I have lived on this hill in Pontiac for 40 years. I can remember when the land the Lighthouse sits on today was a field. I would walk from my house to "Uncle Alan's Sidewalk City and dig throu the piles and candy they had in carts. Back then "The Elk's" was booming. I mean, there wasn't a Saturday that some man got caught cheating and my sisters and I would sit in the window and watch the show. Only to wake up to a spree of glass that resembled diamond splashed in an area of the parking lot. I've just been here a long time. The Martins, the McCoys, the Hawkins, the Lasseigne, the Mills, the Grandersons, the Shultz and the Bells. They all grew up here. I came towards the end of our adolescence, and I'm still here. One day, while living next to The Elks, the landlord came for a visit. He was looking at an apartment, in our building. He had evicted a family from their apartment and they had made a mess on the street, outside the building. I was sitting on the porch minding my own business, when he came up tp me and asked me why I hadn't cleaned up the garbage the prior tenants had left. I made a face and told him that's not my job to clean it up and that it was his job. He then told me, if I cared about where I lived and respected it, I would have gone out there and cleaned it up. I strongly disagreed with Mr. Todd, but I never raised my voice or cursed him. I simply expressed myself in a defiant manner. Mr. Todd had expresse to me what he felt about Black's to whom he rented to. Black people don't care about the environment. In a few days, my family got an eviction notice. We weren't behind in our rent, but I've learned that when you are renting from month-to-month, your landlord can evict you for whatever they want. Mr. Todd lied at the hearing and told both the judge and my mother that I had been disrespectful, so disrespectful that he wanted us out. My mother was worried. She didn't have the money to move. When I got home, my sister-the earth disturber she was-told me what Mr. Todd had said in court. She went on to say that I was the reason we had to move out. That was 16- years old at the time. That's a lot to put on a 16-year old, especially when it's a lie!
A month later, I was homeless. Family came to help us move. My father talked his friend into letting us put our stuff in his garage. His family went through all of the stuff. and stole anything we had of worth. Worse of all, however, I had no place to go. My father let me stay for a few days, but his girlfriend didn't want me the. She already had my brother under her roof, she couldn't stand another one of my mother's children in her house. My sister-God rest her soul-had kicked me out her house. I spent many nights walking the streets of Pontiac, until it was so late, no one could turn me away. It was the longest three months of my life. I was so tired and then, one day when I called my mother for our usual check-in, she told me that my other sister had taken her to see an apartment. It was right down the street from where we used to live. She told me that it was small and didn't have but one bedroom, but had a room off the kitchen that I could sleep in. At that point, I would sleep in a closet. The next day, when my mother and I spoke, she had great news. The man said we could move in, and we would be moving in that Saturday. That was January 17, 1987. That Saturday, I went home. I went home for 36 years. I left for school, the Army, got my own apartment twice and went to prison for four years, my mother, however lived there 36 years and four months. The man, Henry Dewalt, was the best landlord my family has ever known, and we've known a lot of them. He was the sixth, since we lot our house on Highland Street, when I was five. That was six in 12 years. He died February of 2023. This world lost one of the greatest men in Pontiac. I keep his obituary on my end table to remember him, especially in the situation I find myself in today. There was another person that lived with me on Park Place those almost 40 years, my new landlord, Clyde Kemp.
a Clyde is a sexual deviant. Since the day I moved into this apartment, he has entered it at will. He started by stealing my bras and panties. I noticed that he was just coming in and taking things, moving stuff around just to let me know he had been here. One thing struck me, one day when I had asked him about things coming up missing in the apartment and I thought someone was coming in, he blamed "them boys" and how he wished he had never got mixed up with "boys". I listened thinking to myself, "Is he admitting he's bi-sexual?" All of us speculated for years. He always had a bunch of guys at his house. He had a feud with a few men on the block and they would always call him a "fag". I never knew or cared, until now. if his sexual orientation had him in my apartment all the time, it's a problem. His biggest love affair (allegedly) was with former Mayor, now deceased, Willie Payne. Before he converted his garage into a room, it would be nothing to see Willie, pulling his patrol car pulling into that garage. Sometimes we would see it coming or coming, but we would see it. Willie died a few year ago in a shroud in secrecy. We never knew what was wrong, but he became emaciated and was always pictured in the hospital. I asked how he died, and Clyde gave a fiery, "I don't know!" I let it go, I could see it was a sore subject. Before our landlord's constructively evicted us, by shutting off the lights, she gave us three months to move. The least she could do after 36 years, but the market is not the same as 36 years ago. These management companies want references, credit checks including evictions, three months rent income, first month rent, last month's rent and security deposit. If the landlord is an independent landlord and doesn't work with a company, he wants that, or you can take it out in sex. That is Clyde's game. That's why in those three months I would NEVER have rented from Clyde. I already knew what he was about: Sex. A girl in prison told me her friend had sex with him for half off the rent every month. I wasn't going to do that. That's why I called him bi-sexual, he likes both. He has an ideal "beard". She is younger, not ugly, educated and not shaped badly. They have a son, and I thought since she was living with him across the street, he was going to do better. I had also heard about incidents with women, like me, who didn't want to have sex with him. We just want to pay our rent and live in peace. Besides, my mother always said old men give you worms!
