"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Question: How does the sole beneficiary of a million-dollar estate end up a million dollars in debt?
Answer: The "L" word. Lawyers, liars, leeches and Denver's legal system. Lethal.

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An Open Letter to Denver Probate Court Someone at the Court knows what went on in former Judge Jean Stewart's courtroom--the transcripts and depositions that were altered, money and favors that changed hands to affect outcomes, the padded invoices. Perhaps you are a previous employee, or a current one who was there during Judge Stewart's regime. I ask you to do the right thing.... 92% of the cases in probate court involved estates worth $40,000 or less. They were targeted as easily as I was. Those heirs can't afford to have their inheritances pillaged by a corrupt, heartless court, led by former Judge Stewart. Please email me if you have information that may help anyone regain their rightful inheritance. You will remain anonymous.

Breaking News See our Billboard located at 12th & Broadway, Denver CO. Snitch Tells All In Sound Bite Judge Jean Stewart Resigns Aug 21, 2011 July 14, 2011 May 05, 2011 Unless someone like you Cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not. --Dr Seuss, "The Lorax"

Background

On March 17, 1996, my friend Spicer Breeden and his pal Peter Schmitz were involved in a hit-and-run accident in which popular journalist Greg Lopez was killed. Spicer committed suicide two days later in the basement of his Belcaro home, leaving a will in which he denied being the driver. By the next morning his family and friends were firmly ensconced in the home, in spite of the police finding that will leaving everything to me, Sydney Stone. Several officers noted it in their police reports. The police paid social calls to the house, documenting those visits as well.

Wednesday evening, March 20, a detective came to the home I rented from Spicer, since for privacy, he registered all of his cars at my address, including the one in the accident. Det. Griffith (now retired) told me that everything was left to me in the holographic will and I might want to get a lawyer. It took until late Thursday afternoon to convince an attorney to get a copy of the will from the police and take some action.

Friday evening, March 22, Robert Steenrod, the Public Administrator, went to the Belcaro house at the behest of my lawyer and kicked the family and friends out. The house had been ransacked. Art, jewelry, and guns were piled by the door, ready to go. The locked armoire where Spicer kept his many, many watches was empty, the door broken open. His extensive coin collection and the Tiffany "Audubon" sterling silver were gone. No trace of any bonds was found even though Spicer explicitly mentioned them in the will a few days earlier. I know this because these things were not listed in the estate inventory compiled by Steenrod's boys.

On Saturday March 23 the funeral was held at the Breeden family compound in the mountains that had been donated to Colorado by Spicer’s deceased mom, a Boettcher. The Governor’s Mansion at 400 East 8th Avenue is a former Boettcher home as well, given to the state years ago. These are powerful people.

Sunday March 24 Spicer’s father Vic Breeden (now deceased) and Michael Anthony Crow, cocaine addict and rumored FBI snitch made a trip to the airport in a car belonging to the estate (me); Crow apparently had keys to the house and car. Thirty-nine pounds of something were shipped air freight to a Malcolm Witter in Seattle. Crow then returned the car to Spicer’s garage leaving the Bill of Lading on the floor of the vehicle. Thankfully someone from the DA’s office noticed it a few days later. I requested an investigation and a toothless letter was sent to the Breedens' attorney by Steenrod. I was told it was “memorabilia” removed from the house, which would belong to me, so then the story changed; the two heavy boxes contained Witter’s briefcases which he “forgot at the funeral.” This was acceptable to the DA’s office and the Public Administrator, as well as my attorney Sterling, who, behind my back, referred to me as “the little blonde Nazi.”

