CascadeLakesResidents.com

Note to readers who received anonymous (cowardly) emails filled with self-serving bile against your Editor: 

I'm calling out corruption, then and now, hence, the exact same type of defamation.  It was false then, and it's false now.  Repeating it doesn't change the fact that it's false and defamatory, it just creates more of the three D's - drama, divisiveness, and desperation on the part of these individuals.

This exact same reference is a recycled email from Chick Coletta (the alleged self-proclaimed #1 bully of Cascade Lakes) from a year and a half ago for which he not only earned a berth on our Calling Out Bullies page, but the actual underlying facts were explained in that March 7, 2021 report below.

Thank you to all the residents who registered their complete disgust at these failed attempts to shut down the truth and to squelch transparency, as well as voicing to us their utter revulsion by this despicable display of repeated bullying. 

September 9, 2021:

MICHAEL FEINBERG

We have a new person who has richly earned a place on our Calling Out Bullies page. 

This individual sought to testify in support of Chick Coletta’s vile, profanity-laced death-wish emails to your Editor when the matter went to Court last month for a restraining order. 

After that, this individual rigged the Pickleball Ladder Competition last month and was suspended and demoted by the Cascade Lakes Sports Director for unsportsmanlike behavior. 

Now he has posted a mean and defamatory comment on the HOA message board. 

On the HOA message board this evening, a resident asked if there were a notary on campus.  We responded that our August 2021 Resident of the Month is a notary, and we provided a link directly to that page on this News Site.  In response, Michael Feinberg wrote on the HOA message board:

“This looks like an advertisement from the fake website.  Shouldn’t it be removed.” 

We responded thusly:

“Response:

Advertisement?  Fake?  The August 2021 Resident of the Month is in fact a real notary and offers his services for free to residents.  This real News Site honored this real notary for his “kindness and warmth towards everyone he meets.”  How are this previous poster’s comments helpful to the resident seeking assistance from our community?

Vicki Roberts, Editor, Member, Florida Press Club, Member, Society of Professional Journalists, and your neighbor

CascadeLakesResidents.com”

This meanness has earned Mr. Feinberg a berth on this page, and we have removed his business card from our Marketplace page where it was posted for the last year and a half without charge.  Apparently, he didn’t believe this News Site was fake when he advertised his business on the News Site, and he did that for profit purposes (which is fine), whereas the notary provides his services for free to residents. 

Mr. Feinberg also provided a photo of his pet dog for the Our Pets page, so the News Site apparently wasn’t fake for that purpose either.   

March 7, 2021:

SYLVESTER "CHICK" COLETTA:

Here is an email we sent to the individuals in our database in response to a defamatory email Chick circulated to many residents on his email list:

"ELECTION UPDATE (as if trying to extort a candidate weren’t enough):

Late at night on March 6, 2021, Chick Coletta circulated an email to many residents with a link to a court case and falsely stated, “Here you have what the courts decided what kind of person Vickie [sic] Roberts is all about.”  He did this to try and discredit our Election Report and your Editor.  He was referencing a court case your Editor filed about twenty years ago.  His statement is a blatant lie. 

No court has ever made such a determination against your Editor.  Your Editor did sue an organization.  The court did dismiss the case on procedural grounds.  The court never made any determinations on the merits, and in fact, the underlying defamation against your Editor was never adjudicated, notwithstanding the fact that your Editor had presented many, many affidavits from others completely refuting and debunking those false, garbage-riddled underlying statements.

The reason those underlying statements were made back then was because your Editor ran for Judge after having presided over thousands of trials for years as a Judge Pro Tem, and she ran on a platform of cleaning out corruption and favoritism within the system, and a platform of demanding fairness for all who would come before the bench, and those individuals were afraid that your Editor would be elected, and so they engaged in false and defamatory character assassination so that they could continue with their “business as usual” in the court system.

This is very, very similar to what is going on here with Chick and his cronies, and he and some of them are already listed on our Calling Out Bullies page for very similar type behavior.  Searching for decades-old material and then presenting it in a false light is low and dishonest. 

In this same email Chick circulated, he suggested that your Editor should be the tester of a drug to see if it is safe for rats, and he stated with regard to your Editor and your Roving Reporter as follows: “My best advice for this unhappy couple; is to get the f*** out of Cascade Lakes” (he did not use ***, he used the actual expletive).  This is similar to what he said in a prior Board meeting (that we should move) and also similar to his statement in a prior email that your Editor should go “play in traffic.” 

