In Memory of Mary Jesus

In Memory of Mary Jesus...

December 20, 2004

Last night I received a call from a dear friend named Sue Doyle.

Sue told me the unfortunate news about Mary Jesus.

I have not seen Mary Jesus since the day I was wandering up and down Alice Street on a warm saturday afternoon, using a bullhorn to call tenants out of their sleepy apartments to sign a Just Cause (anti-eviction) petition. I was with Sue Doyle and John Reiman at that moment, and we were part of a group known as the Campaign for Renters Rights.

The people streamed out of their apartments and the landlords were screaming at us and threatening to call the pigs if we did not move along.

Sue briefly met Mary Jesus that sunny afternoon as we were out collecting signatures for an initiative that re-wrote Oakland's rent laws, and gave the renters some protections from unfair evictions and the eviction for profit system.

I resided on Alice Street in a lovely building for 8 years, and lived directly across the street from Mary Jesus for that whole period. Of course, that was until some greedy bastard bought the property and immediatelly evicted me because I had the cheapest rents in the building. I wanted to kill that fucker and send him back to his maker. I still miss my garden that I nourished in the back yard...

Mary Jesus was a character that was unmistakeable, dressed in black, in her dark shades with long dark flowing hair.

She seemed fierce. Not the type of person that I would want to get into a feud with.

We got to know one another, and at times we went out for a bite to eat and a chat. At one point I helped her to plant some new plants in front of the building where she resided. She was the Resident Manager then.

In a fucked up world gone mad, Mary Jesus was no crazier than anyone else, and it's a shame that the media pundits describe her as a lunatic that lacked therapy.

Therapy, nor John Georges little rubber rooms and thorazine, would do a thing to keep the greedy pigs from evicting her for being behind on her rents, even if she lived there long enough to be a part owner of the place by now.

These landlords in Oakland have been monstrous enough to make many a soul in Oakland consider suicide as an out from their greedy grasp. Believe it. I get calls and e-mails from desperate tenants all the time, and at times suicide seems like an option in a world where the rents are so high that people become convinced that they will never come up with $3,000 cash to move into some other slumlords rat infested hell hole.

Ed Nagy and the Evictors or the greedy property owners are lucky that Mary Jesus did not do to them, what she did to herself.

That would give something to the media to write about...

Recently, I received an e-mail from a V. Vale of Re/Search Publications, asking for assistance to stop the eviction of Mary Jesus.

I immediately responded, and sent off a list of attorney's names & numbers, including the Eviction Defense Center address, located only a few blocks away. I gave instructions for Mary Jesus to reply fast to stop the eviction and contact an attorney immediately.

I was happy to do what little I could to stop the profiteers from dumping her out onto the cold streets of Oakland.

Indeed, a couple of weasels bought her building around 7 to 9 years ago, and the first thing they did was to illegally jack up the rents. When two tenants filed complaints with the rent board in opposition to the illegal rent increases, the weasels threatened eviction to anyone else in the building that dared to oppose their brutal greedy ways.

V. Vale had no idea that I actually knew Mary Jesus when contacting me, and was totally surprised that I knew a few things about her which I mentioned when I responded to his call for help by sending him a list of attorneys and instructions.

It felt good to hear back, and get a thanks for being there to help out. I thought that i did my part to help out...

The media was off the mark by spinning the story of the death of Mary Jesus into a tale about a woman with mental problems.

They missed their chance to speak out against a fucked up society that has War Criminals in the White House that have recently been condemned by two seperate human rights groups for the brutal federal housing policies that have made millions homeless across this nation and in Iraq.

I cannot get the picture out of my head of Mary Jesus standing there high above the street, just before she dived to her death, not knowing what layed beyond...

I wish that I could have done more to help keep a roof over her head and keep her in the home she knew for these past many years...

Goddamn landlords. May they all rot in hell for what they put people through.

May Mary Jesus rest in peace, and may her troubled soul find some happiness in the next dimension of reality, far removed from the greedy landlords and War Criminals that have wreaked havoc on the American people and world at large...

I can't help but cry when I think of the last few moments of Mary Jesus, and what she must have been going through...

In Memory of Mary Jesus...

PEACE

Lynda Carson

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Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:39:32 -0700
To: tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
From: "RE/Search" <info [at] researchpubs.com>  Add to Address Book
Subject: Lynda Carson from V. Vale, RE/Search

Dear LYNDA CARSON,

Paul Boden said to email you.

