threats, intimidation, libel, malice – politics in washington dc? no, politics in barnstable

October 25, 2007 at 8:28 am | Posted in barnstable, cape cog, capeCOG, capecog.com, eric schwaab, eric schwaab precint 3, eric schwaab town council, eric schwab, eric scwab, eric shwaab hyannis, gary lopez, gary lopez centerville, town council, www.capecog.com | 21 Comments

 Barnstable hate-bloggers taking it to a new low

After learning that several people who were planning to run against the incumbent in precinct 13 decided not to pull papers, Ron Semprini took out papers to run against Town Councilor Greg Milne, the only sitting town councilor who is clearly endorsed and supported by the Schwaab and Lopez hate-blogging “coggers,” and who is, as someone pointed out to me after watching him at the Centerville Civic Association’s candidates night, clearly enjoying that relationship.

Shortly after collecting double the needed signatures needed to run within 24 hours, Semprini received a hand-delivered threatening letter and was eviscerated by the Eric Schwaab and Gary Lopez hate-blogs. He and his family decided that they weren’t ready to put themselves in that line of fire, and Ron withdrew.  At the end of a celebratory and self-congratulatory post, Gary Lopez wrote, “don’t let the door hit you in the arse, Ron.”

 What message does this send to anyone who wants to run for office?

I just returned from three days out of town and found that more than one person is suggesting a write-in campaign in that precinct, since after his only challenger was chased off by threats, Milne is now unopposed.  (see a related story on another blog)

Supporters of Jim Munafo’s campaign recently have found themselves contacting police for criminal activity against them, or their property.  One man received several phone calls at work from Eric Schwaab who accused him of creating a blog that refutes Schwaab and Lopez’s constant conspiracy claims against town staff, elected and appointed officials, and anyone who supports them.  This was the first of several blogs that have sprung up to counter the stuff that the Lopez and Schwaab hate-blogs post regularly. The person who received the accusatory phone call from Schwaab made it clear to him and to others that he doesn’t have a blog, doesn’t care to blog and doesn’t know how to blog.

The phone calls from Schwaab escalated from “accusing” this man of creating blogs, to threatening to “wipe him out” if he didn’t stop supporting the incumbent.  Of course, Schwaab denies all of this, but the phone records prove he made these calls.  Schwaab insists he simply called back after the target of his calls hung up on him. Most of us know that if a phone call gets to a point where one is hanging up on the other, then calling back isn’t going to solve anything.

A few days before receiving those calls from Schwaab, someone had smashed in the back window in this man’s car.

When a story came out in the paper about the subsequent police report filed against Schwaab for harassment, he apparently decided to accuse me of somehow threatening his wife. I don’t know how I fit into this story, nor do I know Eric Schwaab’s wife; I have never met her or seen her, and it is not in my nature to threaten anyone.  As Scwhaab has stated recently, his wife works in Boston and lives in their Brighton home where Schwaab also says HE has a home-office, but Schwaab has suggested she has chosen to stay  in Boston because of this imaginary harassment. 

The other night a family who has been dealing with harassment from their neighbor - who is a close friend of Eric Schwaab’s and who is also running for the charter commission –  found that within a day of putting a Munafo sign up in their yard, the front tires were slashed on their family car.

These incidents are on record at the police station, with other incidents.

What is this local municipal race come to?

 There have been several other incidents and the implications are cause for concern. In the coming days I will discuss them with you and ask you to consider the whole picture.

In the mean time, consider the kind of people who are behind all of this, what offices they are running for - and ask yourselves if this town deserves better than this. 


21 Comments »

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  1. I am the neighbor who has been dealing with harassment from my neighbor Taryn Thoman who is running for Charter commission and the owner of Taryn’s Mirror in Hyannis on Main St. After reading the story in Cape Cod Voice I am even more convinced that these lies, allegations are a way of life for these people.

    When dealing with the harassment from my neighbor, the lies, allegations and false witnesses were never ending. It was interesting to read (in the Cape Cod Voice) that if you do not go along with these people you open yourself to threats and intimidation. Our experience began when my wife and I would not back up a fradulent story to “DSS” involving another neighbor by “Ms. Thoman.” I have countless documents, police reports including charges of Criminal Harassment that were filed by the Barnstable Police dept. After having lived in the neighborhood for less that one year there were approx. 5/6 calls placed to the Department of Social Services regarding our family. All were found to be un-supported. In fact, the department (DSS) did their own investigation and in a letter to us disclosed that all calls placed to the agency regarding our family were placed by “The neighbor”, “The neighbors relatives” or “The neighbors employees.”

