PORTLAND, Maine — Portland businesswoman and prominent Democrat Rosa Scarcelli is asking a federal judge to throw out a series of counterclaims by her mother and stepfather, including that she misused money from her low-income housing development firm to help fund her 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
Scarcelli’s filing last week urging U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal to dismiss the counterclaims made by mother Pamela Gleichman and Gleichman’s husband, Karl Norberg, is the latest in a legal firefight highlighted by sordid accusations exchanged between family members over their business dealings.
In her most recent salvo, Scarcelli denies that Gleichman gave her a controlling ownership of low-income housing development firm Stanford Management out of generosity and argues instead that the change of leadership was necessary because the Maine State Housing Authority objected to Gleichman owning any company managing MSHA properties.
Scarcelli initially sued Norberg and his firm GN Holdings LP in January, in part because he refused to exert his authority as general partner of the company to fire Gleichman from her position overseeing a slate of low-income housing projects GN Holdings held stake in.
The former gubernatorial hopeful also alleged that the removal of Gleichman was necessary because under her watch the projects were not adequately maintained, leaving them in jeopardy of being taken over and liquidated by U.S. Rural Development, the federal agency which provided funding for them.
Among the projects Scarcelli listed in her lawsuit as not being properly kept up under Gleichman’s oversight were Maple Tree Estates in Mapleton, Perramond Estates in Madawaska, Pittsfield Park Apartments in Pittsfield and Sara Pepper Place in Dixfield.
Norberg and Gleichman responded earlier this month, levying a series of counterclaims, including the allegation that whatever authority Scarcelli held in the family low-income housing development groups associated with the projects in question was given to her. The couple also claimed Scarcelli used Stanford Management resources “to support her own personal lifestyle … and fund her own political aspirations.”
Scarcelli’s attorney, Jim Poliquin of the Portland law firm Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, told the Bangor Daily News that Norberg and Gleichman’s allegations were baseless and made simply “to embarrass Rosa.”
In her latest filing, Scarcelli denied the mismanagement claims and argued her control of Stanford Management came not as a result of her mother’s generosity, but rather necessity. Scarcelli claimed the Maine State Housing Authority, the in-state administrator for many federal low-income housing funding streams, refused to work with Gleichman, effectively blocking Stanford Management from pursuing development projects while Scarcelli’s mother was in charge.
Scarcelli submitted to the court a 2008 letter to Stanford Management attorneys from MaineHousing in which the authority refuses to do business with Gleichman because of past situations in which she allegedly used project money to pay for “non-project obligations” and other “financial improprieties.”
“She felt she had to respond based on what the written record is,” said Paul Driscoll, also of Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, representing Scarcelli on Wednesday. “We attempted over a long period to resolve things informally, and we were unable to do that despite private mediation.”
George Marcus, whose law firm Marcus, Clegg & Mistretta is representing Norberg, Gleichman and GN Holdings in the legal disputes, did not return a Wednesday call from the BDN.
OMG … we should be sooooooo happy she’s not our Governor
Family Feud.
Always fun.
Stay tuned.
And now, a word from our sponsors…………
Either way this goes, Scarcelli will be a loser.
Hey Layyydeeee ….. let it go.
Would never want to let a family feud escalate to such a nightmare level, especially since every day is closer to all of our demise. Sounds morbid, but it’s true.
I hope she isn’t running for office again. I don’t want to read about this being rehashed over and over again at the expense of the real issues.
Dear Rosa’s mother, please adopt me. My mom died at the age of 58 and I miss her. We could have lunch and visit each other once in awhile to catch up. What do you say? PS I don’t sue family.
” You can trust me, I’m not like the others.”
LOL !
Whatever happened to ” Honor your father and your mother ” , I guess there’s no honor among thieves.
Time for all parties to come clean rather than throw mud.
Nutin’ but class.
There will be 2 winners after this is over. Law firm #1 and Law firm #2.
That pretty well sums it up!
Shame on you Rosa. Shame on the whole dysfunctional group. Absolutely disgusting.
The term “trailer trash” comes to mind, but somehow doesn’t seem quite adequate for this family. Maybe they’re trying to become a reality TV show?
imagine this girl when she goes to sleep and has to think of the mother who is supposed to love her she must feel all alone. family is supposed to stick together
Here is the problem. Gaming the system. This “family” figured out a way to make money and get contracts from MSHA without really competing for them. I know that from 2008-2010 Stanford Management was picking up housing projects at a pretty fast pace, becoming one of the larges HUD prperty managers in the State over night. These are all inside deals that the general public know very little about. So rather than Stanford Management not being able to do business with MSHA because of dear ole “Mom” we will do the bait and switch and turn everything over to the daughter. Sounds like when the daughter wasn’t appreciative enough( giving the parents money) they started a family feud.
The question here isn’t about this “family’, but what is MSHA doing? Why are these properties being handled this way? And who is really benefiting here? Well that is my opinion anyway.
I couldn’t imagine hanging dirty laundry like this out to dry.
She is correct on a couple of points though. Her mother as well as, Michael Liberty were banned from owning or administrating these types of properties. She has a quiet deal with Liberty, who is now a brand manager for WalMart Corp. I’m sure the private contract between her and Mom was a lot different than how they portrayed themselves to their pal Dale McCormick. I think that Mom said I’ll give you a chance and a salary to take care of my things, and Rosa is stealing it in court.
I knew a young family who lived in her/their filthy places in Bar Harbor once for a few months. Disgusting , mismanaged, and zero maintenance.