Briefly, I've been the publisher of RE/Search Publications--a kind of
"counterculture" enterprise--since 1977 in San Francisco. My website
is: http://www.researchpubs.com. I began publishing with the beginning of
the punk rock subculture and haven't stopped.

My friend from the earlier punk days, Mary Jesus (100% Portuguese;
American-born) just got evicted from her Oakland apartment--she's
been there 13 years; it's a 30-unit building.

Her landlord appeared in court with a lawyer, Mary didn't have a
lawyer--BIG MISTAKE! -- She lost. The landlord had tried to evict her
back in July 2003 but lost that time. She called me Friday 3 days ago
and of course I want to help her.

Now, she has a Nov 2 court appearance scheduled, and in my opinion
for this she absolutely MUST have a lawyer. Can you help? How can we
help her get a lawyer for this Nov 2 court date?

Thanks for anything you can do; any suggestion that comes to mind --
All Best,
V. Vale

RE/Search Publications
20 Romolo #B
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 362-1465
FAX (415) 362-0742
info [at] researchpubs.com
http://www.researchpubs.com

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In Memory of Mary Jesus...

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When news becomes something personal

(Oakland Tribune)

12/16/2004

Mike Oliver

A woman jumped off our building Friday.

It was a minor news story, this tragedy at the doorstep of the Oakland Tribune.

But it was a gut check for news people who every day write about and present such tragedies. These stories dot our paper, usually summed up in a few brief paragraphs, daily doses of dead bodies — shootings, stabbings, fatal car wrecks and, occasionally (though not often), a public suicide like this one.

But this one was different — it came to us. On a Friday afternoon, the suicide of Mary Jesus jerked us into real life in real time.

That was her name, oddly, Mary Jesus. And, ironically, she was upset about a possible eviction and being homeless for the holidays.

At 1:50 p.m., feet dangling off the ledge, she slid off the seventh-floor roof holding her nose with thumb and forefinger — as if she were taking a plunge into the water. She hit a light pole on the way down, twisted and slammed face-first into the concrete sidewalk near the building's front door.

Six floors up, through open windows, reporters and editors in the newsroom heard the eerie, collective gasp from the crowd of onlookers. It was an unearthly, anguished sound of more than 100 people simultaneously drawing air. And then, there was the sickening thud.

The moment of violence is now seared, perhaps forever, into the brains of those onlookers, which included many Tribune employees.

Earlier, reporter Josh Richman was out on the roof with Mary Jesus. I was standing behind him watching.

"I'm here to get your story," Josh told her. "Please move off the ledge so I can talk to you."

Police had been called, but they hadn't arrived.

"This is a trick," she said. "They'll just take me to John George (psychiatric hospital), keep me a few days, and I'll be right back out, nothing changed."

She seethed with anger. But she was talking. She was angry about a landlord dispute in which a court had ordered her to pay about $1,000 in back rent. She was dressed in black, wearing black gloves.

She said no one cared about whether she would be homeless or not.

When two uniformed officers arrived on the roof, they forcefully told Josh and me to leave. We went to the newsroom, one flight down. She jumped 15 to 20 minutes later.

I've thought a lot about Mary Jesus since Friday. I wondered if she was among the phone calls that, as an editor, I've brushed off or never followed up on. I figured no, because I'd have remembered someone named Mary Jesus.

But what if she had called — someone identifying herself as Mary Jesus involved in a dispute with her landlord? What would I have done?

The sad story is that her plight may not have risen to my standard of news on any given day. Perhaps my interest in her story would be superseded by the latest on the billion-dollar Bay Bridge cost overruns or the latest bold boast from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or whatever the big story of the day might be.

A rental dispute would face tough competition for space in our paper.

But the bigger story of Mary Jesus, I suspect, is the story of mental illness and the inadequate and inept way in which we deal with those so stricken. Mary Jesus had apparently been in and out of psychiatric care.

The suicide made me wonder about possible parallels to a story we're doing about Rene Pavon, now in jail charged with killing a doctor last year at the very psychiatric facility Mary Jesus referenced. For this story — to be published Sunday — we document Pavon's legacy of mental illness and the holes in the system that led to last year's slaying of Dr. Erlinda Ursua.

Pavon has a long family history of mental illness and many encounters with a system that would patch her up with prescription drugs and send her back out again with little or no follow-up care.

It may be too late for Pavon, now sitting in the Santa Rita county jail awaiting trial for murder. It's definitely too late for Mary Jesus.

As I left work Friday night, a small group had gathered outside our building on 13th and Franklin streets. They burned candles and laid flowers on the spot where firefighters had hours earlier washed away Mary Jesus' blood.

