Filed in Multnomah Circuit Court today, and now a matter of public
record.
SEAN
AARON CRUZ
10809 NE FREMONT STREET
PORTLAND, OREGON 97220
SEANCRUZ@COMCAST.NET
PLAINTIFF
CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON FOR MULTNOMAH COUNTY
PORTLAND, OREGON
SEAN AARON CRUZ
Plaintiff(s),
vs.
OREGON CULTURAL HERITAGE
COMMISSION
Defendant(s).
Case No.: 15CV25027
Dept. No.:
COMPLAINT
Date of Hearing:
Time of Hearing:
1. In the Spring of 2013, DEFENDANTS
The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
(OCHC) and its president David
Milholland, and PLAINTIFF entered in good faith into
a staged, 3-year production
Agreement to create the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival
(JPNAF), a new Oregon nonprofit corporation whose signature event would be to
produce a festival which would take
place annually on the campus of Parkrose High
School in Portland, celebrating the legacy of the late, great Native
American musician
Jim Pepper, AND that at
the same time would serve as a celebration marking
DEFENDANTS' alleged 25-year history
of allegedly successfully producing cultural
events across the state of Oregon.
2. PLAINTIFF alleges that DEFENDANTS
the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
(OCHC) is a sham entity with no
public charge or official status, maintaining no regular
place of business and no regular
days or hours of business, no listed or posted phone
number and no physical address, so
that the Multnomah County Sheriff was unable to
serve a Summons on DEFENDANTS, and
that these facts were contributing factors to
problems and difficulties PLAINTIFF
encountered at all times in attempting to carry out
the Agreement in good faith.
3. PLAINTIFF alleges that during the
course of carrying out this Agreement
DEFENDANTS engaged in deceptive
practices including false advertising and made
false representations to PLAINTIFF
upon which PLAINTIFF relied, causing
PLAINTIFF to suffer great injury and
loss.
4. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS' board meetings, held in a conference room
at the law offices of Tonkin Torp,
are intended to impress, deceive and mislead
visitors, including PLAINTIFF, into
believing that the Oregon Cultural Heritage
Commission has stature that it does
not in fact possess, causing PLAINTIFF to rely on
DEFENDANTS' fraudulent
representations, and suffering great harm as a result.
5. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS' true place of business is within a hidey
hole loft dwelling occupied by
DEFENDANT'S President Mr. David Milholland on an
upper floor above an unrelated
business on NE 42nd Street, with no exterior markings
identifying either OCHC or Mr.
Milholland, no buzzer and no means of entry to the
building if the unrelated business
is not open, all of which factors combined to make
PLAINTIFF'S good faith efforts more
difficult, costlier in time spent, and at times
impossible, as appears to be
DEFENDANTS' intent.
6. PLAINTIFF alleges that DEFENDANTS
Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission's
membership has been restricted to
white or Caucasian people over the entire course
of its 25-plus years of existence,
remaining so today, and maintains that this fact
created conflicts between PLAINTIFF
and DEFENDANTS that were due to
DEFENDANTS' ethnic and racial biases
that worked to the detriment of PLAINTIFF'S
good faith efforts to carry out the
Agreement.
7. PLAINTIFF alleges that DEFENDANTS
are in breach of contract and owe
PLAINTIFF compensation for work
performed as a result of said Agreement, as a
result of PLAINTIFF'S reliance on
DEFENDANTS' deceptive and fraudulent
representations, and as a
consequence of DEFENDANTS' willful and/or negligent
mismanagement of the Project.
8. PLAINTIFF alleges that DEFENDANTS
directed PLAINTIFF to invite artists to
perform at the 2013 Jim Pepper
Native Arts Festival regardless of funding identified
and committed to support the
expenses of the event.
9. PLAINTIFF alleges that DEFENDANTS
encouraged PLAINTIFF to work on behalf
of DEFENDANTS' 25-year celebration
and the Project regardless of funding identified
and committed to support PLAINTIFF'S
work.
10. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS directed PLAINTIFF to hire additional
artists for August 7 and August 8
Festival performances after PLAINTIFF had already
canceled other artists previously
scheduled to perform on those dates and after
PLAINTIFF had recommended canceling
the dates entirely, causing PLAINTIFF to be
resented by the canceled artists,
creating additional damage to PLAINTIFF'S
reputation, additional economic
losses and further emotional distress.
11. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS deliberately misled both PLAINTIFF and
the National Museum of the American Indian staff, causing both to believe
that
DEFENDANTS would comply with the
terms of the IndiVisible loan contract, which
included the requirement that
DEFENDANTS provide insurance coverage for four
days, when DEFENDANTS knew that
DEFENDANTS would in fact NOT comply with
the contract, causing financial
loss, damage to PLAINTIFF'S reputation and additional
emotional distress.
12. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS knew in advance that the IndiVisible
exhibit would NOT be shipped to Portland, because DEFENDANTS had secretly
made a decision to NOT provide the
insurance rider at some point in advance of the
festival event, and concealed their
decision from both PLAINTIFF and the National
Museum of the American Indian,
causing financial loss to both parties, damage to
PLAINTIFF'S reputation and
additional emotional distress.
13. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS continued to advertise that free admission
to the IndiVisible exhibit
would be featured at the Festival up to and including August
7-10, the dates of the Festival event,
through printed posters and on DEFENDANTS'
website and elsewhere.
14. PLAINTIFF alleges that four days
prior to the Festival, on Saturday, August 3,
despite having sole and exclusive
knowledge that IndiVisible would NOT be coming to
Portland, since DEFENDANTS had decided NOT to comply with their
agreement with
the Museum, DEFENDANT MR. DAVID
MILHOLLAND personally designed a poster
advertising the IndiVisible exhibit
as “Free to All”, and proclaiming “The Jim Pepper
Native Arts Festival is a project of
the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission 501(c)(3)
celebrating its 25th year and a 1000 Nations production.”
15. PLAINTIFF alleges that on Saturday,
August 3, 2013, DEFENDANT MR.
DAVID
MILHOLLAND provided said poster in
electronic format to PLAINTIFF expressly for
the creation of printed posters,
social media postings and other electronic media,
which PLAINTIFF took in good faith
to be truthful statements and acted accordingly,
resulting in great harm, financial
loss and emotional distress.
16. PLAINTIFF alleges that
immediately following the festival, DEFENDANTS
disappeared from the face of the
Earth, refusing to answer or return PLAINTIFF'S
telephone calls or to respond to
PLAINTIFF'S emails, and the fact that DEFENDANTS
maintain no regular place, days or
hours of business made it impossible for
PLAINTIFF to proceed with the tasks
that were ordinarily routine in the aftermath of
similar festival events as well as
those that were necessitated by DEFENDANTS'
grossly negligent and/or fraudulent
actions before and during the course of the
Festival, as well as thereafter.
17. PLAINTIFF alleges that in order
to force contact with DEFENDANTS—since
DEFENDANTS maintain no regular
place, hours or days of business—PLAINTIFF
resorted to searching out through
the Secretary State Corporation Division filings to
locate the only physical address in
DEFENDANTS' history of filings other than the law
offices of Tonkin Torp, which was
that for Mr. Walt Curtis, DEFENDANT'S board
secretary, and PLAINTIFF staked out
the location until PLAINTIFF was able to make
contact with Mr. Curtis on September 5,
2013, and with Mr. Curtis' assistance
made
telephone contact with DEFENDANTS
President David Milholland.
18. PLAINTIFF alleges that only
after taking these extraordinary steps was
PLAINTIFF able to make contact with
DEFENDANTS in the person of its President
David Milholland, by telephone.
19. PLAINTIFF alleges that the fact
that DEFENDANTS The Oregon Cultural Heritage
Commission intentionally maintains
no physical place of business, no regular days or
hours of business, and no reasonable
means for any person to contact said
DEFENDANTS, who appear to meet only
privately and occasionally in the law offices
of Tonkin Torp as prelude to a
drinking party taking place immediately afterwards, has
unfairly left PLAINTIFF—who only
acted at the direction of DEFENDANTS and relying
in good faith on DEFENDANTS' fraudulent
representations—as the target of rumor
and dissatisfaction by all parties,
whether sponsors, performers, ticket buyers or
contractors, or the general public,
and suffering great harm, loss of reputation,
emotional distress and other
damages.
