FOIA - Open Records Requst for NorthPark Management Agreement With Departmetn of Justice Re: Complaint DJ# 202-73-256 After DOJ Officials Refuse to Provide to Me, the original complainant

Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disabilities Section Refuses to Release Copy of Settlement with NorthPark Management in ADA Complaint.....but doesn't mind sending me a Release And Waiver of my rights written by NorthPark's attorneys.

On November 30, 2011 Carmen Romero of the Department of Justice notified me that NorthPark Managment had sign a final agreement on November 28, 2011 agreeing to bring their facilities in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and providing proof of that compliance withing 60 days of the signing.

I asked Ms. Romero for copy of the settlement which she, politely, but resolutely refused to do.  However, she had no problem in sending me a document written by the attorneys for NorthPark which would required me surrender, for the sum of $1,000 all my rights to recover by any other means the $9,000 I have spent pushing and alternately dragging the DOJ and Northpark to this point. 

I personally feel that the U.S. Department of Justice has no right to expect me to subsidize their enforcement duties through expending my own money in legal fees and then be asked by the DOJ to waive my right to reimbursement of the legal expenses I incurred getting them to do their job.  It's insulting to be told that I do not have a right to the document which is the final result of my complaint and all that I have done to get NorthPark to comply with Federal law.

So, I am now forced to request a copy of the settlement through the Freedom of Information Act through the following means and person:

FOIA Contact: To make a FOIA request to Civil Rights Division please send request to:
Nelson Hermilla
Chief of Staff, FOIA/PA Branch
NALC, Room 311
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 514-4209 (Telephone)
Nelson.Hermilla@usdoj.gov (Request via Email)

---

FOIA Requester Service Center: Phone: (202) 514-4210
FOIA Public Liaison: Cheryl Durham, Phone: (202) 514-4210
Website: http://www.justice.gov/crt/foia/index.ph p

I made my request by email, a copy of which is reproduced below:


From: E Ponymous <stoughne@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Subject: FOIA Request - In the Matter of The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disabilities Section and NorthPark Management styled as DJ# 202-73-256
To: Nelson.Hermilla@usdoj.gov


Dear Mr. Hermilla,

This is a request, under the Freedom of Information Act, for the following documents related to the matter referenced in the Subject Line of this email.

Please provide me with a copy of the final settlement between the DOJ and NorthPark Management Company and any of its subsidiaries or divisions included in the settlement.

Please also provide me with copies of documents submitted by NorthPark Management, NorthPark Center, NorthPark Security and any of their subsidiaries and division included in the settlement.

These documents may be sent to me by email to:  stoughne@gmail.com or,

by standard USPS delivery at the following address:


Norris Stough
(address removed prior to reproduction on blog site.)

Should you have questions or otherwise need to contact me, please do so my calling (phone number removed prior to reproduction on blog site.)

It should be a crime for the Department of Justice to collude with NorthPark in trying to keep this matter from the public view.  It says a great deal about the character of Ms. Romero and the management of NorthPark Center that they are attempting to keep this from the public while selling me out for $1,000


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Oh, the things one could do at NorthPark Center during the holidays

Re: Dallas Morning News, November 23, 2011

Oh, the things one could do at NorthPark Center durng the holidays 

Yes, there all kinds of things one can do at NorthPark Center this year, as there are every year.  However, this year, there are some traditions which are changing.

On November 28, 2011 NorthPark Management reached an agreement to bring their facilities into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.  They did not do this out of an excess of "Christmas" spirit, but rather due to a crusade by one individual who pressed his complaint against NorthPark Malls practices of lack or non-enforcement of the laws governing ticketing/towing vehicles occupying disabled parking spaces without the appropriate placard or plates.  They have also agreed to stop restricting access to disabled parking to facilitate their valet parking services.

So, one new thing to do at NorthPark Center this year is make use of the now unrestricted access to disabled parking spaces formerly blocked off by their valet service.  One thing you can not do this year is indiscriminately park in disabled spaces illegally knowing that NorthPark will not ticket or tow your car.

While NorthPark may be dressed up in its holiday best and looking good on the surface, the truth is the mall is operated by some very mean-spirited individuals who behaved disgracefully when confronted by the illegal use of disabled parking and NorthPark Security's refusal to do anything about it; going so far as to threaten to have someone who voiced a complaint about the use of these spaces by NorthPark's valet service arrested by the Dallas Police Department.  Then, with the help of their attorneys, engaged in stalling and prevaricating, during negotiations with the Department of Justice for three years, during which time they continued to violate the terms of the ADA and collected enormous amounts of money by restricting access to these spaces by and for the use of their valet parking service.

