Who buys a home on a plat with other properties, easements and CC&Rs and then sues the other homeowners to have those things invalidated in court? One (very entitled (IMO)) Drew Gillespie. Drew showcases American Entitlement in a way no other human ever has for me. There is no other person I know (his family excluded) who would move into small, tightknit, and established community, with easements and rules and then sue his new neighbors to be released from those. Some of you may be saying “Trump would” and you would be correct. Trump is the king of American Entitlement and there is no denying that, but I don’t personally know him.
What appears to have happened is Drew noticed an error the developer had made when placing the enclosed waste storage area on the property. Due to documents produced in discovery, I believe Drew noticed this error prior to purchasing his property and then set out to exploit it. The flaw the developer made was the waste storage area should have been a few feet to the east when it was built. I think Drew knew this when he had his agent ask if the location of the trash could be relocated prior to purchasing his home. He was told it could only be moved if the rest of the community agreed to it. The error the developer made provided Drew an opportunity to exploit it and thus unleash the years of legal hardship he and his family thrust upon the five other households in our community. I honestly believe he manipulated his family into agreeing to move the trash, recycling, and compost of eight homes within feet of their front door. I firmly believe Drew is the worst form of Capitalist there is, he sees an opportunity to enrich himself and he will stop at nothing to exploit the opportunity; other humans be dammed… Including his in-laws.
Drew and I once had a discussion about the developer of our property. We were talking about some issues surrounding the property which predated his purchase by a couple of years. Drew and his family purchased The Compound around two years after the other homes on the property had been sold. He and his family were not the first to purchase The Compound after development had completed, they purchased it from an investor. The community was working on some outstanding issues with the developer when Drew and his family closed on The Compound. So, during the conversation, I was basically filling him in on things he knew nothing about. At one point in the discussion we were having, Drew got up on his pulpit and implied I was being too tolerant, and I should be protesting outside the Developer’s business with signs. I immediately understood his self-righteous indignation. His smug and condescending nature was abundantly clear. My internal reaction (as I smiled) was this… You know nothing about me, this community, our homes or what we are trying to accomplish you smug, ignorant, and drunk little man. Yes, he smelled like alcohol as he preached.
What Drew did not know about me, and probably cannot see to this day, is that I am a consumer advocate at heart and injustice is a trigger for me. When I get angry and see injustice I act. My primary form of action is writing. I find it both effective at bringing about change and a stress management tool. I write CEO’s frequently and get responses. Over the last two weeks I’ve written the CEOs of both Rite Aid and Marriott about my concerns and received responses and changes to both issues which triggered those emails. Below is the one sent to Rite Aid. Rite Aid of course denied cutting people, but they would never say if they forced attrition…
So, here’s Drew telling me I should cause a commotion outside the business place of the developer. I cannot express how idiotic this came across. He was telling me to go protest at a place of business no customers will ever visit, and there will be zero impact on his business. Drew really came across as a drunk know-it-all with no sense of reality. Drew, who knew nothing about me, the trials of the property, or what we were doing to get resolution, obviously knew better than any other human on earth what needed to be done… He knew all this this without even asking what we were doing and what we had done. Hindsight is 2020, he did not want to know. He could care less. He already had his agenda, and it was to create confusion and hostility within the community he recently moved into so he could have the waste storage area removed from his property… IMO.
This whole nightmare is one Drew intentionally thrust upon the community simply so he could get the waste storage area removed from his property. I firmly believe that last statement and firmly believe it was his intention to have the trash relocated when he made the purchase of his half of The Compound. He didn’t care about the ramifications to the rest of the community, including his in-laws. I don’t believe Drew cares about anyone other than himself. One could argue that he cares about his children and wife, but I would counter that he cares more about himself than his wife or child… I will show how I can back up that argument shortly.
Drew’s wife Katie did give the appearance of caring for her child in court even though it was painfully obvious to me she was simply using her kid as a pawn. When she took me to court for flipping her off, she wrote this in her declaration: “Mr. Drinkwine flipped off both me and my son Douglas (2 yrs old) through his car window. My son actually said ‘Mommy, keep me safe.’” In other words, her two-year-old is going to get that worked up over a hand signal??? Katie could have at least provided some video footage of me being aggressive, hostile, or invasive to her and her child. They have cameras set up to monitor my every move on the easements on their property… Oh, wait, that’s right… There are no videos of that because it never happened. I was simply flipping her off; not her kid and she knows that to be true. I think it’s obvious Katie just thought it beneficial to use her child as a chess piece in her legal shenanigans. That’s how Katie rolls though… Jerry Springer theatrics and flat out lying. Yes, I believe she lied to the court about her toddler getting all worked up over seeing a hand gesture.