For the record, we are a very happy couple; we are never compromised by bullies and we stick to our core values, which include honesty, following the rules, and playing fair.  Many individuals appreciate us because they don’t have the tools to fight back and don’t want to deal with bullies like this.  We know this because they have specifically told us.

Finally, Chick promises more emails to come concerning other legal matters in which your Editor was involved.  We fully expect more false statements and defamation and will address those at that time. 

By the way, have you read our Cascade Lakes Election Report 2021?  This is the reason that this little group to which Chick belongs is going crazy.  Take a look or take another look if you’ve already seen it once because there is a lot to absorb.  Cheerio until next time!"

"Normally we avoid the HOA message board.  However, accusing us of publishing false information is defamatory on its face. Stating falsely that our News Site “falsely accuses different residents each and every month” is libel per se.

This resident will receive a cease and desist letter.  For the record, there has never been one instance when anything written on our News Site has ever been successfully challenged for its veracity by anyone.

Referring to us and our News Site as an evil brainwashing enterprise is an example of bullying behavior.  Apparently, however, this resident was not too worried about our supposed “evil” “brainwashing” ways when she had us seated next to her mother at prior events, while she sat elsewhere, and we are apparently not too evil to help her mother when no one else would, when her mother needed assistance.  And for the record, her mother is lovely. 

This resident just a couple of months ago offered to do our grocery shopping when she found out that we are the 24/7 caretakers for my wife’s two parents who are now residing with us (and today is their 67^th Anniversary).  Is her grocery shopping offer still good?  It seemed genuine when she wrote it.  And then one Friday night she had a visit from Diane Green, the former disgraced pickleball club president and former entertainment chairperson who resigned in lieu of being terminated by the Board, and whose Subaru was seen in this resident’s driveway on that fateful evening.  

The last contact I had with her was about a month and a half ago, after Diane Green’s visit to this resident.  I was outside working on my front landscaping and I said hello to this resident a couple of times as she was walking by with her dogs and another person, and instead of greeting me back, she started laughing and stated, “I thought you were a Mexican” and just kept on walking and laughing.

A second resident then chimed in on the message board thread, “I agree with Debbie- personal attacks should have no place on this message board...”  Apparently, this resident is fine with the first resident’s personal attack on the two residents who run the News Site.  So, the objection to alleged personal attacks is selectively targeted:  some are ok, and some are not ok, depending on who is being targeted.  This is also classic bullying behavior.

As of this posting, a third resident inserted himself into the fray by stating, “Brava Debbie!”  This is called a pile on, and it is how bully mobs start and operate.

And by the way, in an ironic twist worthy of O’Henry, the first resident’s ARB request and subsequent Board appeal for an invisible fence around her property for her dogs, Bella and Penny, which she was willing to pay for herself, was denied in full, but she apparently is OK with allegedly paying for a board member’s physical fence allegedly for his canine menagerie.  

And finally, the second resident was part of the rigged pickleball election scheme, and the first resident was appointed by the fake officers to a fake position as membership chairperson of that club (and even had business cards created for this fake position with at least one typo).  The News Site exposed the fraud and the officers resigned.  So, it is very clear to us where this venom is coming from.  By contrast, we report the honest facts; each person who reads them is free to draw their own conclusions."

July 17, 2020:

Roberta Alter is at it again.  Once again Roberta Alter has seen fit to attack your Editor and Roving Reporter for truthful reporting on irregularities and rule-breaking engaged in by those in leadership positions within the community.  Roberta Alter has done so without provocation in a classic example of projection.  Her first attack was on June 30, 2020 and we called it out below on July 1, 2020 (see her post and our response below).  On July 16, 2020, Roberta Alter posted a follow-up to her previous defamatory post of June 30, 2020, wherein she doubled down on, and in fact increased, her attacks on us.

Virtually every sentence in this latest baseless vilification is projection: what she accuses us of doing, she is actually doing to us.  Also note that she has never produced one iota of evidence or proof in support of her continual baseless, false, and defamatory attacks on us.  For the record, neither your Editor nor your Roving Reporter has ever said a negative statement about Roberta Alter except in response to her publication of these vile writings against us. 

Roberta Alter states that her first post was an “antibullying message” when in fact it was the exact opposite, with her as the bully and your Editor and Roving Reporter as the targets.  She states that she did not mention our names to “protect” us but, according to her latest post, “…there is no secret any more who these people are.”  Make no mistake, there was never a secret about whom she was referring and there was never any protection of us going on; there was the exact opposite.  This is classic manipulation; the reverse is in fact true and her posts speak for themselves. 