20. PLAINTIFF alleges that as a
result of DEFENDANTS' grossly negligent and/or
willful mismanagement of the 2013
Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival, which includes
frequent disappearances at critical
times, PLAINTIFF has suffered a campaign of
defamation and harassment from Mr.
David Grafe, a disgruntled sound engineer, and
his company PDX Audio
over the course of the past two years that has caused
PLAINTIFF additional great harm,
loss of reputation, emotional distress and other
damages.
21. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS, in the person of its President David
Milholland, deliberately attempted
to cause PLAINTIFF great harm by knowingly
causing PLAINTIFF to show publicly
the documentary film “PEPPER'S POWWOW”
without having the proper license
and authorization from the film maker to do so, thus
exposing PLAINTIFF to civil suit,
monetary damages and further loss of reputation.
22. PLAINTIFF alleges that
DEFENDANTS—who were in complete custody and
control of all financial aspects of
the project at all times—failed to follow generally
accepted accounting principles,
failed to keep honest and accurate records, and failed
to make and deliver honest, timely
and accurate financial reports to sponsors,
partners, grantors (some of whom
received NO report), or to PLAINTIFF and the
project Steering Committee, all of
which has served to harm PLAINTIFF's reputation
and cause PLAINTIFF to suffer other
damages.
STATEMENT
OF FACTS
1. The Jim Pepper Native Arts
Festival was PLAINTIFF's idea, stemming from the
time that PLAINTIFF served as
Senator Avel Gordly's chief of staff, and arising from
the fact that PLAINTIFF unknowingly
purchased the family home of Jim Pepper in
2002, only later learning of his
great musical and cultural legacy.
2. PLAINTIFF drafted Senator
Gordly's Senate Joint Resolution, SJR 31—honoring
the late, great Native American
musician Jim Pepper's life and works—in May, 2005,
and his music and spirit came to be
tremendously important to PLAINTIFF both
personally and professionally.
3. PLAINTIFF'S son Aaron Cruz passed
away in late April, 2005 and was buried on
May 3, during the 2005 legislative
session. Researching and drafting the Jim Pepper
resolution helped PLAINTIFF get
through the month of May and the rest of the
session, and became PLAINTIFF'S “Happy
Place” as he worked through the grief,
and Jim Pepper's music, life story
and legacy continues to play a vital therapeutic role
in PLAINTIFF'S life as he copes with
a long-term diagnosis of clinical depression and
PTSD.
4. In early 2013, through a series
of meetings conducted over several months that
included OCHC's board of directors,
members of a Steering Committee that
PLAINTIFF was in the process of
forming, and other members of the community and
potential sponsors and partners,
OCHC President David Milholland and PLAINTIFF
developed a plan whereby:
A. JPNAF would be produced
and promoted in 2013 as a celebration of
DEFENDANT OCHC's 25-year history of
producing a wide variety of cultural events
across the state of Oregon.
B. PLAINTIFF'S company,
1000 Nations, would manage the project under OCHC's
supervision and control, and over
the course of a three-year period JPNAF would
become an independently operating Oregon nonprofit corporation with paid staff.
C. Mr. Milholland and OCHC
would receive, control, manage and disburse all funds
related to the project.
D. Mr. Milholland and OCHC
would have sole contracting authority pertaining to the
project.
E. Agreements between
DEFENDANTS and PLAINTIFF as well as agreements
between the Parties and other
Parties were largely verbal, however the terms of
such are evidenced in the
documentation created during the course of the Project.
F. PLAINTIFF'S fee for
producing this joint celebration of OCHC and Jim Pepper
would be $ 400 per week in cash plus
a tax credit for $ 400 per week as
PLAINTIFF'S in-kind contribution to
DEFENDANTS' 25-year celebration.
5. PLAINTIFF began billing the
project weekly beginning for the period March 4 – 10,
2013, planning to continue billing
through the week following the Festival (until August
17) to wrap up all reporting and
other business, and thereafter as additional funding
became available over the three-year
life of the Project.