Drew is no different than Katie when it comes to using their kid as a pawn in court (IMO). In his declaration he stated, “I am writing to seek the courts help in protecting ourselves, most importantly our child, from Mr. Drinkwine’s aggressive behavior.” He willfully tosses his child into this battle right from the go. Does he provide any proof of me acting aggressively whatsoever? No. Once again, the video cameras he and his family have placed all over The Compound to spy on me should have seen and captured any aggressive behavior form me towards his child, himself, or anyone, but they were unable to produce any evidence of this. All they were able to produce were images of me flipping them off.
Furthermore, Drew seems to contradict his wife in his declaration by stating, “I do not want to have to teach my child why the neighbor is angry and what that gesture means.” That’s right, Drew confirmed their kid had no clue what the hand gesture was. If the kid didn’t know what the hand gesture was, why would it get all bent out of shape the way Katie indicated it did simply by me driving by and flipping HER off? The simplest answer is the child didn’t(IMO). Drew gives no indication whatsoever in that declaration that he’s concerned about the child. His only concern is about having to explain “why the neighbor is angry” and “what that gesture means.” Like I said, I think Drew only cares about himself, and I don’t think that will ever change unless he sobers up.
For me, the most telltale part of the quote above is when Drew stated “I do not want to have to teach my child why the neighbor is angry…” Of course, he does not want to tell his child he moved into the community after everyone else, signed and agreed to rules and easements when he purchased his home, and then decided he was exempt from the rules and encumberments he agreed to. I don’t think any parent would like to sit down with their child and say, “I thought I was entitled to more than I agreed to, so I forced him to sue me and then turned around and sued every other homeowner on the plat. We even sued to be released from the encumberments on the plat, but we lost. In all honesty, the only thing we won was we were able to move the trash for eight households from our property to right by your auntie and uncle’s front door, and we got some money. And let me tell you son, the years of legal hell we put everyone (including ourselves) through, was worth every penny of it!” I imagine that’s the kind of conversation every parent would just love to have with their child! How else would he honestly teach his kid about why the neighbors are angry with his daddy?
Now let’s circle back to the conversation Drew and I had where he ‘schooled’ me on how I should protest a business owner… I should go protest with signs at a place where the customers would never see me. Well, I’m a little smarter than what Drew gives me credit for. I went and protested at open houses the developer of our home was having and started networking with other homeowners this developer screwed over. I quite literally shut down an open house for a townhome project and recorded one of his agents harassing me and telling me I could not stand on a public street. I had flyers and was quite effective. It was also nice networking with other homeowners who had encountered problems with this guy. Whereas Drew obviously gives no thought to protesting effectively, I do. Frankly, I think Drew simply wanted to get me worked up. All he did was show me he was arrogant, condescending, and clueless he was when it came to what we were talking about.
I do believe business owners are obligated to the communities they live in. I also believe the larger the business, the larger the obligation is, the larger the obligation. I firmly believe that if a business owner is behaving badly, the public has a right to know. Never in my life did I ever see myself needing to create a blog detailing how poorly a local business owner has treated, and continues to treat, his neighbors. I’ve got other interests and things I would much rather prefer doing over this, but this is very important to me. Nobody should need to go through what Drew has done to this entire community simply because he apparently thinks he should get more than he agreed to… At an astonishing monetary and emotional expense to the community.
Because I believe the community has a right to know how business owners behave, I have taken out ads for this blog. I have posted flyers around the neighborhood. I’m investigating direct mailing. I plan on leafleting at Pike Place Market. A neighbor told me of someone investigating PPE loans in Seattle and I know exactly what Pike Brewing Company got and will be researching that… I encourage any former employees or partners of Pike Brewing Company to reach out to me if they know of any funny business going on at Pike Brewing Company or have any verifiable horror stories they would like to share. I also know that Seattle Hospitality Group recently invested in Pike Brewing Company and will be looking into if that investment flies in the face of what Pike Place Market is, and if a business that large should be allowed to stay in the market. I’m saying all of this to let my readers know there are actions you can take if you find yourself in a position like mine. You can stand up to business owners you believe are behaving badly and having adverse impacts on the community.
Exposing Drew for who he is as a human will never be the focus of this site. The focus of this site will be on justice, injustices, our legal system and changing things so nobody needs to encounter the horrors Drew and his family unleashed on this community. The one thing which keeps me going is the firm belief that if I were a straight white male, the court rulings would have been different. Everyone knows a black person stepping into a courtroom in America is at a disadvantage. Now, imagine if you will, a gay man stepping into a courtroom. How about a gay man stepping into a courtroom who is standing up to two heterosexual white couples with children who are willing to use their children as pawns the way I believe Drew and his family do?
More on Drew later but here’s the motion for reconsideration our lawyer presented to the court. As you read through it, please remember I am one of the Plaintiffs. Green is what we won, yellow the court did not rule on, and the pink is where they won. This looks like bias at first glance and is why I will be doing a deep dive into the rulings this judge has made when sexual minorities step into her courtroom… I shouldn’t need to do this; it should be at my fingertips with the technology we have in place now. But hey, we all know judges in the U.S. are immune from accountability. Judges know this too… That’s why they can be this sloppy:
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