Squatters, Legal Battles, Colorado Christian Defense Fund
How you can help an American family get back their home
 | By Daniel Greenfield (Bio and Archives) Friday, August 3, 2012 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us |
You’ve probably seen this story already…
Upon returning to their Colorado home after eight months, the Donovans were shocked to find another family living in their Littleton home.
“Last August the Donovans moved to Indiana to pursue a job opportunity. They winterized their home on South Mabre Court and left for the Midwest for eight months. To their surprise, when they returned, a new family was living in their home, claiming they had a legal right to do so,”
But let me draw your attention to something…
The Donovans and their two young daughters have been staying in the basement of a relative’s house in Greeley, about 65 miles away. They say they can’t afford an attorney and have struggled to come up with $500 in court filing fees and gas for driving to the clerk’s office throughout the legal process.
However, Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo who are stealing the homes that Americans won’t steal… seem to have no problem getting very good legal advice.
However, Donovan and her husband were ordered to stay 100 yards away from their home after Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo requested temporary restraining orders. The orders were issued on July 3.
However, Fernandez-Beleta filed for bankruptcy on July 20, which the Donovans learned about just hours before the scheduled eviction was to take place last week.
Where is that legal advice coming from?
WHAT YOU CAN DO
I naturally assumed that Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo were getting help from a liberal legal aid clinic. If that were the case, nothing we say or do would have an impact. But the Donovans are being kept out of their home by the Colorado Christian Defense Fund .
The CCDF appears to be a Conservative Christian organization and claims to be affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund. The question then is why are they persecuting the Donovans?
The Colorado Christian Defense Fund looks like a typical liberal Latino legal aid clinic, mostly white lawyers and a Latino leadership and staff. Its allegiances however, are evangelical and its website is sprinkled with scriptural quotes. It has a pastor on staff. It also appears to be the legal site of Douglas J. Romero, the lawyer for the squatters.
One of the quotes on the CCDF Romero site is…
“Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” Psalm 82
In this case it would appear that the Donovans need rescuing from the hands of Romero and the CCDF.
Fernandez-Beleta and Levya-Caraveo have no claim whatsoever to a house that does not belong to them. If the CCDF though their case was at all defensible, it would have made a public statement. Romero passed up the chance to do that.
The good news is that this isn’t a liberal legal aid clinic. It’s a legal group affiliated with mainstream conservative organizations. That means you can tell them to back off and ask them why a group that is supposed to be fighting for America is instead keeping the Donovans and their children living in a basement while strangers live in their home.
The Donovans, who were already behind on their mortgage are locked out of their home and had to pay a thousand dollars to move the furniture of the squatters out, only to have more legal tricks keep them out of their home. They’re living in a basement and don’t have many options left. The longer that Douglas Romero and the CCDF drag this out, the more likely it is that they will lose their home one way or another.
A Donovan family member has described the CCDF as “An Army of Satan’s Demons” and while I take no position on that assertion, it’s a safe bet that there is no point in emailing or trying to reasoning with the CCDF. But the CCDF is a member of the Alliance Defense Fund and affiliated with the American Center for Law and Justice.
The Alliance Defense Fund is supposed to be protecting religious freedom. It is not supposed to be stealing homes or persecuting Christian families like the Donovans. This is their motto.
Since its founding in 1994, Alliance Defending Freedom has made a significant impact for God’s Kingdom through its winning legal efforts to preserve religious freedom for people of faith.
The ADF is very likely not aware of what the CCDF is doing or the damage that the CCDF is doing to the good name of the Alliance Defense Fund.
The contact information for the Alliance Defense Fund can be found here. Their phone number is 800-835-5233. You can contact them via Twitter at AllianceDefends or on their Facebook page. Considering that the CCDF cites them to give it credibility, either the ADF needs to convince the CCDF to do the right thing by the Donovans or end any affiliation that they have with them.
The American Center for Law and Justice leadership is easily accessible on Twitter. Jay Sekulow can be found here on Twitter and Jordan Sekulow can be found here. Other social media contact info can be found on their site at the bottom.
Neither of these groups control Douglas Romeo or the CCDF, but he cites his affiliation with them as a credential. These groups should be encouraged to help the Donovans by ending the legal siege that they have been subjected to by a group that claims to be affiliated with them. If they can’t do that, then they should at least cut their ties with the CCDF. If not, then they have to bear responsibility for what the CCDF is doing to the Donovans.
It’s best to be polite and civil. These are organizations who have participated in good causes. They can’t be expected to keep close tabs on everything that the CCDF is doing. But once they have been made aware of it, they should be encouraged to do the right thing.
We get in on a lot of big causes, but this is a small picture cause. It’s about one home and one family. It’s the type of story that we read about in the news and then think that we can’t do anything about. And maybe we can’t… but we won’t know until we try. This isn’t some liberal legal aid clinic doing it, this is an organization that claims to work our side of the street. That means that we bear some responsibility for it and that we have a shot of bringing about a good outcome.
Daniel Greenfield is a New York City writer and columnist. He is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and his articles appears at its Front Page Magazine site.
Daniel can be reached at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)