6. The cornerstone of PLAINTIFF'S
and DEFENDANTS' plan was built around a
succession of three exhibits on loan
from the National Museum of the American
Indian, Smithsonian Institution,
namely:
A. In 2013: IndiVisible: African-Native American lives in the Americas
B. In 2014: Skateboard Culture in Indian Country
C. In 2015: Up Where We Belong, or a similar exhibit including Jim Pepper's
saxophone, which is in the permanent
collection of the Smithsonian Institution,
Museum of the American Indian.
7. The business plan for the event
was to draw an audience to Parkrose High School
with free admission to the
Smithsonian exhibit, which would be augmented with free
performances by Native American
musicians, plus Native American arts and crafts
and foods for sale during daytime
hours, and thereby to sell tickets to the evening
performances in the Parkrose High School theater.
8. PLAINTIFF made contact with Mr.
Robert Alexander of the National Museum of the
American Indian regarding the loan
of IndiVisible: African-Native
American lives in the
Americas for exhibition in Portland, and—working with DEFENDANTS—successfully
negotiated an agreement whereby said
exhibit would be lent to DEFENDANTS for
exhibition at Parkrose High School
for free public viewing from August 7, 2013 to
August 10, 2015.
9. DEFENDANTS contracted with the National Museum of the American Indian,
promising to take every step
necessary to fulfill the agreement, including providing an
insurance rider covering said
exhibit during the four days it would be at Parkrose High
School, which would be the sole cost
of the exhibit, all other shipping and handling
costs to be borne by the
Smithsonian.
10. PLAINTIFF sought out another
exhibition location so that IndiVisible
could remain
in Portland longer than the four
days at Parkrose and to this purpose contacted
Portland Community College Cascade
Campus President Dr. Algie Gatewood, to
make Dr. Gatewood aware of the
opportunity.
11. With Dr. Gatewood's leadership
and support, PLAINTIFF brought PCC Cascade
into contact with Mr. Robert
Alexander of the Smithsonian, who was in charge of the
exhibit, and arrangements were made
for IndiVisible to move from Parkrose High
School after the Festival into
storage at PCC Cascade, where it would remain until it
came up for exhibition at the
Cascade campus library beginning on October 10, and
continuing to the end of the year.
12. PLAINTIFF planned to organize
and schedule additional Jim Pepper Native Arts
Festival events in the neighborhood
of PCC Cascade through the end of the year, in
association with the IndiVisible exhibit
and continuing to celebrate DEFENDANTS'
alleged 25-year history of
successfully producing cultural events across the state of
Oregon, while making plans in
concert with the National Museum of the American
Indian for future exhibits in 2014
and 2015 per the aforementioned project plan.
13. DEFENDANTS, however, did NOT
provide the insurance rider as required in the
IndiVisible loan contract, thus canceling the exhibit, without informing
any of either the
Parkrose School District, which had
contracted with DEFENDANTS for the rental of
secured space, or the Museum, which
continued to plan for the Festival exhibition's
arrival, including flying three
Smithsonian personnel to Portland to staff the exhibit and
conduct outreach in the Portland
Metro Area, or PLAINTIFF, who continued to rely on
DEFENDANTS' representations.
14. The failure of the IndiVisible exhibit
to arrive forced the cancellation of the entire
daytime program, causing all of the
artists, musicians and vendors to suffer financial
loss and great inconvenience, and
created lingering resentment and anger in the
community directed at PLAINTIFF and
the Project itself, all of which could have been
avoided had DEFENDANTS either
provided the insurance rider as agreed to in
DEFENDANTS' contract with the
Smithsonian Institution, or notified either PLAINTIFF
or the Museum staff or the Parkrose School District of its intention to cancel.
15. The unanticipated failure of the
IndiVisible exhibit to arrive forced the cancellation
of the entire Festival daytime
program, removing entirely the free attractions that
would have created opportunities to
sell tickets to the evening performances, and
destroying the entire business plan
and several months of PLAINTIFF'S work.
16. Four days prior to the Festival,
on Saturday,
August 3, 2013, DEFENDANT MR.