"I wonder," one of those keeping vigil said as I passed by, "if they'll put this in the paper."

For the record, the Oakland Tribune did run the suicide story on Saturday at the bottom of the Cityside section, below stories about two women shot in a melee and the debate over a casino in San Pablo.

At the top of the section, fate would have it, was a story about the city cracking down on a landlord.

Mike Oliver is regional editor for the Oakland Tribune, The Argus, The Daily Review, the Tri-Valley Herald and the San Mateo County Times.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_2489137

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In Memory of Mary Jesus...

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OAKLAND
Dozens see woman jump from Trib Tower

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Report
Saturday, December 11, 2004

A 33-year-old woman jumped to her death Friday from the landmark Tribune building after tossing copies of a suicide note to a crowd gathered below.

Mary Jesus slipped past security in the Tribune Tower and walked onto the roof of the seventh floor, where at least one Oakland Tribune reporter tried to talk her down.

About 1:50 p.m., she jumped and landed on the corner of 13th and Franklin streets as dozens of horrified witnesses watched.

"Some of us saw it, and most of us heard it," said Mario Dianda, the Tribune's editor.

Court records show that Jesus was sued for failing to pay more than $1, 000 in rent this year for her apartment on nearby Alice Street in downtown Oakland.

A jury ruled against Jesus in September. Jesus referred to the case in her suicide note.

The Oakland Fire Department's critical incident stress team will host a meeting at 5 p.m. Monday to help witnesses cope with the incident. The meeting will be at Fire Station No. 1 at 1601 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Counselors were also assisting Tribune employees Friday, Dianda said.

The Alameda County coroner's office said it did not know whether Jesus had any relatives. Anyone with information about her is asked to call (510) 268-7300.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/11/BAEBDIGEST3.DTL

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In Memory of Mary Jesus...

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Posted on Sat, Dec. 11, 2004

Woman jumps from six-story building Woman jumps from 6-story building

By Guy Ashley
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - As hundreds of people watched from the street below, a woman with a history of psychiatric problems jumped to her death Friday afternoon from the top of the six-story Oakland Tribune office building, police said.

According to witnesses, Mary Jesus, 33, jumped about 120 feet to her death while police officers stood nearby, trying to talk her off the ledge that lines the building's roof.

The suicide came at the end of a 15-minute drama that began when passersby at the busy intersection of 13th and Franklin streets noticed her sitting on the roof ledge, feet dangling over the side of the building.

"A crowd had gathered on the sidewalk outside and there were people yelling out, 'Don't do it,'" said Mario Dianda, editor of the Tribune. "It was at that point that several of our reporters and editors looked out the window and figured someone was on the ledge."

At least one Tribune reporter went to the roof to try to talk to Jesus. Witnesses said the woman jumped from the ledge about 2 p.m., shortly after throwing sheets of paper to the street below. The papers were copies of a suicide note in which she made reference to a court case involving landlords attempting to evict her from a downtown apartment.

"Goodbye cruel world and all that," the letter begins. "Just look up the case ... and you'll see why."

Officers negotiated with her for about 10 minutes before she seemed to get upset and started throwing the papers, said Oakland police Officer Danielle Ashford.

In her rooftop discussion with the reporter, Jesus referred to attempts to have the newspaper publicize her eviction plight. Tribune employees said she wrote several letters to the editor, but none was published.

Workers said she entered the adjacent Tribune tower building, signing in with a security guard stationed in the lobby. She took an elevator to the seventh floor, which has an unlocked door that opens onto the roof.

About 200 people, including 30 officers and 15 firefighters, witnessed the incident, Ashford said.

Jesus, a longtime Oakland resident, was known to police as having a history of mental illness. She had previously received intervention from social services agencies, Ashford said.

Court papers say the woman's landlords wanted to evict her from her apartment because she was $1,018.77 behind in rent.

In papers opposing the eviction, she told an Alameda County Superior Court judge that she withheld portions of her rent this year due to "dangerous conditions," including fire hazards and a faulty elevator, that owners failed to address.

Frank Gentle, investigator with the Alameda County Coroner's Office, said police were called to the apartment in recent weeks because she apparently lit several fires in her unit.

By Friday evening, a makeshift memorial with pink roses and a candle lay just a few feet from the spot where the woman landed. Her note was taped to an adjacent light post.

Dianda said the incident affected the Tribune newsroom.

"It shook people up," he said. "It's one thing to write about it from a distance, but it's another thing altogether to have it happening right outside."
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Staff writer Amy Chen contributed to this story.