Activist Abby Hoffman took the microphone at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York, and started to tell the public about John Sinclair who had been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possession of one Marijuana cigarette. He was knocked off the stage by Peter Townsend of the "WHO".

Twenty years later another Abby, Abigail Storm, arrived in the catskill Hamlet of Woodstock, New York to be dipped deep into the Woodstock Spirit. She started attending the Annual Woodstock Nation reunions at the original Woodstock Festival site in  Bethel, New York. During that time she learned that ownership of the site was in dispute. As a paralegal she did her homework and discovered that
A fraudulent chain of title was created by June Gelish, President of Gelish Realty, LLC, in violation of a court order from the Brooklyn Surrogate Court prohibiting her from transferring title of the Woodstock Property.

Here's how it happened.

August, 1989, Louis Nicky (Necketopolous), last owner of record, died.
June Gelish, his secretary and girlfriend, claimed ownership of the property. Sullivan County attorney Ira Cohen, then in private practice, was her attorney at the time.

 Sullivan County Attorney, Ira Cohen, told us he learned about Helen Necketopolous, widow of Louis Nicky and assisted her in obtaining a lawyer. The lawyer helped Helen get control of her husband's estate by having the Brooklyn Surrogate Court recognize her as Administratrix of Nicky's estate. Helen gets a copy of the deed that June said made her owner of the Woodstock site and sees it is a forgery. The lawyer takes the deed with other records of Nicky's signature to New York State Examiner of Records, Gregory McNally, who verifies the forgery.

As  a result, a court order was issued in 1991 by the Surrogate Court in Brooklyn prohibiting June Gelish from transferring, leasing or hypothecating about said property until adjudication by the court. The same court order was again renewed in 1994 and was in full affect until October 1, 1997.

After attending the 21st reunion of the Woodstock Nation at Bethel Daniel Eggink and his wife, Abigail Storm, discovered questionable records filed by June Gelish that claimed she owned the property and began to challenge her right to evict anyone. Also they recognized there was a public easement that had been established by the public's continual use of the open field for more than 20 years.

In July 1995, Abigail Storm founded the Woodstock Nation Foundation as a not-for-profit corporation chartered to protect public assembly at the Woodstock site and prevent development of the property, to raise funds and ultimately buy out whoever was discovered to be the true owner of the Woodstock site. A board of 6 trustees They staged a benefit concert in the Hamlet of Woodstock starring Arlo Guthrie and raised enough to open an office and purchase a computer and fax.

Unbeknownst to the Woodstock Nation Foundation, in April of 1996 June Gelish ignored the court order and entered into a secret agreement with Alan Gerry to form Gelish Reality, L.L.C. The foundation believes Gelish Realty was created for the sole purpose of establishing a false chain of ownership to deceive the public and Helen Necketopoulos. (according to deposition filed in the Brooklyn Surrogate Court by Darrell Supak, who claims to be senior vice-president of Gelish Realty, LLC, and Granite Associates, LP.)

The court order issued by the Surrogate court of Brooklyn and filed in Sullivan county,New York is a public record intended to inform and protect the people of the State of New York from fraud. It is prima faci evidence that June Gelih had no legal standing to sell, transfer,or hypothecate the Woodstock Property in April of 1996.

The problem here is Gelish Realty, LLC, is a corporation created to conceal hypothecation and transfer of title to the Woodstock property prohibited by court order and establish a false public record.

The question before the court are:
Was the court order against June Gelish enforceable in April, 1996, when she transferred the property?

Do Storm and Eggink and the people of New York have standing to challenge the deceptive chain of title?
 

When June Gelish died in April, 1997 without a will, Alan Gerry in the press announced he had bought the site from her for $1,100,000. and the public would be denied free access to the property.

on May 29th 1997 The attorneys for the widow Helen Necketopolous filed an order to show cause to discover real property withheld and belonging to the Decedent. The court order prohibiting transfer was still in affect and no effort had been made to make a settlement with Mrs. Necketopolous the widow.