DAVID MILHOLLAND personally designed
a poster advertising the IndiVisible
exhibit
as “Free to All”, and proclaiming “The
Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival is a project of
the Oregon Cultural Heritage
Commission 501(c)(3) celebrating its 25th year and a
1000 Nations production.”
17. On Saturday, August 3, 2013, DEFENDANT MR. DAVID MILHOLLAND provided
said poster in electronic format to
PLAINTIFF expressly for the creation of printed
posters, social media postings and
other electronic media, which PLAINTIFF took in
good faith to be truthful statements
and acted accordingly. This was the final edition
of several posters advertising the IndiVisible exhibit
PLAINTIFF produced over the
preceding two months.
18. The last communication that
PLAINTIFF received from the Museum was an email
to DEFENDANTS stating that the IndiVisible exhibit
would arrive at Parkrose High
School on either Monday, August
5, 2013 or Tuesday, August 6.
19. The last email communication
from DEFENDANTS to the Smithsonian that
PLAINTIFF received, dated July 24, 2013, stated:
From: David Milholland (encanto@ochcom.org)
To: Alexander, Robert
Cc: Cruz, Sean Aaron
Subject: Signed IndiVisible
agreement in the mail
Hello Robert...
I mailed the full signed contract to
Katherine Lewis this pm. It should arrive
promptly.
Attached is the signature panel, for
your reference.
Will call to talk with you
tomorrow...
Cheers...David
19. As part of the Jim Pepper Native
Arts Festival contract between DEFENDANTS
and the Parkrose School District, a secure room was rented, cleared and otherwise
prepared to house IndiVisible,
including furniture for the Museum personnel who
would staff the exhibit.
20. PLAINTIFF was not concerned when
the exhibit did not arrive on Monday, August
5, but—understanding the
significance of the IndiVisible
exhibit to the overall success
of the entire project, Festival and
DEFENDANTS' 25-year celebration alike—was very
much concerned when the exhibit did
not arrive on Tuesday, August 6, either.
21. Vendors and performers began to
arrive at Parkrose High
School and set
up on
the morning of Wednesday, September
7, but there was no Smithsonian exhibit and
the contact number PLAINTIFF had
been calling since the day before only went to
voice mail.
22. On Wednesday morning, September
7, PLAINTIFF asked DEFENDANT OCHC
President David Milholland where he
thought the exhibit was, and Mr. Milholland
replied, “It will either be here or
it won't.”
23. DEFENDANT OCHC President David
Milholland made no attempt to locate the
exhibit whatsoever, and spent the
morning taping several dozen 8 1/2” x 11” paper
signs to doors and windows around
the high school building that he had apparently
created on his home computer the
night before.
24. PLAINTIFF learned of the status
of the IndiVisible exhibit in late morning on
Wednesday, August 7, 2013, from one
of the Festival volunteers, who had seen the
Smithsonian team at NAYA, the Native
American Youth and Family Center, earlier in
the day and heard that the exhibit
was still in Washington, D.C.
25. The absence of the IndiVisible exhibit
destroyed months of work performed in
good faith by PLAINTIFF, including
the plans to move the exhibit to PCC Cascade
for
exhibition beginning October 10.
26. PLAINTIFF had scheduled two
evening showings of Pepper's
Powwow, an hourlong
award-winning documentary of Jim
Pepper's life by Sandy Osawa, for
September 7 and 8, which was in all
of the project advertising.
27. Some minutes before the
September program was to start, however, PLAINTIFF
approached DEFENDANT Mr. David
Milholland, and asked point blank if
DEFENDANT had sent payment to film
maker Sandy Osawa for the public viewing
rights, and DEFENDANT responded “No.”
28. PLAINTIFF was forced to
immediately cancel both scheduled showings of the
documentary, and the evening
performances were now in disarray.
29. Following the September 7
evening performances, DEFENDANT OCHC
President David Milholland claimed
that he did not bring enough checks to pay all of
the performers, forcing PLAINTIFF to
pay one group out of his own pocket, and
Luciana Proaño, one of the
performers, paid one of the other performers out of her
own pocket.
30. During the rest of the festival
and thereafter, it was never clear to PLAINTIFF who
among the several performers and
contractors DEFENDANT OCHC President David
Milholland was going to pay, nor how
much he was going to pay, nor whether he was
going to pay with a check or in
blank, signed OCHC tax receipts or in some other
manner.
31. DEFENDANTS The Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission (OCHC) is an Oregon
nonprofit with no public charge or
official status, whose membership has been all-
White throughout its entire 25-plus
years of existence.
