Posted on 12 April 2012 by @wiseoldsnail
Thursday 12 April 2012
616 Almanza Drive, Oakland 94603
Ms. Marquinita Saucier, daughter of now deceased Marquinita Stajuana Hoyt, left her home at 616 Almanza Drive in Oakland when she was seventeen. She returned at 21, left again at 25, then returned after having experienced domestic violence and street problems including drug and alcohol addiction. She was again away for a time, and is now living back at her childhood home, trying to keep it from being taken from her.
Clean and sober since 14 sept 2001 (just after 9/11 tragedy woke her up), Ms. Saucier has had a very tough existence, and has spent time in hospitals and treatment facilities in recovery. She has been clean and sober for almost twelve years. In 2004, Ms. Saucier lived in San Jose in a women’s boarding house. She had been visiting her mother by bus, then used her first car to visit since 2005. Her mother passed away in 2009.
Ms. Marquinita Stajuana Hoyt was found dead on the thirteenth of September of that year. According to Marquinita Saucier, years previous, her brother, having been left to care for the house while mother was away, had tried to sell the house out from under his mother. On 23 October 2010, Ms. Marquinita Saucier moved back into mother’s house to prevent her brother from selling the house. She came in with support from friends through an open door in the back, to claim ownership of the property. According to her, her brother has taken most of their mother’s valuables.
Recently, court papers are stating the wrong dates as to when Ms. Saucier moved back into the house. She is on disability social security, and attending school taking general studies. After having been forced to take a break from school to try to manage her life and reclaim her mother’s house, Ms. Saucier is again enrolled, and now missing classes to defend the home. Her brother had sold the refrigerator and was trying to sell the house, and the courts are listening to a court appointed executor by the name of Duane M. Leonard, who was appointed because the mother’s will was a handwritten note, not notarized, which left everything to the youngest daughter, Marquinita Saucier. The existing will was thrown out by Alameda County on 14 November 2011, leaving ownership in dispute.
Occupy Oakland has arrived on the scene. About a dozen people spent Wednesday night out in the rain, holding the house against a locksmith and six sheriff officers who came at around 8 o’clock this morning. Home defenders had made a banner saying ‘save nita’s home,’ blockaded the door with furniture and people, and refused entry to sheriffs. After thirty minutes of the sheriffs trying to enter, they left. Multiple neighbors from several households have been supporting the defense of this home by delivering coffee, offering to be witness, and offering up prayer blessing Marquinita and Occupy Oakland, and asking for her to be able to stay in her home.
Though Alameda County Sheriffs have stated that they will call before returning, at this time Occupy Oakland defenders and Ms. Saucier are requesting continuous physical support. Please come to this address intending to peacefully prevent sheriffs from taking the home. Defenders need a few tents, warm, dry clothes, coffee, and food. Bring your cameras and video cameras.