The Summary

FINAL UPDATE (11/2024):

Subsequent visits to Johns Hopkins and the Minnesota Mayo Clinic confirmed my suspicion.  My final diagnosis is Restrictive Cardiomyopathy -- more specifically, Non-tropical Eosinophilic Endomyocardial Fibrosis.  80% die within five years.  The world record is understood to be eleven (11) years.  As I type this update, I am nearing the end of year eleven, but I'm not doing well.  The end of this year (2024) will mark the beginning of year 12 for me.  They tell me I'll then hold the record.

Yippee.

UPDATE:

In November 2017 I flew to Boston to be undergo specialized testing.  Based on that testing I was diagnosed with an untreatable form of heart failure (HFpEF) and pulmonary hypertension.

The prognosis is grim.

I have none of the usual risk factors so it's a medical mystery why this hit me.  The doctors agree: the most likely scenario is that this is part of the aftermath of the December 2013 adverse drug reaction.

I've been reaching out to the nation's top heart failure specialists but the news isn't good.

Not an easy message to read.  Not an easy message to deliver.

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Before you read the story, please know where things stand today (November 2016).

I moved into my brand-new, first-ever house in February 2009.

I was disabled but I was fit, strong, healthy, and active.  At various times I could ride my bicycle, hike, ride my motorcycle, ski, and snowshoe.  I was learning to be a hobbyist woodworker.  In 45-60 minute 'bursts,' I learned that -- given enough time -- I could actually make pieces in my wood shop.  

I was in chronic pain, had chemically burned eyes, was visually impaired, and had a Primary Immune Deficiency ("IgG Subclass Deficiency"), but ... I was doing okay within my limitations and was doing everything I could to expand my life within those limitations.

Now ... 7-1/2 years later ... I have been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease).

I'm now having all kinds of health problems, including heart problems (atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, orthostatic hypotension, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and infections that I can't safely fight off.

Life had been reduced to watching/listening to TV and walking the dog.  The doctors are now telling me that I have to stop walking the dog.

I truly did lose everything -- my home, my life's savings, and my health -- because I asked to be able to sleep in my own home.

A wonderful local investigative journalist has released a series of about two dozen videos telling my story.  Those videos can be found HERE.

A direct link to much of the original correspondence -- in everybody's own words -- can be found here.

Please also take a few minutes and review the page, "Lies They Told The Police."  It's critical.
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This is the short version of what happened to me in Fort Collins, Colorado, beginning in February 2009.  The complete version, with pictures and links to source documents, is HERE

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I'm medically disabled (chemically burned eyes, primary immune dysfunction, chronic neuropathic eye pain).  I'm a former VP of Chico's (ladies' clothing) and Mothers Work (maternity clothing), and a former Director of Proflowers.com (e-commerce).

Moved into a brand new (it was a dirt lot when we entered into the contract to buy it) house in 2009, only to find that ... the neighbors ... mere feet away ... had chronic, horrible, LOUD barking dogs.

The barking began to take my sleep and my health.

Repeated civil requests to the dog-owning neighbors got me nowhere.

Similar pleas for help to Animal Control, the Police, and the HOA property manager got me nowhere.

Once I reached out to the HOA, everything went downhill.  They engaged in an ad hominem campaign, instead of looking into the problem.

And the barking wouldn't stop.

The City Mediator ... turned out to be friends with the dog owners.  She scheduled a mediation.  My wife and I showed up at the mediation.  Apparently, she had canceled the mediation but never told me.

My health ... went rapidly downhill.  Insomnia, repeated infections that wouldn't respond to medication, medication reactions, exhaustion.....

Hired an attorney.  Asked her if my status as a disabled person meant there were federal (FHA/ADA) issues.  She said no.

[She was wrong ... as it turns out.  HUD and a housing attorney later told me that.  Too late.....]

Court ordered mediation.  The HOA wouldn't budge an inch or give a dollar.  The judge-mediator assured me ... we had a strong case -- at least, one that would NEVER be thrown out in a Motion for Summary Judgment.

But it was thrown out ... in a Motion for Summary Judgment ... by a Judge who -- I later found out -- was married to a residential real estate developer's sister, and whose daughter WAS the property manager FOR that family's HOA's.

The Judge awarded the HOA its legal fees.  That took the rest of my life's savings ... and my health was in big trouble.

The Judge tossing my case also 'emboldened' neighbors, who began to torment and harass me.  I filed several police reports against them.  No action was taken by the Police.  

In fact, when I told the police that I am "medically disabled, have a primary immune dysfunction, am in chronic pain," and that "my health has been declining since this all started," the officer -- literally -- laughed at me on the telephone, saying that it was "the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard."

I was afraid of further retaliation, and the Police weren't going to help me.

I rarely left the house.  When I did, I legally carried a gun that I had legally purchased.  I had taken a 10hr course to train in its use.  I'd never owned a gun before, but I was in fear for my safety.

Apparently, this didn't sit well with the neighbors who began calling the Police, having seen me carrying a gun on my property.

One day ... certain that nobody was around ... I dared step outside to tend to my yard, openly carrying my pistol -- legal in this town.

For several seconds, after the garden hose began leaking all over me, I had the pistol out of its holster, pointed at the ground, finger NOT on the trigger.

I looked down.  I looked up.  I set the hose down.  I walked in the house, set the gun down, came back outside, turned off the hose, reeled it in, and went back inside.

Apparently, the prime villain in this story ... had been hiding behind his house and his bushes, and snapping pics ... with an eight-power telephoto lens ... from over 150 feet away.

The pics describe exactly what I say.

BUT ... we later found out ... the Police TOLD this man to delete some of the pictures that he had taken.  The District Attorney told my attorney this.  The Police had suborned the destruction of evidence.

So ... what was in fact perfectly innocent, looked incriminating.  The pictures stop when I looked up for a brief second, with a pistol pointed down, at the ground, NO finger on the trigger, and NOT aware of another soul in sight.

I was arrested ... by an entire SWAT team, including an armored vehicle and a sniper.  I was jailed.  I have never committed -- nor been charged with -- a crime, and they -- in effect -- sent the National Guard out to arrest me.

A Deferred Prosecution Agreement was reached.  Among its conditions was a Gag Order, preventing me from speaking publicly about what happened to me.  

For two years.

The Deferred Prosecution Agreement was lifted in September 2014.

But I've lost absolutely everything -- my health, my functionality, my life's savings, my house, and my marriage.

The blog post [1] describes it in greater detail, AND links to a pile of relevant documents.  

The story is worse than I can even tell it.  The documents do a better job of laying out just what a horrible, orchestrated, years-long nightmare this was, how hard I tried, how civil I was, and how my health fell apart.  

The medical files are NOT public, but I'd gladly send you a link to them.  It's heart-breaking.

I never did anything to anybody.  Ever.

As the Court-ordered Forensic Psychologist concluded, I was civil, reasonable, and appropriate in pleading with them to quiet the dogs, just so I could sleep in my new house.

Mine is a story of corruption, civil rights abuse, judicial misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, legal malpractice, and ... I've lost track of how many other things.

If you look up Fort Collins, you'll find it has its own history of such stories.  

This time, though, they had leverage -- a mechanism by which to silence the real victim (the Gag Order): the threat of Felony charges. 

And the local newspaper -- not surprisingly -- won't tell the REAL story.

I lost everything.  I'm in big trouble ... on numerous fronts.  I need help.

My sincere thanks,

Neil Brooks

[1] http://nbeener.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-destruction-of-medically-disabled.html