ironically, the first payment on the refi was due yesterday. If he can't get payments made during his 45-day incarceration he may go into default on the loan. Why is Judge Apostolou being so severe? Residents of A.P. know a few property owners that have owed far more in code violation fines. A lawyer who works regularly in Asbury Park municipal court tells me he's frequently frustrated at how Apostolou "lets junkies out of jail all the time. And, this is over a porch!" But, this same lawyer says that the court saw that Werner had yet to start the work, which it saw as "inexcusable". Werner explains that it took a long time to secure financing because he has no income other than his rents and a $35,000 lien, he knew nothing about, surfaced in the process. The court wanted him to pay the lien and contest it later. But Werner didn't have the money to pay it and held that it was illegitimate Was Werner singled out last Friday? Hardly, a source close to the court says the judge sent lots and lots of people to jail Friday. Was he having a bad day? If the jail is overcrowded it may work to Werner's advantage. When he does get out, Werner better check out that 911 call that started all of this. Certainly his reputation was damaged by the false accusation that a body was in his basement. There should've been an official apology, since the department should've listened to the tape -- and when it did listen after the home was inspected, it should've taken a very public step in undoing the damage to Werner's privacy and reputation. What excuse can there be for not doing that? For now Werner must beg for a pencil, since inmates aren't allowed to have money on them; yet they must buy everything, including something as minor as a pencil. Nagging questions remain. The judge only had before him the fines and the prolonged timeframe with which to pass judgment. However the officials who have made a cottage industry out of pursuing Werner - one property owner in a city of blighted properties - know if their motives are objective -- or not. Is the law being applied equally here? Everyone in this city - regardless of how they feel about Werner Baumgartner, must ask their officials: was the incarceration of Werner Baumgartner an equal carriage of justice? Or an attempt to silence any public critiques of the city and its developers? Maureen
Maureen Nevin Asbury Radio -"The Radio Voice of Asbury Park" -Silenced by the FCC, but why?? 88.1FM - "6" Years on the Air!! Would've been 7 this July... Asbury's Own Live Talk Show_http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/post?postID=rHJIZqKLU40eDTc2KMHNHZwPoANfvykUf-QXIwGa01YupXx_FSgz9T8CYowEoqrp7AvGNPp3ZyP 4oWOTuAg_ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/post?postID=rHJIZqKLU40eDTc2KMHNHZwPoANfvykUf-QXIwGa01YupXx_FSgz9T8CYowEoqrp7AvGNPp3ZyP4oWOTuAg) 601 Bangs Avenue - Forced from here by FCC... Listen 8 - 10 PM Thursdays on 88.1FM or Ooops, see below... Listen Live or Later on the Web _http://www.asburyradio.com/_ (http://www.asburyradio.com/) Call the show 732-775-0821 oops, not since the FCC visited this litte 100watt station - four times!! Call me 732-774-0779 fax 502-0463 Still can call this number... Speak up - It's America!! ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