Backtrack to November 1995: Spicer came to my house to admire the new furnace he ordered for my home and quietly told me he made “1.5 million in Wells Fargo after taxes this year.” Our long friendship had many boundaries and I knew not to question this or press for details; I congratulated him and assumed he was telling me this to emphasize that he too, `worked’ for a living. It came out later that he told some other friends the same thing. An attorney, Mike Ogborn, formerly of the DA's Office and law firm of Gelt, Fleishman and Sterling, confirmed this. (He left that firm because he disliked their billing practices, so I'm told. He was a tremendous asset in the Probate trial and did all the heavy lifting.) No Wells Fargo stock was ever found after Spicer's death and tax forms showed nothing. However, all but two states allow for ”Transfer on Death” registration of a securities account. Perhaps such a stock transfer could have been a structural part of the old will to leave everything to the Breeden family. I suspect that is how the bonds disappeared, even though Spicer referenced both stocks and bonds in the hand-written will. Additionally, Spicer died on March 19th, a month before taxes are due, so Malcolm Witter could have chosen to NOT generate a 1099 if one were required. (Four years ago I found about $1,000 from Wells Fargo through the Great Colorado Payback, a state agency for unclaimed accounts and safety deposit boxes, but was unable to trace the source.) Oh—but back to Malcolm Witter......

The one who received the shipment? He was Spicer’s stepbrother and stockbroker, of the Dean Witter clan. Yes, THAT one. Malcolm inherited $16 million on his 21st birthday and continues to be a big player in the money business. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He can play by very different rules than you or I do.....

On October 18th 2009, I taped a conversation with a drug felon and yet another Spicer user, who stated that Malcolm Witter took the many watches as well as the coin collection. I also asked about the sterling silver. The two air shipments totalled 39 pounds so all kinds of valuables could have been shipped, including paperwork regarding the stocks and bonds. I think the SEC will frown on Mr. Witter's actions, being in a position of fiduciary trust, and the SEC needs to re-establish its credibility following stuff like the Madoff mess. I fully intend to pursue this, hopefully with YOUR help.

I have two court transcripts and a letter placing Spicer's family and some friends, in the home for several days after the death. This is the smoking gun. It fully supports that Interstate Transfer of Stolen Property, as well as Theft by Receiving took place. Previous to this, I only had strong suspicions, but [Name Withheld] was 100% correct on other matters in this case so he does have credibility. I just may put the recording on this site…but I’m going to give [Name Withheld] time to do the right thing first. I would have hoped he put his felony life behind him...if only he had spoken up when things were being taken from Spicer’s home.

When the Probate trial began in September 1996, the Breeden family, waving the original will which favored them, presented Michael Crow as a concerned good guy, eager to help secure the estate for them. Unable to find even one disgruntled ex from my years in Aspen or a surly neighbor to badmouth me, they cooked up a most interesting story…..

Five days into the will contest, Michael Crow jumped up obligingly in court, declaring Spicer to have insane delusions, including a ridiculous notion that Crow himself was an FBI informant!!! ---a strategy to nullify the holographic document. And that Spicer had promised him a car—but then everything was left to this Sydney chick? What was that if not a crazy man’s rantings? And then he dropped the big bomb---he claimed that he and Spicer and Jennifer Chelwick, had come to my house for drugs. I have never used drugs or even alcohol in my life, and I am a bone marrow donor, so this was news to me. I’d never seen these creeps before the funeral, never heard of him or her. It was a blatant attempt to show undue influence, which could further invalidate the scribble leaving everything to me. Unknown to me, someone was frantically trying to obtain FBI paperwork to document Crow’s nasty snitch habit. The papers were literally thrown to my attorney Harry Sterling through the courtroom door—I didn’t see anyone---and the trial came to a screeching halt. A quick sidebar was called to view the papers: Crow had perjured himself, big and bad. With the help of $20,000 in expert witness fees, (paid by mortgaging my son’s condo at 7%), I prevailed. The will was valid.

Harry Sterling, who has been practicing law since 1958, failed to apply for the probate costs to be reimbursed by the Breeden family, as permitted by law. (After all, it was going to me and not into his pocket.) I did not know I had this right, and when my senile then-attorney Marshall Quiat (now dead) pointed it out, it was 18 months later. Judge Stewart refused to allow all but $3,000…because Quiat LOST the receipts on the way to court! Of course there are no do-overs in her court. Quiat did make one intelligent comment however, stating that she “lacked a judicial temperament.” The forensic psychiatrist alone was nearly $10,000....so twenty thousand of my son's condo’s equity is gone, and I pay on that mortgage every month. There are a dozen other examples of how Judge Stewart took her rage out on me, listed in this Motion to Recuse and exerpt from an Appeals Brief. We have a VERY corrupt Probate Court run by a very angry, vindictive, mentally ill judge, and no one will deal with it. So many lives ruined, vulnerable people abused. Check out this article, and a letter from a grieving parent.

