Chapter 20

I discovered that Mr. Miller had an extensive criminal background and apparently was known as a career criminal.  Mr. Wilkinson had stated that Mr. Miller was honest, hard-working, and experienced in restoring historic properties when he forced Mr. Miller on us.  The Escambia County Contractors  Competency Board stated that there were no complaints against Mr. Miller even though I later found out that there had been complaints made to the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board regarding grand theft, fraud, and abandonment of projects in a construction situation against Mr. Miller.  The Escambia County Contractors Competency Board should not have renewed Mr. Miller’s  contractor’s license after these complaints which occurred before we were forced to hire him for our projects.  Florida Statutes prohibited individuals with construction related crimes to obtain or renew a contactor’s license.

In addition, Mr. Miller’s building permit record showed that he had never completed a project in Escambia County or in Pensacola even though he had drawn permits in both and had not closed them.  He had never worked on an historic property contrary to what Mr. Wilkinson stated.  Mr. Wilkinson had to be aware of the abandoned permits in the City as they were drawn from his office.  Thankfully, Mr. Miller’s criminal record did not appear to include assault, pedophilia, or rape which would have put my grandchildren and me in great danger as we were frequently at the house while Mr. Miller was there. 

During one of the Pensacola City Council Committee meetings, usually held on a Monday before the regular Pensacola City Council Meeting itself, usually held on a Thursday, I brought it to the attention of the Pensacola City Council Members and the audience that the Pensacola City Police Department had refused my reports of grand theft three times. 

After this meeting, Pensacola Police Chief Potts came over to me, took out his pocket notepad and began asking me questions.  He asked whom I had spoken with at the Police Department.  I told him the first two were men, described them, and said that the third was a young woman with a K-9 emblem on her shirt sleeve.  He wrote all of this down and said that he would handle it.  The on-lookers appeared pleased at his interest in resolving the repeated grand thefts and fraud committed against us as we were restoring a beautiful historic property.  I wrote a letter to Police Chief Potts, dated March 4, 2000, and again described the incidents of grand theft and fraud committed against us.

Police Chief Potts wrote me a letter, dated March 9, 2000, (printed below) refusing to investigate the incidents of grand theft, in our case felonies, which I had repeatedly reported.  It appeared that his interest after the meeting was just a big show in front of the Pensacola City Council members and other participants but was followed later by a private letter refusing to do anything about the incidents of grand theft and fraud, which had been the Pensacola Police Department’s stance all along. 

In his letter, Chief Potts reiterated that grand theft was a civil matter which the Pensacola Police Department refused to address even though Florida State Statutes specifically defined grand theft as a crime and the Pensacola Police Department was a law enforcement agency being paid to protect the People of Pensacola against crime, especially felonies. 

Shortly after Police Chief Potts’ letter of March 9, 2000, he had Investigator Stone contact me by phone.  Investigator Stone said that he had been authorized to investigate the matters laid out in my letter of March 4, 2000.

At the City Council Meeting on March 9, 2000, (www.ci.pensacola.fl , council minutes for March 9, 2000), I, again, discussed the apparent illegal/criminal actions of City Officials.  Mr. Bonfield stated that he disagreed with me but gave no details.  All of the statements I made were true and well documented. 

I received an informational letter from Ms. Ustick, Pensacola Assistant Manager, dated March 13, 2000, which contained a chronological listing of some of the events regarding our property.  It 
wasn’t very helpful and left out the illegal hearing held by Mr. Wilkinson and the confession, at 
this hearing, by Mr. Douglas E. Miller of apparent grand theft and apparent boasting of the historic artifacts and the building material items he had taken.

I received a letter from Ms. Hardy, acting supervisor of the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board, where she stated:

“The City of Pensacola has forwarded the complaint you filed with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board.  The complaint has been reviewed and no probable cause has been established to process the complaint against the contractor.

These findings will be submitted to the Competency Board for their review.”

Mr. Wilkinson reviewed the complaint and found no probable cause so his finding was submitted, by Ms. Hardy, to the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board as if it were a valid investigation with accurate findings instead of what it really was:  a secret meeting where grand theft of our personal property was discussed.

Word came from City Officials, by way of a phone call, that they were abandoning the illegal, unnecessary construction demands that the Building Inspection Department had made on our property, under the so-called authority of the requirement for a “new” Certificate of Occupancy on change of tenant - that they had refused to put in writing (removing the roof, replacing rafters, etc.) - and that we could apply to the various Departments to open for business. 

I met with the Director of the Pensacola Planning Department, Mr. Doidge, at the beginning of May regarding the continued operation of our business.  Mr. Wilkinson had said that we had to open as a business office building, since he said that description was in his records, and that we could not open as an art gallery/antique shop holding functions.  We lost the discussion with Mr. Wilkinson.  We had added an expensive phone system, internet hookups, additional electrical outlets and all other accessories needed for use as an office building. 