    Now, if that does not expose someone that will stop at nothing to get what she wants, nothing will. In the past weeks I have come to know others that have been victimized by her and her relatives (one of whom called in a threat from Ohio but did not block her #. I also received a phone call from this same person.) There is a clear pattern here. Our Town deserves better than this.

    Comment by Ron Howell — October 25, 2007 #

  2. I have been watching all of this from afar for several months.
    What this little group of misfits is doing to my home town is shameful. I volunteered to serve on several different boards and committees for years in the past and I have to say that reading these blogs from another state is depressing.

    Who are these people? Where did they come from? Lopez is a name I remember from the 90′s as someone who would write letters and show up at various meetings. He always appeared disorganized and scattered.

    In our state, a blogger was sued by a county commissioner who claimed that the commissioner was getting kickbacks. The case like many others like it was settled out of court.

    What you all don’t seem realize is that this is how most of these cases end. I hope someone up there will have the guts to take Lopez and Eric Schwab to court. There is a lot to work with there.

    Thank you for your blog and the few others that seem to be on track. It seems they outnumber the bad guys.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 25, 2007 #

  3. Of course our town deserves better. If you read their blogs they dont even make sense, its a bunch of lies and intimidations, peppered with capitalizations for scary emphasis. They bring nothing positive to the table, in fact its the extreme opposite. Hopefully they will be exposed for who they truly are by enough people before election time.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 25, 2007 #

  4. I read that Cape Cod Voice and was disgusted with the way these people behave!!!!! It’s an embarrasment to this town!
    What a bunch of JERKS.

    Comment by Rockie — October 25, 2007 #

  5. Life is too short. People are smart enough to see who this schwaab fellow really is. Focus on what is important and they will self distruct on their own.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 25, 2007 #

  6. There are many stories yet to be told about Eric Schwaab and when people hear what how he truly operates he will be run out of town.
    He is an old friend who would be surprised to know I am now following all of this from afar.

    Seeing him take up with a group like this is to be expected by the likes of Eric. He needs to belong to a group who has taken up a “cause.” But it would seem that the cause he has chosen for this go round is, once again, a bad choice.

    I will be in touch with you Ms. Joakim, we have a lot to chat about.

    Comment by a skeleton — October 25, 2007 #

  7. National politcs look better than Barnstable politics.
    I read the story about Mr. Semprini and I am so ashamed to admit I voted for Greg Milne when he ran against Bob Jones. I will not sign my name because I don’t want anyone to know that I voted for Milne.
    This guy is a piece of work. You deserve a lot of credit for the way you handle him at meetings. I wish someone was running against him because I am tired of listening to him.
    He hasn’t done anything that our neighborhood association has asked him to do. We have had to go to other councilors for help.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 25, 2007 #

  8. I used to work for Taryn Thoman years ago. She will tell you what ever she has to in order to get what she wants from you. People like this do not change. A former member of the No place for hate committe? What a joke. This woman is full of hate. It is a sickness and she is infected. I will not leave my name as I am not sure of what she may do. I did not leave on good terms. She is very charming at first but over time her true colors come out. Her husband is a wacko as well. Good luck to all that must deal with them. Especially her……

    Comment by Anonymous — October 26, 2007 #

  9. A friend told me about the following letter to tbe editor in the Register – what a shame!

    Peter Doiran should be ashamed of himself, but in the end, I am not surprised. Do you want this man on a charter commission?

    much of this is just untrue:

    SMITH SERVED TOWN, NOT ITS CRITICS, WELL
    To the Editor:
    Managing Editor John Basile eulogized Barnstable Town Attorney Bob Smith (Register, Oct. 4).

    Everyone deserves a eulogy. No qualms here: friend or foe.

    Eulogy means a paean of praise for the departed and I know Mr. Smith had fans regarding his home rule and parliamentary stands.

    But he was not always right. Mr. Basile is way off when he writes that Mr. Smith straightened out us all regarding last winter’s public comment crisis.

    I was one defender of public comment in Town Council deliberations. And I had published in The Register a letter on Council’s censorious thoughts. Council wanted to abolish public comment or limit it to a basement room or to edit comments as they spoke. Mr. Smith was involved in these proposals.

    Barnstable’s Town Charter guarantees public comment. It does not say, as Mr. Smith argued and Mr. Basile agreed, Council can regulate it as it sees fit. You could look it up.

    “Citizens have a right to speak, but not a right to a particular forum,” Mr. Basile quotes Mr. Smith. Sounds real legal. It’s not. A “forum,” particular or not, is anywhere an American chooses to speak: a sidewalk, Channel 17, The Register, e-mails, and yes Town Council. It’s amorphous and ever available.

    Thus any site is particular.

