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Victimized for years, he says, and now this Imminent eviction has Medford man distraught By Chris Bristol Facing forcible eviction any day now, a squatter in the crumbling home he once owned free and clear, Paul Sarkozy is under a lot of pressure. He begins weeping in frustration, leaning back in his wheelchair to blink away tears, as he struggles to explain the many injustices perpetrated against him over the last 20 years. "I never wanted to come to the States," the 56-year-old paraplegic and native of Romania suddenly sobs. "I was accepted in Paris like a French citizen. They accepted me ..." Like a switch has flipped inside him, he regains his composure. And back he goes to the injustices � the conspiracies, frauds and downright crimes that he says have victimized him. He could start at the end and go backward. Like how he stopped paying property taxes on his Hillcrest Road home ... which led to foreclosure ... which led to eviction ... which led last week to the warning he publicly delivered to county commissioners: "You�re gonna have to kill me." Or he could explain why he was a guest Friday morning on a local radio talk show along with Alvin Hansen, a tax protester and Sarkozy�s "attorney in fact" who once served time in prison for stealing his IRS-confiscated car. But first there�s the story of the Paris demonstration in 1971 � a student-led protest at the Sorbonne he was unhappily swept up in that resulted in the death of a French policeman. Then it�s Christmas Eve 1983, when he was paralyzed in an accident when a semi-truck hauling dog food struck him on a freeway in the Southern California desert. Then it�s a sleazy San Diego attorney, he says, who tried to steal his $2 million insurance settlement and later abandoned his related $28 million lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol. Meanwhile, investors cheated him of the settlement. Luckily, by then he had the house, which he bought in 1984 from the North family (of JJ North�s Grand Buffet fame) for $165,000. And finally it�s Jackson County, where he says bureaucrats overvalued his dream home � situated on prime real estate across the street from the Rogue Valley Country Club � and then overtaxed him to the point where he couldn�t take it anymore and stopped paying. On that point everyone agrees: Sarkozy stopped paying property taxes, either in 1993 or 1994. And, in 1999, when the bill was more than $20,000 in arrears, the county foreclosed. The foreclosure led to an unusual arrangement � county officials let Sarkozy and his brother, Frank, stay put. Frank doesn�t speak much English, but he gets paid $1,200 a month to take care of his brother. Along with a disability check of $477 a month, that�s what they live on. For more than a year � even after the county obtained the deed � the brothers have remained in their now-former home. But the arrangement, never a formal one, ended last month when the house was put up for sale at auction. Some investors bought it for $140,000. Under state law, the proceeds are carved up as a windfall among the various taxing districts owed back taxes, even though Sarkozy owed far less than the auction price. The investors who bought the place, retired attorney Sidney Ainsworth and Central Point real estate agent Clyde Severson, won a court order last week evicting the brothers. It was right after the hearing that a distraught Sarkozy delivered his warning, having wheeled himself across the street and into the county auditorium where the Board of Commissioners was holding its weekly public meeting. Neither Ainsworth nor Severson returned calls for comment from the Mail Tribune. County Administrator Sue Slack said officials tried to give the house away to two different social service agencies � ACCESS and the state Senior and Disabled Services � if they would let the brothers stay. In both cases the county was turned down, in part because the house has become very dilapidated, Slack said. County officials also say Sarkozy repeatedly rebuffed their attempts at a negotiated compromise. Now that the house has been bought by private investors, there is little else the county can do. For this they blame Hansen. "We gave (Sarkozy) 500 chances," one high-ranking county official said privately. "We bent over backward for the guy. But he�s been listening to Al Hansen from the beginning." Hansen, 69, once owed nearly $400,000 in back taxes and has been described by federal authorities as a "hard-core" tax protester. He was convicted in 1985 of failing to file tax returns, and in 1997 he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing his IRS-seized car. Hansen, who is not licensed to practice law in Oregon, filed a number of documents as Sarkozy�s "attorney in fact" the day before the eviction hearing, seeking dismissal of the eviction notice as "deliberate fraud" and claiming Sarkozy is a beneficiary of a Delaware trust. The motion also included a counterclaim against Jackson County of $5 million for fraud. Aware that county officials believe him to be suffering under Hansen�s wing, Sarkozy denies that he stopped paying property taxes on Hansen�s advice. On the contrary, Sarkozy describes Hansen as "the only man who cares about me." Many of Hansen�s court documents include counter-signatures in the name of Melvin E. Soll, described as a Delaware attorney and fellow trustee. Sarkozy says he�s actually met Soll, with Hansen. "They said, �Paul, don�t worry. They owe us now,� " Sarkozy recounts, "they" being the county. According to a spokesman for the Sheriff�s Office, no action can be taken on the eviction until Monday at the soonest. The court order includes a standard 72-hour grace period to allow Sarkozy time to move out. Sarkozy is not moving out. He repeated earlier warnings that he plans to fight any attempt to evict him and claimed he owns a 9mm Russian-made Makarov semiautomatic handgun. He would not produce it during an interview on Friday. "It�s around," he said, digging out a laminated concealed weapons permit from his wallet instead. "I�m in a wheelchair, but I�m not stupid." Desperate and obviously stressed out, he again becomes teary at the end of the interview. "Here I am today, fighting for my life," he says. "Please, I�m a peaceful man. I just don�t want them to throw me into the street in my wheelchair." Reach reporter Chris Bristol at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.