7/6/08

To:  Peace Community

Re:  Please help Lafayette Crosses sponsor Louise Clark

Dear friends,

I believe that my mother, Lafayette Crosses sponsor Louise Harvey Clark, has been, and is being, subjected to financial elder abuse by some of my brothers and the lawyers who represent my mother and those brothers.  Those brothers and lawyers have undue influence over my mother.  They have become very rich at the financial and emotional expense of my mother and some of her descendants.

Please help Louise Clark by:
(1) reading the 3 page letter that follows;
(2) sharing it with others in the peace community;
(3) encouraging Louise to get a second opinion on her legal representation and her agents - as people with a serious medical problem seek a second medical opinion (Her e-mail address is LouiseClark@comcast.net.  Her phone number is (925) 283-2803.);  and
(4) encouraging her to make peace at home.

Thank you very much.  Sincerely, 
Diddo Clark, mediator / arbitrator / attorney in Lafayette, CA;  mediate@neteze.com;  (925) 283-2803.
_________________________________________________                                      
Independence Day 7/4/08
To:    Louise Clark
Re:    You may have everything;  proposal for resolving Clark conflicts
Dear Mom,
    I love you;  I think that you have led an exemplary life - except for your choice of agents;  and, for that, I forgive you.  I pray for good relations with you, and the opportunity to drive you to evening events.  As Obama says, much more unites us than divides us.
    I miss Dad, too.  I didn’t kill him, as you testified, on 6/9/08, that I did.  Accusing me of killing my father is like blaming Jews for the Holocaust.
    I am not responsible for the Clark litigation that has caused you distress - as you testified in January 2007.  Your agents are responsible for that litigation and for that stress.  Early this decade - based on faulty intelligence, errors in judgment, and no diplomacy - your sons, Steve and Charles, launched 4 preemptive law suits against 2 of their siblings - La Posada Apartment Partnership v Diddo Clark in Walnut Creek in 2000, WS00-1534;  Louise Clark et al v Peter Clark (Sierra Sunrise) on 5/31/02 in Sacramento, 02ASO3246;  Louise Clark et al v Peter Clark (La Playa) on 6/12/02 in Martinez;  and Louise Clark et al v Peter Clark (Allegre / Acalanes) on 12/18/02 in Martinez.
    Your agents ignited a litigation explosion which consumes the Clark family to this day.  Steve Clark does business by litigation.  He got us sued by the Playa Apartment neighbor over a retaining wall;  he got us sued, twice, by Playa Resident Manager Melissa Glavin;  and he has provoked other law suits against us.  He wrote, on 3/10/02, that:  “Civil actions by owners/beneficiaries against a family business should result in sanctions against the complainant.  The proper forum for our business decisions is in discussions amongst ourselves (preferable on paper).  And if someone disagrees with a decision which we agreed to by a predetermined level of majority, tough!  I can imagine situations where the majority may be compelled to sue an individual, and that should be acceptable.  Sanctions could include paying all legal costs, regardless of outcome.”
    Suing siblings is NOT acceptable!  Steve’s sanction of “paying all legal costs, regardless of outcome” means that he thinks he is above the law and that court decisions are subject to the decisions of Clark management.  And he improperly excluded some of us from his “forum for our business decisions.”  Steve hasn’t changed from the child whose motto, according to Dad, was:  “If it doesn’t work, force it.”
    About a decade ago, you removed your son Peter from management of Allegre Apartment Community because, allegedly, he wasn’t sharing everything equally with his siblings.  A few years later, Peter was removed from La Playa because of allegations of inadequate reporting to his sibling partners and inadequate accounting.
    You asked your sons Steve and Charles to manage Clark businesses and trusts - and to share everything equally with their siblings.  But Steve and Charles proceeded to take from, rather than share with, their siblings;  they have been worse than Peter was accused of being about withholding information from fellow owners;  they have misappropriated many millions of dollars more than Peter has been accused of misappropriating;  and, on the basis of the same ownership interests in Clark family businesses, Steve and Charles have become VERY rich while some of their sibling partners have become very poor. 
    Steve has been in charge of approximately 4 Clark businesses and 8 Clark trusts for approximately a decade, but no fellow owner and no trust beneficiary has ever benefited from Steve’s stewardship - or lack thereof.
    Steve testified, in his 8/21/07 deposition, that:  (a) he has little or no understanding of the Clark’s Davis apartment complex of which he is Managing Member;  (b) he didn’t do any actual work in his capacity as Managing Member;  (c) he didn’t read or pay attention to the relevant documents;  (d) he never did anything to ascertain what money the property managers were receiving, or to what extent they were serving Clark interests;  (e) he signed promissory agreements for 2 intra-family loans totaling approximately 4.5 million dollars but he never ascertained:  ((1)) whether the money went where it was intended to go;  ((2)) to what extent the money was well spent;  ((3)) what his duties were with respect to repayment of this money;  or ((4)) whether he was underpaying, overpaying, or repaying the right amount;  (f) when he received Davis proceeds, he paid himself and gave the rest of the money to you, without ascertaining what, if anything, was due;  and  (g) he never considered sharing any Davis proceeds with any fellow Clark owner.
    Charles has long had a practice of deducting whatever he wants from the capitol accounts of fellow owners even though he has never and any authority to do so.  He deducted the amount of the Sacramento Brennan judgment from the Monte Cresta capitol accounts of Jack, Peter, and me;  he has long deducted from my Posada capitol account.  Clark business operating agreements, state law (California Corporations Code section 16401(2)(b)), and the Internal Revenue Code (section 704(b)) all require that owners who own equal shares receive equal benefits.  Charles’ deductions are embezzlements.
    You have said, many times, that you believe that Peter is mentally ill.  If he is mentally ill, then he may not be responsible for things he did, failed to do, and/or has been accused of doing that offended other Clarks.  Peter should be forgiven, and helped, and we should all move on.  It is REALLY crazy to respond the way Steve and Charles responded - by paying lawyers millions of dollars to crush Peter in court.  Peter never did anything which could justify spending millions of dollars to crush him in court.  No one who sues a brother - or son 3 - times in one year, and pays lawyers millions of dollars to crush him, is competent to judge his mental health.
    Peter and I filed claims in the The Clark Family Cases (Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 4320) because Steve and Charles misappropriated our interests in Clark family businesses.  I’m sorry we sued.  I think that all Clark v Clark litigation is a mistake.
    The evidence suggests that Steve and Charles act for their own benefit and not for your benefit or the benefit of our family. 
    Your lawyers are worse.  They make work for themselves, milk the Clark cash cow, hurt you and your descendants, and fail to solve Clark problems or help Clarks get on with their lives or their businesses.  No ethical law firm would perpetuate intra-family conflict the way your lawyers have.  You need an outside professional opinion about those sons and lawyers - and you need new agents.
    CAPITULATION.  I’m too traumatized by your agents to keep up this fight.  You win.  You may have my house, my personal property, my interests in Clark family businesses, ... and my dead body.  I will live equal or die.  I will NEVER sign any papers that vindicate your lawyers or settle for second-class Clarkness.
    You will stop this war;  require that your agents share equally with their scapegoats, to the satisfaction of those scapegoats;  and do whatever else is necessary to make peace with your family - or I will join my father.
    Peace begins at home.  Please, Louise, let it begin.    Stand up for peace at home as well as abroad - and get a second opinion about the agents who wage war in your name. 
    Thanks.
    love, Diddo Clark