Ask yourselves:  since she initiated both posts, what exactly was the purpose for doing so and how is that for our protection as she claims?  In fact, it is actually against the protection of the community for her to continually try to demonize the reporters who are trying to expose the corruption (abuse of power) and eliminate the malfeasance by those in leadership positions within the community.

Another comment before we get to the actual evidence: the only one posting on the HOA message board in this context among the parties is Roberta Alter.  For the record, it is a fact that neither your Editor nor your Roving Reporter has posted one single post on any topic on the HOA message board for months and we have never mentioned or referred to Roberta Alter prior to her written attacks as described herein. 

These are unprovoked and systematic attacks by Roberta Alter who clearly does not want the truth to be known about some of the irregularities that have been going on at Cascade Lakes by those in positions of power.  In her first post, she stated that she takes personal offense at our criticism; our criticism is in fact truthful reporting on these irregularities, not one instance of which has ever been challenged for its veracity. 

She is also angry that we called out individuals who rigged the pickleball club elections and who subsequently stepped down, i.e., resigned, over the rigged election process and other activities that they were engaging in.  Roberta Alter apparently has no problem with people breaking the rules but has a big problem with calling out those rule-breakers.  So now who exactly is the bully here, who is she actually trying to protect, and why?

The Board refuses to take down her posts.  Roberta’s latest post went up hours after the Board meeting wherein Marion Weil, the President of the Board, HOA webmistress, and liaison to the message board, mentioned and distinguished other Cascade Lakes sites in her opening remarks in a manner that was clearly aimed at discrediting them, including the Cascade Lakes Facebook page and this News Site.  Marion Weil apparently has complete control over the flow of information on the HOA message board.  The timing of Roberta Alter’s post appears to coincide with those remarks which were made only hours before.  This is a very cozy and symbiotic relationship:  she protects the Board and the Board protects her.  She is, in this context, a proxy for the Board.

Roberta Alter has been sent a formal Cease and Desist letter by your Editor and your Roving Reporter.  Here is Roberta’s second post, her post of July 16, 2020, and in attempt to further mitigate the damages Roberta Alter has caused us by her baseless defamation, we follow it with our letter to her and the Board of Directors:

July 1, 2020:

We have three new additions to our Calling Out Bullies page: Diane Green, a repeat offender, who is named again based on our thorough investigative report contained in our June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary, Roberta Alter, who rarely misses an opportunity to trash your Editor and your Roving Reporter, and Gail Nobel, who lives across the street from Diane Green.  Both Roberta Alter and Gail Nobel have commented viciously about us on the Cascade Lakes HOA website’s message board (see below) concerning our factual June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary. 

Roberta Alter admitted to opting out of our email subscription because presumably she had no interest in our reports, but nevertheless gobbled up our June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary after it was forwarded to her.  She apparently read it voraciously through and through, which is odd coming from someone who claims to have no interest in our writings and who misclassifies and dismisses actual facts and chronology, along with documented proof, as a collective “diatribe,” using her word, which is actually what she has engaged in, a diatribe of self-righteous indignation without any supporting facts.  

Roberta Alter also complained that she does not like that we criticize the Board and that she takes “personal offense” at that.  Yet she is 100% silent to all the criticism of the Board on the Cascade Lakes Facebook Page, of which we have not participated at all, and of which Diane Green specifically led the brigade, and instead comes to Diane’s defense, and reserves her rage solely for us.  Aside from the obvious and blinding hypocrisy, this is a good example of targeted, unbridled, discriminatory hostility toward your Editor and Roving Reporter, which is a classic description of a bully. 

Roberta is fine as long as the criticism of the Board comes from Diane Green and those who support Diane Green.  Diane Green’s Facebook posts, which we highlighted in the synopsis and commentary, and which viciously attack the Board, speak for themselves, and Diane Green’s threatening letter to the Board also speaks for itself.  Yet Roberta’s rage is reserved only for your Editor and Roving Reporter, the two individuals who are exposing the corruption (abuse of power) in leadership. Roberta herself has commented on that Facebook page, so it is clear that she reads it, and yet is totally mum about all of that vitriol and criticism of which we have never participated.