Make no mistake, NorthPark Center and NorthPark Management company are by no means motivated by anything like the "spirit" of the season.

Full details of their inexcusable and conduct, including the Title III Complaint that finally forced them into compliance, as well as the $1,000 to the original complainant asking him to Waive and Release any future attempt to collect the nearly $9,000 he spent dragging NorthPark and an unwilling DOJ to this point, just in time for Christmas.

http://randomobservationsfromdallas.blogspot.com

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Department of Justice Will Sell You Out Like A Prostitute

This article is intended to alert you readers of how your government, through the Department of Justice will allow you to spend our own money to do the job they are already paid to do.

I urge you to contact the following Department of Justice individuals, as well as your Representative in the House of Representatives and U. S. Senators in protest of the way they allowed a high-profile retail and real estate group to discriminate against the disabled for nearly three years while the DOJ leaned on me heavily and pressured me into participating in their "mediation" process, then years-long negotiations with the company - NorthPark Mall and NorthPark Management company - all the while allowing these companies to continue to discriminate against the disabled.

The two individuals at the Department of Justice are:

Jana Erickson email:  Jana.Erickson@usdoj.gov
Carmen Romero email:  Carmen.Romero@usdoj.gov

You can locate your United States Representative and Senators at:

Contact my U.S. Congressional Representative
Contact my U.S. Senators


To complain directly to the management and ownership of NorthPark Mall:

vtolbert@northparkcntr.com,
 kgibbins@northparkcntr.com
 amilton@northparkcntr.com

To contact the owners of Neiman-Marcus and P.F. Changs, who benefitted directly from NorthParks discrimination against disabled persons:

 Gabrielle_DePapp@neimanmarcus.com,
 Mackay_Boynton@neimanmarcus.com,
 Melinda_Lee@neimanmarcus.com,
 Ginger_Reeder@neimanmarcus.com,
 kzotaley@oco.com

Now, here are the details of how the Department of Justice will sell your soul like a prostitute in order to get your problem out of their faces, which you can also find on separate pages of this blog.

This a fictional representation of how one might be expected to be treated during the Department of Justice's "mediation" process; though the gist of the story is a sad, but all too real, event in which the Department of Justice, it's appointed mediator, my attorneys and a certain high-profile Dallas attorney conducted himself during mediation.

Imagine if you will . . .

You and your attorneys arrive on time. Each in separate cars and each paying the $20 parking fee to park in the respondent's attorney's parking garage.  All three of which are paid by you.

You arrive by elevator, many stories high, in the plush and well-appointed offices of the respondent's attorney's offices.  Where you wait, for over 30 minutes at about

$350 per hour of your attorneys' fees.  This is to prepare you for paying even more during the actual mediation, and achieving just about the same results.

You are called into the conference room by the Department of Justice's "mediator" who seems, for the moment, to be disposed to be even-handed in his efforts.

You spend about 30 minutes of your attorneys' billable hours while the "mediator" drones on about the importance of participating in this mediation process in "good faith."  And, then you all agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement wherein you agree "in good faith" not to disclose any of the details of the "mediation" process about to begin.  Believe me folks - this is where the Department of Justice screws you over for having had the effrontery of having filed a complaint with them and expecting them to actually accomplish something for your tax-dollars which pay them.  You are screwed from the start.  You should never be here.  You should pass "GO" in the mediation process, refuse mediation and demand a full investigation by the DOJ and not waste your money on attorneys.  Everyone in this process makes money or otherwise benefits than you.  I repeat, if you have reached this point, you have been screwed.

By this time you have already expended several thousands of dollars in consultations with your attorneys, their research, their unending communications back and forth with all parties involved, and their having prepared, filed, revised and refiled all of your legal motions, in triplicate expense, and providing them with proof (courier fees, certified mail, etc.) to ensure that everyone and their pet goat knows what and when you are complaining hereof.

However, the "mediator" insists that you as the complainant state your complaint again to the respondent and attorney only to find that the respondent's attorney refuses to say anything about the "mummy" next to him who supposedly represents his client.  That's right folks.  Other than her name you get nothing.  He refuses to say what her position within her organization is, what she does for the organization, what her authorization to proceed in the mediation proceeding is.  In fact, she is a body occupying a chair with a name on a business card and that is absolutely it.  Nothing more.

When pressed on the matter the respondent's attorney responds, exclusively and without any further elaboration, that they are at mediation "to listen, but will not answer questions or make any statements in response."