I was Spicer’s friend for 13 years, whom few knew about…it came out in court from several sources of his plans to build a four-unit assemblage in my neighborhood and give one to me… Surprised and touched, I knew nothing of this, just saw myself as a sister or supportive friend who also managed his properties. And parts of his life—I introduced him to his future wife and was maid of honor at their wedding. The marriage lasted four years, but his recurring drug problems and unresolved baggage sabotaged the union. We remained close through all this; his ex and I are still friends.

Preceding the 1996 trial, Jennifer Chelwick testified before the grand jury that she and Michael Crow went to Santa Fe to stay with Spicer’s sister, Holly Connell, for a week following his death. Concurrently, upon contacting Peter Barrett, longtime Breeden family friend AND Spicer's All State agent, my legal team informed me there was no homeowner’s insurance on the Belcaro house. (This seemed VERY odd to me as Spicer was always adamant on the subject of liability, often citing an unpleasant episode when his mom was alive---in spite of her insurance, she took a big financial hit for a slip and fall on her property. He made me crazy with his demands to shovel the snow before it had even stopped.)

So now all of the missing watches, coins, bonds and cameras, etc were a loss. The All State main office refused to speak with me to clarify the coverage issue since I was not the Personal Representative, so I had to rely on Mr. Barrett's statements. He did not return my calls to his office and Thomas, the person I spoke with, said the "publicity was the problem", whatever that meant. When I confronted Steenrod about the cops' culpability in the losses, he ignored me. However, Spicer still had insurance on the Detroit Street house and his cars…WAS there a policy on the Belcaro house? Was it `disappeared’ so there would be no payout to me for losses and no investigation as to the whereabouts of those watches etc? Was the liability exposure to the Denver Police Department, for allowing the family to enter, a factor? Gee, gosh, I wonder.

It has been a vertical learning curve and I am exhausted. Additionally I was prevented from filing insurance claims for expensive items broken by Helping Hands Movers, hired by Steenrod, while moving the home's contents to a storage unit; what's that about?

A Post Office employee checked out the rental history of Spicer’s Post Office box #61377 when I tried to rent it and couldn’t—and as I suspected, Michael Crow had rented it through November 18th, 1999. This could only be to intercept mail that might be coming from bank or stock accounts, or to reveal other assets. Of course I had tried to forward all of Spicer’s mail to my address, but was thwarted by the Probate system that did not allow me to become the Personal Representative until June 27, 2005 .…a lot was `disappeared’ by then. Crow, not a genius, tends to get restaurant work, and was rumored to be a drug `runner’ to gyms and strip clubs. Check him out hugging his fiancée on Facebook. His galpal Jennifer Joan Chelwick (DOB 2.09.66) lives in Denver. They have attempted to re-invent themselves by contributing to political parties and joining the Junior League. Crow was running a scam of some sort previous to Spicer’s death—Spicer told me that he was being blackmailed and pointed out the building---Jennifer Chelwick’s old Larimer Street address in Denver. And Crow had the code to his bank account and storage unit—he blurted it out after the death when Steenrod's boys were at the storage unit, as was I—and a credit card that was issued to Crow by Spicer is shown on the travel documents when they went to Switzerland in 1994. Crow had a grip on him, and I wonder if he were squeezing him for money in exchange for not turning him in to the DEA. Was he behind the call threatening to kill Spicer's dog? There were daily large withdrawals from Spicer's accounts at that time. Spicer was a coke addict, not a dealer, but he was a fragile man with possibly bipolar disorder or worse, and surrounded by takers and users.

Sometime in the Spring of 1996 I received several phone calls, one from a `Jim Davis’ or `Diaz' who told me that he wanted “to prevent something illegal from happening. You know what I mean.” When I said no, I didn’t know what he meant, he repeated it and became frustrated that I didn’t get what he was talking about. I was wary because of all the drug dealer nonsense being said about me and was afraid to talk to him. A second man called later with the same message; neither were inappropriate or threatening but I did not know how to deal with it. There was nothing on the Caller ID. There was a Jim Diaz who worked with Spicer at Centennial Motors, owned by Scott Carson. Any idea what this meant?