"Them boys" had him coming in my apartment, while I was at work. If you don't know "them boys" are the Oakland County Sheriff's Department (OCSD). Well, Pontiac Police Department (PPD). OCSD inherited Clyde from his "relationship" with Willie Payne that put him in the middle of their drug dealing, stealing and prostitution ring. Clyde has these two big trucks that he could be carrying drugs, stolen goods or people, better yet, all three! If you read my blog you know that the OCSD is involved in all three. So, not only is Clde Kemp freaking in my dirty panties, due to some obsession with me as his tenant. He's entering my apartment to help the OCSD get information on me for them. He steals my trash and goes through it. If you ever watched "Kiss the Girls", at the end of the movie the serial killer warns her to take the trash out the day of, because someone could tell so much about you by rummaging through your trash. He could tell when you have your period, if you use tampon or pads and in my case if you still have a period. I'm 54 years old. I have a footlocker in my apartment. I don't know why I bought it, I don't remember. Clyde and the OCSD wanted to see in it so bad they devised a plan. He could see I never went in it. It was dusty as all out. He bought a lock just like mine, cut my lock off, went through the trunk and put his lock back on thr trunk. I found out when I went in and my combination didn't work. I had to get someone to cut his lock off. The same person who put the chain lock on my door that I can lock from the outside. When he couldn't get in any longer, he put crazy glue in the keyhole of the chain lock, and thought I wouldn't be able to lock it when I left the apartment. It takes more than crazy glue... After I started keeping my trash in my kitchen I got the chain, after he started putting crazy glue in the chain's keyhole, I bought a devise to stop him from opening the door all together. If he puts glue in my keyhole when I'm away, tat's an illegal lockout! Now, he has no offerings for "them boys" He's situationally broken and I know he's miserable. The judge, the one on the PPO I filed said that I can't do anything, because I never seen him put money in my dirty panties or on my bed. He says that it could be anyone with access to the keys. It could be his girlfriend or his son. He couldn't give me a PPO not knowing if it was him doing these things or someone else. If he was arrested for violating the PPO, he could be arrested. God forbid a stalker is jailed for stalking, unlike me who was arrested for not stalking. There should be a law that certain people shouldn't be able to be landlords in Pontiac, and Clyde kemp would be the first person on that list.
So, I'm evicted. I put my money in escrow with the city and he retaliated and claimed that I caused damage to a lower apartment. He lied and said he never got the court date. When I proved that he pinned the summons to the common door four days before the court date-like he doesn't come upstairs-the judge never mention's it on the record, again. When he lied and said he was never informed of the escrow, until after he filed for eviction. I got the letter that was written and mailed the day I began my escrow, it was never mentioned again in court and on the record. When I'm about to possibly win the case of retaliation, the judge orders us back later on ZOOM. I log in and nobody comes in to get me and a default judgement is issued and I have until the 30th of December to move. Something Clarence Cohen told me that would never happen in an escrow. "I'll just give you a letter and it would go away". That's the biggest lie ever told. The women at the 50th District have the "fix" in. I don't know if they are taking bribes or what, but women in escrow are subject to having their stuff thrown out on the streets. With me being "Public Enemy Number One" to the OCSD they don't have to be bribed really, they are just keeping the corruption in Pontiac going. They didn't like me in the program, anyway. I always paid in a money order and track it, and at first they weren't being cashed. I pay a hefty sum of rent, and I never paid my landlord in cash. I wasn't going to pay the city in cash either. THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY!!! I worked for the city before and all they do is steal. When I walked into where I paid my rent in City Hall, this woman would be sitting at the other end of the room. She would make a b-line over to me and take my escrow payment, until she saw it wasn't cash, but a money order. She was livid and I could tell by the look on her face. Back in April, Clarence Cohen, begged me to go into escrow. Made me feel I would be sorry if I didn't. Clyde would lose the rest of his mind and flip a switch when he found out that in 30 days I would get the money back. He ganged up with his friends of the OCSD, and fixed me. Briana Fields doesn't realize what's happening to her, yet. She still believes somewhere in her feebl- mind that she is still in control. She don't know that I know why. As I sit back and have PTSD about being homeless, while I'm paying rent in full, and on time, again. Pray for me people...
Former Mayor Willie Payne