Many of you have heard about the plight of Virginia farmer Martha Boneta, and her fight for property rights.
But in three sentences, for those who haven’t heard, Martha Boneta is the owner of Liberty Farms in Virginia, and was the victim of years of harassment from neighboring greedy land owners, radical environmental organizations, and a corrupt local government. Whether it was fines for throwing a birthday party for her friend’s little girl, or having animal control invade her home to investigate fraudulent charges of animal abuse, Martha faced a torrent of government obstacles simply for living her life. In the end though, her cause prevailed, resulting in landmark property rights legislation in Virginia and a documentary following her plight, called Farming in Fear.
Now, however, Martha is fighting back.
Due to Freedom of Information Act requests and public discovery disclosures, we now know how deep the corruption ran in trying to run Martha off her land.
For example, the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), the green group that hounded Martha, has several intriguing members on its Board. One of them is Peggy Richardson, who was the IRS commissioner under President Clinton. Ms. Richardson is also the neighbor of Peter Schwartz, an attorney and real estate developer who crafted many of the attacks and complaints against Martha.
Martha was hit with a fraudulent IRS audit, but Schwartz publicly disclosed that Martha was the subject of an audit in 2012, BEFORE the audit was ever served to Martha.
The Thomas family is a neighbor of Martha’s. Records show that Patricia Thomas, an attorney, used her firm’s letterhead to urge Boneta’s bank to foreclose on her farm. This was followed by phone calls, and eventually a demand to speak to the bank’s Board of Directors. Thankfully, the bank never complied.
This is just a small taste of the nasty attacks against Martha Boneta’s farm.
Martha is suing Phil and Patricia Thomas for the alleged acts of corruption and harassment.