In October of 1997 I took possession of 15-20 large boxes of paperwork, unsorted by any of the overpaid administrators of the estate, (including Lawrence Gelfond), where I found brochures, invoices, and warranties as well as serial numbers for many, many watches. The police at District Three again refused to even discuss it; they would not put the serial numbers on the NCIC. I was told once again it was "an estate matter".

Interestingly, in the boxes of paperwork I found a letter from the FBI stating that they had been tapping Spicer’s phone some years past. So much for the poor man’s paranoid delusions…and there was a cancelled $2,000 check from Spicer to local lowlife investigator Daril Cinquanta to investigate Michael Crow, whom he cleared (!) of any FBI connections. Such thorough work, Daril. So easy to take advantage of a scared person—and that informant info came to me for free. How different things might have been if Spicer had known Crow for what he was.

About the same time it occurred to me to check in District Court as to any judgments in Spicer’s favor; there was one, and Scott Carson of Centennial Motors was the defendant. The $20,000 judgment was growing at 8%, and was quite collectible. Who's the professional here? The Public Administrator and the overpaid PR never even bothered to look! When I told Harry Sterling, my attorney at the time, he laughed at me. “You’ll never be able to collect it.” I got him to sign off on his percentage and in late 2005, it was mine----minus Larry Henning's attorney's fees of course. Most of it was absorbed by paying off costs, since I was prevented by the court from ever filing in forma pauperis in spite of many motions. Judge Jean Stewart (nee Cathryn Jean Elliott) just couldn't get past her attitude towards me. What are we, 13?

Spicer did not name anyone as executor of the estate in his holographic will, and I did not know I had the option to provide supervised administration with attorney Sterling--which he would expect since he was in it for 15%, or 25% on appeal. Sterling didn’t want to work very hard when he realized that it was maybe a 2-3 million dollar estate. He had hoped it was closer to the value of the Boettcher Fund of $224 million I guess. (Spicer’s mom was a Boettcher.) Instead Sterling trotted forth a business pal of his, Larry Gelfond, as a nominee for Personal Representative. This was in total violation of Sterling’s own fee agreement which stated that he would "contest all costs of administration by others”—these pals owned real estate together! (I believe they owned the land where Children's Hospital sits.) Judge Jean Stewart, who hated me on sight, was all for Gelfond’s appointment. He promptly held an unnecessary auction of all of my friend's possessions; I could not stop it, and was `permitted' to buy items only at his discretion. But I inherited all of it! Included in the auction were a 30-year-old perfect BMW, Herbert Bayer and Bertoia art, a Picasso, and very collectible mid-century design furniture. There were two sets of cufflinks and tux studs, for which Spicer paid $6,580.95. Gelfond's wife Julie snagged them for a total of $815. Spicer intended those for my sons, but Gelfond told me lapis was HIS favorite stone. I'm his least-favorite Stone, I'm sure. Gelfond purchased a Rolex at half the appraised value after that auction. (Is this self-dealing? CRS 15-12-713) Harry Sterling's wife was the assistant to the director of the Denver Art Museum, and museum employees were there in full force to buy Spicer's art collection ten cents on the dollar. Gelfond liquidated the stock account, placing it and $200,000 in cash in a savings account at 1.9%. He later claimed that was the most fiscally responsible thing to do; Treasury Bills were paying 4.36%, but hey! Gelfond is a respected accountant and must know the best thing to do…and he charged the estate $203,647 for his work as Personal Representative.

Spicer's home on Belcaro Drive had been left empty for a year following his death, a house that I had managed and rented out for $1,800/month in the late ‘80’s when Spicer lived in California for a year…so another $22,000 in rent was lost, even as Public Administrator Steenrod tried to have me evicted from the second house I was given, the one I lived in. The home of the heir is always the last thing to be sold in estate administration, but because I was protesting the rampant mismanagement and thievery, I was punished. Consequently, the Public Administrator AND every subsequent PR requested that the court order me to pay RENT. The beneficiary! Steenrod, in his prissy way, suggested I "gracefully depart". Since discovery in the beginning revealed my income, they took great joy in setting the rent close to my net receipts, escalating every three months or so. When that didn’t work to chase me away, the PRs refused any maintenance on this now 111-year-old house, and I lived with scary bathrooms and snow on the inside window ledges; a cooktop with one working burner, a backed-up sewer, a leaking roof, and no storms or screens. My recourse was to go to the Health Department on the bathroom problem resulting in minimal repairs. The other maintenance problems still remain.