    Public comment remains, though still threatened because of a small group of citizens who did not include Mr. Smith. Mr. Basile never asked one of us our opinion.

    Readers must also remember last year when the District Attorney found Council guilty of violating Massachusetts Open Meeting Laws. Council’s adviser Mr. Smith denied this verdict even as he publicly read out the findings as directed by the DA. The Register ran the verdict on its front page. Council still pleads not guilty, but never appeals.

    Mr. Smith served Town Hall but not all town’s people, including some valid critics.

    Peter Doiron
    Barnstable village

    Comment by JSJ — October 26, 2007 #

  10. I am home and reading my emails – I was alerted to this today and went to check myself.
    This was posted on Schwaab’s blog. He will probably remove it, so we will immortalize it here…..

    Hey Eric, after reading the Patriot’s endorsement of Munafo, it seems I’m not the only person you’ve lied to during this campaign.

    Oh yeah…and your ideas suck…

    1. Speaking of expensive, how expensive will it be for the town to hire its own repaving crew, as you suggest? Equipment, salaries, benefits etc. What are you going to do with repaving workers in the winter? Then, in two years when all the roads are repaved.. then what -pink slips. How about you register your car here and start paying your excise taxes to Barnstable. Maybe that would help to fund new roads too.

    2. Who every gave you the impression COMM water will let you tap their lines? Even if they did, wouldn’t you still need to run the water through the so called poison pipes?

    3. I don’t know why JJ hasn’t ripped you a new a-hole yet. You have clearly abandoned the split tax question and are on record as saying you would not vote a split rate of 1.5 but rather a neutered rate of 1.25. (GHACC Candidate night)

    Speaking of questionable motives what makes a guy from Boston, with a car he bought in Boston, and a dog he bought in Maine, change his voter registration to Hyannis, quit work and campaign full time for a $7,000 per year job? hmmmmm

    Finally, You are not one of “US” as you love to proclaim. You were not raised here, go to school here, no kids in school here, parents not retired here, don’t pay your share of taxes here (donation to a 501 c(3) is a dollar for dollar write-off and you know it). WE do not want to be part of your “experiment”. You had your chance to try to “fix” things when you where appointed to the water board… remind me how that ended up!

    I support Jim Munafo because he is a man of his word, whether I like what he is saying, or not. You’re a liar and manipulator, who is trying to scare people into voting for you.

    Chew on that!

    M. Hersey

    Fri Oct 26, 05:12:00 PM

    Comment by JSJ — October 26, 2007 #

  11. These guys are such psychos.

    I would hope people are smart enough to realize this and not vote for them. Any of them.

    Thoman has a reputation for obsessive behavior.
    Her levels of hate and obsession seem to be escalating and I would take care with her. She is libel to snap soon.

    I just hope no one gets hurt. They all seem like the kind of people you see on “Law and Order” taking the perp walk.

    Comment by bebe - cotuit — October 26, 2007 #

  12. Bravo M. Hersey. Finally someone has called one of them out. He is definately up to something. His crew of cronies especially “Ms. Taryn Thoman” of #22 Mountain Ash Rd and owner of Taryn’s Mirror located on main St. in Hyannis are sneaky liars. They are both manipulators! Like two peas in a pod! The more people that are made aware of this type of “BS” the better off we will all be. You know the people that actually live here, have roots here. I do not see how he could scare people into voting for him. I view him as a laughable as I do Ms. Thoman. Actually, the entire neighborhood is laughing. In fact, we are all going to vote and refer to it as the “anyone by Thoman vote” We will all be voting “NO” on #3 There is strength in numbers. Take it from me, these people have the bark of a big dog but the bite of a puppie with no teeth. There will always be the threat of “I’m calling my lawyer” Another thing to take from me, that is a very entertaining sight to see. I also want to thank you Janet for catching this post and posting it here for all to see. You are right that he will probably remove the post as to not be exposed. I will be e-mailing the above posts to approx. 75 voters that I know personally, asking them to pass the word and turn out and vote. Have a great weekend and keep up the good work.

    Comment by Ron Howell — October 26, 2007 #

  13. Where does these creeps come from?
    That stuff in the Cape Cod Voice is downright SCARY!

    Does this idiot Julius actually think people take him seriously? Do any of these people actually work? Do they have families? Do these people tell them how downright childish they look? Or how frighteningly close to the edge they all appear?

    I just don’t know how you do it. I think it is a damn shame that this kind of stuff is happening and that so few people want to step up to the plate to serve. Is this effecting the town committes?

