"The Wheels of the Law"

On Friday, I had an acting gig, and today, I went to court as a result. Here's what happened...

My landlord has a friend whom he's known since he was young. For 22 years, that friend used to live in an old apartment structure in downtown Milwaukee -- a four-floor building, built in the 1930's, containing around 50 individual apartments. Old architecture, small apartments, safe neighborhood.

Well, recently, this friend moved out of that downtown location, and into the much smaller (and cheaper) apartments that I currently live in. However, when he moved, his former landlord (aka, the company that owned the building) decided to take advantage of him (for whatever reasons), and chose to make his move a legal nightmare. This came in the form of fraudulent move-out charges, double-charged rental amounts, errant cleaning fees, broken repair promises, flared tempers, etc. The manager even chose to fabricate excuses to cover over the truth.

So, since the apartment manager/owners, and my landlord and his friend weren't on good terms with each other, I was requested to become a third party (unfamiliar to the manager/owners) and help build a case for the defense.

This past Friday, I was asked to play a role and pose as a potential new tenant. I set up an apartment viewing (for a different apartment in the building), and was then told to inquire about any other available units (opening the door for me to investigate the apartment my landlord's friend just moved out of). I was instructed to be curious (yet not blow my cover as a possible new renter), take subtle notes of the condition I saw things in, and ask a few specific questions -- questions designed to clarify the manager's fabricated excuses.

As it turned out, the mission went off without a hitch, I played the role flawlessly, and I ended up with answers that clearly incriminated the manager (which I'm sure he figured out not long after I left). I returned with my new data, handed it off to my landlord (legal counsel for the defense), and prepared to be a witness in court.

Earlier today, we arrived at the massive downtown Milwaukee County Courthouse, and, as scheduled, prepared to give a solid case in defense of my landlord's friend. As it turned out, the prosecuting lawyer was there waiting for us. However, when our case came up, he handed us an adjournment, and went on his way. In other words, he had been instructed (by the building owners) to postpone today's trial hearing if we showed up ready to fight. We did; the prosecution crumbled. Apparently, they realized we had a stronger case than they did.

The results of that adjournment are still up in the air, and things should be settled with my landlord's friend in the next few weeks, but I think it's safe to assume my acting gig did the trick. I had fun, I got to pretend, and I did it all for a good cause. Sure, my audience was small, but in the end, I got 'em thinking. And that's exactly what an actor strives to do.

Sometimes all it takes to expose the truth (and frighten the bad guys), is a lot of hard work, the full extent of the law, and a really good thespian!

-Jon
posted by Jon at 6:18 PM  I   I  0 comments