3555 Belcaro Drive was part of my gift, a mortgage-free home on a 16,568 square foot lot, and by Spring 1997 Personal Representative Gelfond had FINALLY rented it out for $2,000/month. It was appreciating rapidly in value, as the expansive lawn and mature trees and great neighborhood made it very desirable real estate. But Gelfond insisted it must be sold, and ignored my certified appraisal of $550,000. He called in his Realtor friend Arnie Stein to list it, and the May 1998 sale netted only $387,000. I'd fought to get a mortgage on this house to pay off Greg Lopez's widow Kathy Bohland, but Gelfond would not consider it....too much trouble I guess. 3555 Belcaro was resold in May 2000 for $675,000. In September 2002 the house next door of identical vintage and condition went for $773,000. And THAT property was resold in 2005 for $1,565,500...the original house built in 1950.

The response of Sterling, (who by now openly hated me for suing Gelfond for mismanagement—he even called me a CUNT in court), was to ask the Probate Court to order the sale of the last asset, my home, on the grounds that it was a drain on estate funds and should be scraped off. It was granted. I had a PI investigate the buyer and found a serious glitch in the sales contract–she bought it under the auspices of an expired LLC---even as I was taking it to Appeals Court. And this sale was $50,000 under the very low appraisal obtained by Personal Representative Nickie Rounds, CPA. (In all fairness to Rounds, she's a decent person who really had no power. The judge and the boys were running the show.) The intention was to sell it to one of their own and of course there would not be a penny left after their billings. The goal was liquidity. Additionally Sterling sought to convince Judge Stewart that I had FIRED him when I found yet ANOTHER lawyer, Larry Henning, to fight Sterling for not performing his contractual obligations, but I had not.

If I had fired him, under the terms of the fee agreement he would have been able to charge an hourly rate, rather than 25% of the net to me…so he easily convinced Judge Stewart he had been fired, and now I was not only looking at being homeless but hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Sterling did a fraction of the agreed-upon work, and wanted all of the dough. I even found faxes overbilled by $200. I took the quantum meruit mess to Appeals Court to get that reversed, at an enormous cost. And the house sale was reversed on appeal as well.

Somewhere in this saga, another one sprung up. My mother died in Michigan, and my larcenous siblings went after my tiny portion. Nothing new, old story. More court, out of state. And then my son’s father was murdered.

You might wonder why I didn’t just give up. You might wonder what’s wrong with me, these money messes. Nothing! Our culture's tolerance has grown to accept the most egregious ugliness, and just look the other way. Not happening to YOU, right? I am not a victim in attitude, posture, or inclination, ever. Like the song “Money Changes Everything”, it does. And when old money families and huge law firms with staff jump on you with both feet, well, you know.

I follow Winston Churchill’s advice “Never, ever, ever give up!” I was born into poverty, Spicer left me millions, and now it was going to be poverty again, thanks to tribal bonds and a corrupt Denver system (true since the early 1900s). I do not believe in god and heaven and hell and all that, so I have to straighten things out here. Most importantly, throughout these years of court battles my eldest son was drug addicted and my second son had a bipolar episode and was also hospitalized, with no insurance of course. There were no fathers to turn to, no family on my side to care, and Spicer’s gifts would have changed our world, literally saved my son's life. When Spicer died in that basement, threatened by Michael Crow, terrified by betrayal, and crushed by bringing shame to his family, I was the last person he turned to in that rough will. He once told a friend “if anything ever happens to me, Sydney will know what to do.” That is the most loving, supportive thing anyone has ever said to me, and I would not, will not back down. I will fight till I die if necessary.