That is it folks.  Yep.  Bring down the curtain.

The mediator will ring his hands at this lack of "acting in good faith" and then call his supervisor and his contacts at the Department of Justice and everyone will take a break of 30 minutes of your attorneys' time at $350 an hour.

Then the respondent's attorney and his "mummy" company representative will refuse to return to the conference room and the "mediator" will announce there is nothing further he can do and ask if you would like to move on to the process of requesting a formal investigation by the DOJ.  You have just come full circle to where you should have never got on this merry-go-round of legal bureaucracy in the first place.  Except you are out several thousand dollars, the DOJ is relieved that they have filled the pockets of a supposedly independent "mediation" service staffed by former DOJ employees, your attorneys have made a lot of money sitting on their butts and accomplishing nothing, the respondent can say they "participated" in mediation and you can write a check to pay for the whole "you stroke me and I will stroke you" legal process and then file a request for a formal investigation by the Department of Justice, which should have been your first choice.

The Department of Justice's "mediation" process is a meaningless trough from which former DOJ employees feed, make a lot of money for very little product and then walk away into the sunset all the while knowing you, the complainant, the person injured, got screwed before you got to mediation, got screwed in mediation, and will get screwed in the future if the DOJ has anything to say about it.

I got an offer to settle and agree not to sue the respondent in the amount of $1,000.  I refused so that I could tell you here, now, in writing not to participate in the DOJ "mediation" process at all.  Demand a formal investigation of your complaint from the very beginning.

Read the full portion of my blog and the emails from the Department of Justice threatening me if you have any doubts.

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Breaking News - This is the original complaint agaist NorthPark - NorthPark Settles Complaint and Agress to Comply with the ADA

To the immediate right-hand side of the main column you can click on the page which is the original complaint filed against NorthPark for violating the ADA and discriminating against the disabled.

Please support the advertisers whose fees for making using of my blog page make it possible for my blog, and blogs by anyone else, to contribute to public debate. I do not need the minimal income generated by your "clicking through" these ads to support myself. However, I could never afford the expense of supporting such a blog site on my own and your viewing those advertising sponsors' messages does make this forum available to all. These ads are no security risk to your computer or your privacy for multiple reasons. First, I have absolute and total control over what ads and advertisers appear on my blog. I have nothing to gain from your visiting an advertisers site and finding as a result that your computer is infected or your privacy infringed upon. Second, these ads are placed and serviced by a reputable sales organization - AdSense. They would quickly go out of business if readers who click through the ads they place on this blog became the least bit dissatisfied by the results. Finally, Google and Blogspot.com have nothing to gain from damaging your computer or infringing on your privacy and everything to lose if they do.

Breaking News - NorthPark Management / NorthPark Mall - Reaches Agreement With The Department of Justice To Stop Discriminating Against the Disabled and Meet Conditions of the ADA

 NorthPark Mall management has reached a final agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to begin complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act and stop discriminating against disabled drivers.

Check back with this site for further updates.  A separate page will provide copies of the original complaint, photographs of NorthPark Security in violation of the ADA, a copy of the waiver they asked me to sign in exchange for $1,000 (which I refused to sign) and all the documents related to my original complaint, my out-of-pocket legal expenses in getting this matter through nearly three years of legal wrangling during which NorthPark denied they were in violation of the ADA and refused to change their practices; thereby having the opportunity to continue to discriminate against the disabled until just the past few days when they agreed to making changes that will bring them into compliance.

NorthPark Mall is all wrapped up in Christmas decorations and making the most of the spirit of Christmas.  But it is operated by some very mean spirited individuals.

More to come in the next few days. 


Please support the advertisers whose fees for making using of my blog page make it possible for my blog, and blogs by anyone else, to contribute to public debate. I do not need the minimal income generated by your "clicking through" these ads to support myself. However, I could never afford the expense of supporting such a blog site on my own and your viewing those advertising sponsors' messages does make this forum available to all. These ads are no security risk to your computer or your privacy for multiple reasons. First, I have absolute and total control over what ads and advertisers appear on my blog. I have nothing to gain from your visiting an advertisers site and finding as a result that your computer is infected or your privacy infringed upon. Second, these ads are placed and serviced by a reputable sales organization - AdSense. They would quickly go out of business if readers who click through the ads they place on this blog became the least bit dissatisfied by the results. Finally, Google and Blogspot.com have nothing to gain from damaging your computer or infringing on your privacy and everything to lose if they do.