July 9th Daniel Eggink,  Abigail Storm, daughter Jewel, Joe Anderson, his son Jay and daughter Joy Debberman set up tents on the Woodstock property as an exhibit of the publics right of prescriptive easement because they believed Alan Garry could not in good faith have legally acquired the Woodstock property and did not have the lawful right to arbitrarily prohibit public access.

July 1997

                                                              Photo by Wayne Skala
Eggink Family camping
on
1969  Woodstock Festival Site

When Eggink et all were informed they would have to leave the property or be charged with trespass they challenged Bill Ruth the agent of Granite Associates to prove ownership.
They then had a meeting with Alen Gerry and informed him that they did not believe he owned the property. A few days later Daniel Eggink et all were arrested and charged with trespass

As a defense against the trespass charge they have standing to require proof of lawful ownership by Alan Gerry, Granite associates L.P.and Gelish Realty at the time of their arrest.

The Bethel Town Magistrate would not allow the attorney for Storm and Eggink to introduce evidence that Alan Gerry could not be the lawfull owner of the Woodstock site and convicted Daniel Eggink,  Abigail Storm, their daughter Jewel,  Joe Anderson, his son Jay and daughter Joy Debberman of trespass and fined them $350 each.

Darrel Supak Senior vice president and chief of staff of Granite associates in a deposition filed on the 18th day of July 1997 says that at no time prior to the July 24th 1996 closing did the Gerry respondents know that a court had issued a temporary restraining order in 1991. He failed to mention the restraining order was renewed in 1994.

Supak goes on to say "Prior to the closing Granite requested ( and Gelish agreed) to amend the purchase agreement so that instead of  Gelish transferring title to Granite, the property was transferred to the LLC, and the interests of the LLC were simultaneously transferred to Granite and Alan Gerry." He says"(Gelish transferred her stock in Gelish properties, Inc,. which held an interest in the LLC  to Gerry and Gelish transferred her personal interest in the LLC to Granite). He said the" consideration paid to Gelish was $1.1 million (inclusive of the commritive monument on the site".

This testimony does not match with the Sullivan County Public record where  June Gelish on July 24th 1996  filed a deed in violation of a valid court order transferring The Woodstock property from herself June Gelish to Gelish reality LLC for no money and naming herself as the buyer as President of Gelish Reality LLC with office at her address in Brooklyn,New York.

Supak testified that "The transfer of the Woodstock property to the LLC concurrent with the transfer of the LLCs interests as set forth above avoided the need to record a deed with the Sullivan County Clerk naming Granite as the owner of the Woodstock Property and from which the purchase price could be discerned".

So the LLC was created to avoid filing with the Sullivan County Clerk by June Gelish the President of Gelish Realty LLC and Derill Supak Vice President of Granite Associates L.P.  with the agreement of Alen Gerry.  Then June Gelish President of Gelish Realty LLC  went ahead ignoring the court order prohibiting the transfer and filed a false record of transfer with the Sullivan County Clerk. The only conclusion can be that Gelish Realty LLC was created for a fraudulent purpose and its the people of the State of New York who have been defrauded.

Six members of the public were falsely arrested and prosecuted for trespass and fined a total of one thousand, eight hundred and fifty dollars.

The Woodstock Nation Foundation was unable to continue a credible fundraising campaign to buy the property from whoever proved to be the lawful owner. protecting that the public easement and the becoming caretakers of the property in cooperation with others.

And hundreds of thousands of Tourists were turned away from the Festival site by state troopers acting as private security for Alan Gerry, depriving Sullivan County tax payers the revenue from sales tax that would have been in the millions.

Since June Gelish president of Gelish Gelish Realty, L.L.C. formed that corporation with the intent to deceive and defraud the public it cannot be a legal corporation in the State of New York. Therefore, any interest Gelish Realty LLC obtained from Mrs. Necketopolous is void because of the basic fraud.

When Storm and Eggink heard that Gerry intended to build an entertainment center on the Woodstock site they again on August 19th 2000 challanged his ownership by staying on the property after dark and were arrested.
 
 

ã copyright 1998 EGGINK "a family business"

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