32. DEFENDANTS have failed to file a
physical address with the Oregon Secretary of
State for at least the past four
years, and recently filed a physical address only after
PLAINTIFF complained to the
Corporation Division of the Oregon Secretary of State.
33. DEFENDANTS The Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission (OCHC) maintains no
regular place of business or hours
or days of business, has no apparent staff, no listed
or posted phone number and no
physical address, all contributing factors to problems
and difficulties PLAINTIFF
encountered at all times in attempting to carry out the
Agreement in good faith.
34. As DEFENDANT President David
Milholland rarely responded to emails
throughout the entire history of the
project, the only means of contact PLAINTIFF had
for DEFENDANTS The Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission was Mr. Milholland's
home phone number, a land line.
35. Mr. David Grafe, a disgruntled
sound engineer whose bid for the project was not
accepted, and his company PDX Audio,
beginning on our about August 5, 2013,
mounted a malicious, false and
defamatory campaign determined to wreck both the
Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival and
PLAINTIFF'S career that was greatly
exacerbated by DEFENDANTS'
inaccessibility throughout the entire ordeal.
36. Mr. Grafe and PDX Audio
contacted and communicated false and defamatory
assertions to Festival sponsors,
partners, performers, ticket buyers and parties in the
Portland music industry and elsewhere broadly, that did in fact
do great harm to both
PLAINTIFF and the Festival, and that
has continued to the present day.
37. DEFENDANTS paid some of the
festival performers in the form of DEFENDANTS'
checks and others in the form of
blank tax deduction receipts signed in advance and
distributed by Mr. Milholland, which
may be an illegal abuse of DEFENDANTS' 501c3
status, and other performers and
contractors were not paid at all.
38. Immediately following the
festival, DEFENDANTS became impossible to contact,
refusing to answer or return
PLAINTIFF'S telephone calls or to respond to
PLAINTIFF'S emails, and the fact
that DEFENDANTS maintain no regular place, days
or hours of business made it
impossible for PLAINTIFF to proceed with the tasks that
were ordinarily routine in the
aftermath of similar festival events as well as those that
were necessitated by DEFENDANTS'
grossly negligent and/or fraudulent actions
before and during the course of the
festival, and continuing thereafter.
39. In order to force contact with
DEFENDANTS, since DEFENDANTS maintain no
regular place, hours or days of
business, PLAINTIFF resorted to searching out
through the Secretary of State
Corporation Division to locate the only physical address
in the DEFENDANTS' filings, that for
Mr. Walt Curtis, DEFENDANT'S board
secretary, and PLAINTIFF staked out
the location until PLAINTIFF was able to make
contact with Mr. Curtis on September 5,
2013.
40. DEFENDANTS failed to provide
full, truthful, timely or accurate fiscal reports to
sponsors, partners, grantors, the
project Steering Committee or to PLAINTIFF in the
weeks and months following the
Festival.
41. PLAINTIFF requested help in
developing an accurate accounting of the project
from Jo Ann Hardesty of Consult Hardesty, an independent consulting firm, who
organized two facilitated debriefing
sessions with DEFENDANTS President David
Milholland and the project Steering
Committee.
42. Both facilitated debriefing
sessions were held at the Rosewood Commons in SE
Portland, and were attended by
DEFENDANTS President David Milholland and the
project Steering Committee. DEFENDANTS
President David Milholland was unable
to produce an accurate fiscal
report, or to explain the reports that he had provided at
either meeting.
43. DEFENDANTS President David
Milholland promised to return for a third time with
an accurate fiscal report in early
January, 2014, but was never heard from again.
44. In March, 2014, the project
Steering Committee formed a Board of Directors and
registered with the Secretary of
State as the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival, an
Oregon public benefit nonprofit
corporation, dedicated to improving access to music
education.
45. Immediately upon incorporating,
the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival board of
directors fired DEFENDANTS President
David Milholland and severed all ties with the
DEFENDANTS Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission.