Gail Nobel admitted to not having read the June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary but determined that it was disgusting, nonetheless.  Query how one can legitimately comment on anything they have admitted to not having read, but that’s a different issue; that’s just blind allegiance while possessing no supporting facts or any facts to contradict the actual facts that were put forth.  Again, using the word “disgusting” to describe something she admittedly has never read actually describes her conduct.

These two bullies, along with the main bully, Diane Green, use the classic psychological technique called “projection,” where they attribute to the target conduct that they themselves engage in.  Projection is formally defined thusly:

Psychological projection is a defense mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others: Sigmund Freud, Case Histories II (PFL 9) p. 132.  For example, a bully may project their own feelings of vulnerability onto the target.  It incorporates blame shifting and can manifest as shame dumping:  Hotchkiss, Sandy; foreword by Masterson, James F., Why Is It Always About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism (Free Press, 2003). 

In simple terms, whatever the bully is doing to the target, she falsely claims that the target is doing to her and she is the poor victim. 

This is the exact behavior we called out on the part of Diane Green in our June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary, and we backed it up with facts and evidence, and we documented in chronological order various events that occurred and statements that were made by this premier bully, who started her campaign of character assassination when she could not secure our blind allegiance and when we instead called out her manipulative and destructive behavior.

In response to our well-documented exposé on this bully, some residents immediately took the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon, as dutiful flying monkeys (a Wizard of Oz reference which is also recognized in the psychology world about those who buy into the bully’s false claims and bad acts and pile on so that they can be on the team).  These people allow the main bully to engage in additional abuse by proxy toward the target.

As can be seen by the posts on the official Cascade Lakes Message Board, Roberta Alter uses this technique brilliantly when she accuses the bullied of being the bullies.  Gail Nobel gets on the mob bandwagon by calling our writing disgusting, while admitting she never read what was written.  The Board of Directors finds nothing wrong with keeping these posts live on the official Cascade Lakes website, while previously having no compunction in removing factual posts from your Editor concerning their own conduct, and also concerning the coronavirus.

As we wrote on June 30, 2020 in response to a resident who commented on our June 24, 2020 synopsis and commentary and which we posted on our Residents’ Input Page, Message Board General page: 

“And it has always been about justice.” 

We stand by our entire synopsis and commentary because it is 100% factual, and we will continue to call out the bullies.  Not one of our facts has ever been challenged by anyone and this is because all of it is true.  What bullies such as Diane Green do is blame shifting to the target, and these bullies are adept at falsely creating their own victimhood using their false narratives against the target.  A great example is Gail Nobel, who declared with 100% certainty that the news report was “disgusting” while admitting to never having read one word of it.

The great news is that most of the wonderful residents here in Cascade Lakes do not buy into this toxic behavior, and it is concentrated in a relatively small number of loud and vocal individuals in and around the community.

All of this toxic behavior is consistent with textbook descriptions and is therefore extremely predictable.  Many of the psychology articles on the topic are in unison about the fact that one of a bully’s main weapons in his or her arsenal is the typical silence by those whom they bully, because speaking out predictably produces more rage and more bullying, and generally the bullied target just wants it to stop.  We will not give them that potent tool of the trade.  The professional articles we have read also state that calling them out is the best antidote and is the best way to neutralize this toxic behavior.

March 16, 2020:

Once again, we have grammatically tortured drivel posted on the Cascade Lakes Message Board by Chick Coletta.  This is the first time the Board removed the post immediately after your roving reporter, Arthur Andelson, contacted them.

However, the only reason it was posted to begin with was because, while the Board suspended your Editor from the message board for thirty days for truthful posts calling them out for repeatedly breaking the rules, they consistently allowed this resident to post attacks on your Editor and her husband, your roving reporter, as amply evidenced on this page below. 

In fact, ironically, their first discipline of your Editor occurred when she called them out for having illegal non-public board meetings, which is exactly what we posted here on this news site about the upcoming March 18^th closed board meeting, and the exact post about which Chick posted his comments on the Cascade Lakes Message Board. 

There are signs posted on Cascade Lakes Blvd. that there is a board meeting on March 18th, but the community is locked out of the meeting.  One of the webmasters of the Cascade Lakes Message Board, Michael Blackman, on the very thread where Chick posted his comments stated: “Patricia, the meeting will not be an open meeting…” 

Many residents receive message board posts via email through their automatic email subscriptions; thus, they have a permanent record of this false, defamatory, and ignorant post by Chick Coletta.