Several times I have attempted to get the press involved—you may have seen the savage Westword article online. Even though I was home working the night of the tragic accident, I was portrayed as this mysterious blonde drug dealer model (according to The New York Times), who had a helluva lot of nerve trying to collect her gift. The dead journalist had a pregnant wife, never mind he died driving drunk—and of course Kathy Bohland should have the entire estate. Thanks to Walter Gerash, I was tipped off to Det. Chun's interview with the grieving widow, who confessed to supplying her husband with beer in the movies that fateful night. She then sent him out on the highway in the car he’d been too drunk to drive home from the Press Club the night before. She was most unhappy at this telling revelation and had to settle for a third of what she'd hoped for. I just wouldn’t go away.

The press shamelessly tried to play the race card—the journalist was named Lopez—making it sound like some poor Mexican laborer got wiped out by a rich trust funder. Lopez was a blond, green-eyed college grad with a Master’s Degree whose father was an anesthesiologist and freckled Irish mother was a magazine writer. And he had been drinking for three days straight on St Patrick’s Day weekend. The press was vicious to me and Spicer, who wasn’t the driver in the hit and run accident anyway. They came at me from every direction. They were on my porch. Peter Boyles (a most unfortunate name) called from his radio show, compared Spicer to Hitler, telling me Hitler's dog was named "Blondie". What a guy.

I'm afraid I'll never get the help I need in Denver from an investigation. There are many, many sad and ugly Probate stories [The probate pit, Mommy Dearest, Letty Wins] in this court, but I am not a `sympathetic’ character. Even the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune called me a drug supplier; I sued and lost. I guess it’s OK to ruin a person’s life in the interest of tabloid journalism. Friends all over the country saw the article, and my college roommate whom I met at Michigan State when we were eighteen will no longer speak to me.

Finally in May of 2005 Judge Kim Goldberger from Arapahoe County showed up to settle the mess, since there is only one Denver Probate judge, the toad who hates me. Every one of my efforts at recusal over the nine long years were rebuffed, by the way. All that was left of this substantial estate was a falling-down house and $13,000. Goldberger ordered me to pay Gelfond, Sterling and my then-lawyer Henning a total of $350,000, he let Gelfond keep the jewelry and watch and other goods, and pronounced me sole Personal Representative of the Estate of Spicer Breeden. Nine years after his death....now I had to quickly obtain a $425,000 mortgage to pay the $350,000 in fees, the 1st mortgage and closing costs, and legal expenses I put on credit cards. I was given a very short time to accomplish this…and it had to be a no-doc mortgage. (My only other 'option' was to allow the house to be sold by the Personal Rep, and past experience with the Belcaro house being sold well under the market made that look like yet another bad idea. And every attorney involved was poised to submit billings that would wipe out whatever was received for this tear-down house.) So, these Officers of the Court, these licensed `professionals' hauled $350,000 away from the closing.....my then-attorney Larry Henning drove me to that closing and told me where to sign. This was the same guy who submitted my in forma pauperis motions to Stewart. To Henning's credit, he wrote some good briefs and letters, while acknowledging that he was not part of the coterie that runs that court, and suggesting money may have changed hands. So how could I ever win? My entreaties to help unmask the corruption of Stewart's Probate Court were ignored, and in the end I guess he decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Henning's most recent bill is for $170,127.63, in addition to the $130,000 he's already collected.

You can guess what happened---all I could get was a 2 year ARM that went to 9.25% January 2008. When I inherited this home in 1996, the mortgage was $57,000, just $745.41 a month. Now I attempt to scrape together a $3,665 mortgage every month with design work, Craigslist sales, renting out part of my home, loans and cash advances.

And surprise! I’m now fighting foreclosure, a year behind on the mortgage. I have less than I did before my friend died, thanks to the Probate Court and her pals. My credit score of 791 is destroyed, and I have no savings, retirement, investments, or health insurance. I had to put $20,000 on credit cards for medical and dental care, and am two years behind on my taxes. I am exhausted and scared, but not defeated. Every winter there is snow on the inside windowsills, the thermostat reads 55 degrees, and once again, I apply for the county low-income heating assistance. And after inheriting millions! My interest-only loan costs me $44,000 a year. But I have to live somewhere, and I know this can and will be resolved. If only I could relax for a minute, retrieve the missing assets, with interest and penalties that will be coming to me….the Breedens, Jennifer Chelwick, Michael Crow, and [Name Withheld] know what was sent to Seattle, and Malcolm Witter is their partner in crime.