Mr. Doidge said that his records indicated that the building had previously been used as an art gallery/antique shop holding functions and that we had to open with that use. What a mess.  Mr. Doidge showed me the planning records and he was right, as we had been right, and Mr. Wilkinson had been wrong.  The official records indicated that it had not been recorded as an office building after all, as we had repeatedly stated to Mr. Wilkinson. 

I called my husband, Gene, and told him that Mr. Bonfield and Mr. Wilkinson had created another big mess which will cost us more money and delay as we now had to switch from an office building to an art gallery/antique shop holding functions.  We both agreed that was what we had wanted all along.  I informed Mr. Doidge that we agreed to that use as that is why we had initially purchased the property.  I filled out the paperwork and went to each affected Department for approval and in a few days we were authorized to open.

We had been selected as one of the historic homes to be featured in the North Hill tour of Historic Homes, held at the end of May, 2000, which is when we were allowed to open.  I called to accept their invitation.  We were one of the few buildings which met the special requirements set up for the tour in 2000, the millennium year.  Each building had to be at least 100 years old, ours was 120 years old.  The building had to be restored to the original time frame, ours was, etc. 

We had decorated the house with accessories appropriate to 1883 and had picked flowers for display from the yards of our residence and the house downtown.  On the tour days, my husband rented an outfit appropriate to the time period, tails, and even sported a fake mustache which our grandson (6 years old) proudly pointed out to visitors was fake. 

Visitors to our property were thrilled and amazed at the beauty of the house and the authenticity.  It had been hard to accomplish this as so many of our original artifacts had been stolen.  We had paid a great deal of money to have the spindles recreated but had left blank the places on the wall where the stolen architectural features (overmantels, sconces, etc.) had been.  We replaced the original stolen crystal doorknobs with acrylic reproductions and had replaced the stolen original white porcelain doorknobs painted with little pink roses with brass doorknobs.  These severe losses were the direct result of the illegal demands of Mr. Bonfield and Mr. Wilkinson and the refusal of the Pensacola Police Department to stop the grand theft and the refusal of the Pensacola Police Department to locate and return our stolen property to us.      

I received a letter from Pensacola Police Chief Potts, dated March 21, 2000, asking that I submit a new complaint listing all problems with the City Officials and not just those contained in my letter of March 4, 2000, which he had previously refused to investigate by letter, dated March 9, 2000, but finally agreed to investigate.

I prepared a package containing all areas of apparent illegal/criminal actions matched with the ordinance/statute/federal law they violated, all invoices from Mr. Miller (all marked paid in full), all permits, relevant Standard Building Code documents, letters from City Officials violating the Standard Building Code, Florida State Statute regarding Monies paid to contractors (defining the instances where this constituted grand theft – Mr. Miller’s did) information on the fake Land Development Code Ordinance modification misrepresenting Certificate of Occupancy requirements, the in-house emails naming me specifically as the target of the Ordinance modification, and many other documents, and I personally delivered these to Investigator Stone.

On March 26, 2000, I wrote a letter to Ms. Ustick in response to her letter of March 13, 2000.  I thanked her for her letter and, again, brought to her attention problem areas in the City which needed to be corrected.

On March 26, 2000, I wrote a letter to Mr. Mayo, the Building Official for Escambia County.  I reported to Mr. Mayo that Mr. DeStefano, the official investigator for the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board had participated in a secret hearing conducted by Mr. Wilkinson, the Pensacola City Building Inspection Department, regarding the report I had made about apparent illegal/criminal actions on the part of City Officials and on the part of the building contractor, Mr. Miller.

I told Mr. Mayo that this hearing was conducted without my knowledge and without me being present.  Before submitting his official report to the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board, Mr. DeStefano did not:

     question me in order to clarify my stand

     indicate if he called or met with others

     return my phone calls requesting information and the status of my case

     notify me of when, or if, there would be a hearing on this case

Under the Public Information Law, I requested:

     the names of people called by Mr. DeStefano and the substance of the interviews

     the reason that I, as a principal, was not called by Mr. DeStefano in preparing his

           official report for the Escambia County Contractor Competency Board

     any emails, notes, memos, letters, etc. to or from the investigator to any person or

           agency where my case is mentioned in any way

     an inventory of the items Mr. Miller admitted, during the meeting with the County Competency

            Board Investigator and the City Building Inspection Department Director, Mr. Wilkinson, to

            taking from our property and holding them and refusing to return them (grand theft)

Mr. Mayo ignored my letter and refused my requests listed above.