PETITION
FOR RELIEF
DEFENDANTS' actions, whether
deliberate or as a result of DEFENDANTS' gross
negligence, have caused great harm
to PLAINTIFF, to PLAINTIFF'S company 1000
Nations, and to the Jim Pepper
Native Arts Festival, a new Oregon public benefit
nonprofit corporation, including:
A. Damage to all three
reputations and loss of standing in the community;
B. The loss of sponsors and
other partners that had been part of the 2013 event
but have not come back after
experiencing DEFENDANTS' gross negligence,
failure to provide timely and/or
accurate fiscal reports to sponsors and general
incompetency;
C. The loss of many
hundreds of hours of work that PLAINTIFF had invested in
pulling sponsors and partners
together for the 2013 event, and the subsequent
necessity to invest hundreds of
hours of additional work throughout 2013, 2014
and to the present day to bring them
back in as well as attract new sponsors and
partners to the project, now in its
3rd year.
D. Emotional distress that
plunged PLAINTIFF into a period of depression that
required more than a year of
treatment in order to be able to function normally
again and that requires ongoing
treatment for depression and PTSD.
E. Unpaid compensation in
the amount of $ 9,934.00 for work PLAINTIFF
performed on behalf of DEFENDANTS at
PLAINTIFF'S reduced rate of $ 400.00
per week prior to and during the
Festival week.
DECLARATORY RELIEF
PLAINTIFF seeks declaratory relief
in that the Court determines that the 2013 Jim
Pepper Native Arts Festival was IN FACT a
project in the sole custody and control of
DEFENDANTS the Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission (OCHC) and its President
David Milholland, and that neither
myself nor my company 1000 Nations had
contractual or fiscal authority, and
that any and all complaints any third parties may
have had or may have in the future
regarding the management or responsibility of the
2013 Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival
be properly directed to DEFENDANTS OCHC
and Mr. Milholland.
EQUITABLE RELIEF
PLAINTIFF seeks equitable relief and
hereby petitions the Court to order
DEFENDANTS to provide:
A. DEFENDANTS' written and
published apologies to PLAINTIFF, said
apologies taking full responsibility
for the dispute existing between PLAINTIFF
and DEFENDANTS.
B. That DEFENDANTS be
ordered to transmit said apologies and a true
statement of facts regarding the
matters in dispute by every means
DEFENDANTS have used to defame
PLAINTIFF or PLAINTIFF's business
activities in the past and at the
present time, including Facebook and other
social or electronic media.
COMPENSATORY
DAMAGES
PLAINTIFF seeks compensatory damages
in the amount of:
A. The sum of $ 9,934.00 in
unpaid compensation at PLAINTIFF'S reduced rate
of $ 400.00 per week.
B. $ 50,000.00 for lost
income, lost clients and other lost economic opportunities
suffered due to DEFENDANTS' gross
negligence and/or deliberate wrongful
conduct, plus such other and further
relief as this court may deem just and proper.
C. $ 5,000.00 for past,
present and future medical expenses PLAINTIFF has
incurred or is likely to incur as a
result of DEFENDANTS' conduct plus such other
and further relief as this court may
deem just and proper.
D. A letter documenting
PLAINTIFF'S 2013 in-kind charitable contribution to
DEFENDANTS' 25-year celebration and
the project valued at $ 13,200
(calculated at 36 weeks of work at $
400.00/week).
PUNITIVE DAMAGES
PLAINTIFF seeks punitive damages in
the amount of $ 150,000.00 plus such other
and further relief as this court may
deem just and proper.
PAIN AND SUFFERING
PLAINTIFF seeks compensation for
loss of reputation, emotional distress, mental
anguish, loss of enjoyment of life
and anxiety PLAINTIFF has suffered as a direct
consequence of DEFENDANTS' actions
in the amount of $ 250,000.00 plus such
other and further relief as this
court may deem just and proper.
ATTORNEYS' FEES and
COURT COSTS
PLAINTIFF petitions the Court for an
award of Attorney's fees and other court costs
PLAINTIFF has occurred in bringing
this Complaint.
DATED this ______ day of
_________________________, 2015.
I declare under penalty of
perjury that the
foregoing is true and
correct.
_____________________________________________
(signature)
SEAN
AARON CRUZ
10809
NE FREMONT STREET
PORTLAND,
OREGON 97220
SEANCRUZ@COMCAST.NET
PLAINTIFF
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