We could not help but notice that the only way for Chick to have been able to post the comments he made on the Cascade Lakes Message Board was by reading our comments on our news site, since we did not post them on the Cascade Lakes Message Board.  We always appreciate our ever-growing group of readers, and we welcome his continued viewership of this news site.

Aside from consistently assaulting the English language, Chick Coletta also personally threatened your roving reporter (“you don’t want to make an enemy of me” were his exact words).  Arthur hopes never to have to defend himself against this threat, but if necessary, his advanced combat training should come in handy.

Your Editor makes one final comment below; for context, Chick's post in all its imbecilic glory is reproduced for ease of reference here:

"I can't believe you would make a comment like that. "The board meeting must be open so it must be postponed."
Wake up.

it is going to be open. Duhhhhhhh

its on closed circuit TV.

Have you heard of the Coronavirus lately

in case you're so consumed with always going against what this community is doing. Or better yet are you just trying to impress some of us in letting us believe that you know more than everyone at CL

Well in case you don't know what the world is doing right now, listen up, everyone in every country is putting everything on hold for the safety of the public...Everyone but you.

Yes you want a live meeting. Well hear This "It's not going to happening." We care about the safety of the people here, and in this situation rules and laws are meant  to be broken.  
so put your tail between your legs and watch it on TV. The only reason you and your wife are so upset is because you can't get up on the floor and go against the dignity of the board on must issues, like you do at every meeting.

Please take a break and enjoy your life at CL. You have a handful of followers on your site. Please don't Alienate yourself from them as well

i rest my case"

Final comment:  your Editor owns the trademark to the phrase I Rest My Case but I do appreciate the shout-out.  Branding is a wonderful thing.

January 8, 2020 BOD Meeting:

First Residents' Input Session:

Chick Coletta, who repeatedly bashes us [and others] at various opportunities (message board, for which his posts remain up, pickleball court, board meeting) got up and called for your webmistress and her husband, Arthur, to move away from Cascade Lakes.  He was allowed to speak about matters not on the Agenda, which is normally verboten at the First Residents’ Input Session.  Nevertheless, the Board allowed him to continue to speak off topic.  Here is some of what he said according to the tape about your webmistress and her husband, Arthur: “Just move outa here, go back to where you came from.”  [Lots of loud applause.]  He continued, “And that fact – I don’t know if you’ve noticed Facebook, lately but everybody has unfriended these people, nobody wants to be their friend, nobody’s talkin’ to them, they’re slightin’ them on the tennis courts – not the tennis courts, the pickleball courts, and it’s a shame…on their website I was told I was named bully of the month [laughter from the audience] because I went against a few of those things.”  He then went on about the Resident of the Month Award and complained that Arthur won (for December) and then stated, “I think there’s a lot to be looked into here and I would really appreciate it if some of these people moved away, it would do us all a favor.” [more laughter from the audience.] 

Let’s parse his comments and show the complete and utter falsity and/or hypocrisy of his rant:

1. We are not moving anywhere.
2. Everyone has not unfriended us on Facebook; we have many friends here that are friends of ours on Facebook, including Chick’s immediate family.  This includes Chick’s own wife, Carmen, who is a very sweet person, and quite an impressive pickleball player, and Carmine Coletta, whom we believe is Chick’s father.  We have screenshots of these Facebook friends on our Facebook page as of the writing of this post for anyone who is curious.  The only one in that family who unfriended us was Chick. 
3. A lot of people want to be our friends and are our friends; we see and greet each other every single day.
4. The only person who slighted anyone on the Pickleball courts to our knowledge was Diane Fiorillo-Green, the new President of the Pickleball Club, who set a poor leadership example by refusing to play with Arthur when their turns came up, and then usurping his place in line for next in play on the next available court thereafter.  In fact, this past Saturday, January 4, 2020, Chick and Arthur played together as a two-man team, and Chick was asking Arthur for pointers since Arthur is currently the #1 player on the ladder. 
5. Contrary to his claim, Chick was not named bully of the month.  There is no such award.  We call out bullies as we see them because we have a zero-tolerance policy for bullies.  He is listed multiple times for repeatedly earning a berth in our Hall of Meanness, but we would never give an award for such a distinction and it is nothing to be proud of, notwithstanding the crowd’s laughter and applause.
6. The current Resident of the Month is Howard Greene, MD, who is happy and honored to be recognized.  Chick is apparently fixated on Arthur, who won in December, which is so last year. 
7. Chick thinks “there’s a lot to be looked into here.”  We agree, so keep checking this website for updates!