    Comment by Markus B — October 26, 2007 #

  14. Mr. Schwaab seems to have plenty of time to go door to door and tell people what they want to hear-but about things he would have no control over anyways! He cannot eliminate any school fees-that was for the school committee to decide. I seem to remember when the fees were being concidered. I personally worked very hard on educating people and trying to get people to go to the meetings, as there are strength in tnumbers. 4 people went to the meeting-the fees went through.
    Ms. Thoman spends day & night blogging. She herself says she has the right under the first ammendant to say whatever she wants, but gets irate if anybody exposes her!
    God knows what she does all day. It’s nice to see that people are coming out and speaking the truth about these people. These people do not seem wrapped too tight-that is just my opinion, of course!

    Comment by Anonymous — October 26, 2007 #

  15. Paul Gauvin has reminded us why he (stopped working) for the CC Times. Did you see the list of people HE endorses?
    Time for that guy to retire!

    What is wrong with him? Does the Patriot wonder why people stop buying the paper or advertising after their endorsements?

    Have they noticed that their leadership is dwindling? The dotcommons experiment isn’t working. What a joke. I looked at it today and it simply a small group of village idiots fighting amongst themselves.

    Comment by hyannis — October 27, 2007 #

  16. I too have decided to vote no on ques 3 b/c of the people running for charter commission. I too will be spreading the word.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 27, 2007 #

  17. What about David Still and Rob Sennot (Sellout)?
    That paper should be called the Trash Barnstable patriot.
    That newspaper has an important history in this town, but these days they do more damage than good.

    (this comment was edited to remove potential libel)

    Comment by Anonymous — October 27, 2007 #

  18. There is a growing grass-roots movement to vote NO on question three, the charter question.

    BUT we also found out that you can vote for members of the charter commission even when you vote no.

    We are spreading the word to bullet vote. Most of us are going to bullet either Sue Rorhbach or Roy Richardson.

    There are many of us that believe we need a charter commission, but not now because of the damage these people have done to our town.

    Help us spread the word so that we don’t end up with any of these awful Lopez or Schwaab followers on a charter commission that will try to destroy our town!!!!!!

    Comment by NO on 3!! — October 27, 2007 #

  19. How LOW can you GO? I can’t believe the letter that Peter Doiran wrote to the Register! How DISRESPECTFUL!
    What is the point? He is trashing an honorable man who just passed away. What about Bob Smith’s family? Does he care?
    This Doiran or Dorian or whomever he is, is not worth the time or effort.
    It is amazing that this fool thinks he can get a vote in this election.
    To those of us from the outside looking in, Janet, you are right. This is uglier than what is going on nationally.

    Comment by Anonymous — October 27, 2007 #

  20. Neighborhood laughter once again! If this is not bad enough. My neighbor “Ms. Taryn Thoman” of Mountain Ash Rd and the owner of “(a business)” located in Hyannis on Main St. has added yet another camera to her “compound” My wife was walking home from school with the another neighbor and the woman she was with broke out in laughter and said “You have got to be kidding me, another camera” “Ms.” Taryn Thoman has my home as well as the home of another neighbor who lives behind me on her 24 hour video surveillance. She has just added another camera to catch the cars coming down the road. What is she so afraid of? I think the clock is winding down and the wrongs that she has committed, which there are many, are catching up to her. I cannot imagine going through everyday life looking over my shoulder. She is being exposed for the woman that she is. As I said once before “add 1,000 cameras.” It just gives us more to laugh at. I will continue to update the on going. This is yet another reason that we must continue to spread the word “DO NOT VOTE FOR TARYN THOMAN”. Her bizarre behavior is just the beginning. TELL EVERYONE THAT YOU KNOW OR COME IN CONTACT WITH. I AM…

    Comment by Ron Howell — October 29, 2007 #

  21. Being true to my word, tonight I went door to door to inform my neighbors about the camera that is now recording incoming and outgoing cars from
    Mountain Ash Rd that was put up by “Ms. taryn Thoman” and her husband “Mr. Dennis Wilcox” Taryn is also the owner of a business which is located on Main St. in Hyannis. The neighbors were not pleased. Unfortunately, I cannot post the exact comments that were made. I again reiterated that she is running for charter commission and that on Nov. 6th it is important to get out and vote. “Vote for anyone but Thoman” as we have all come to call it. I also made them aware of her place of business. You know what they say about word of mouth… I guess the moral to this story is that people do not want individuals who exhibit such bizarre behavior serving in any capacity. I will quote one neighbor who lives on the other side of Mountain Ash Rd “Our town allows nut bags like that to run for a seat?” I replied “Unfortunately yes” We all need to take the advice that we have been given. Tell everone that you know what they are all about. I AM. Our town deserves better.

    Comment by Ron Howell — October 30, 2007 #


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