Anotehr Case of the Oligarchs Oppressing Middle Class Americans, This Time a Farmer

[JimBowie1958]

Virginia land barons terrorize local farmer

Among the transgressions covered in Boneta’s suit are:

• Over nearly a decade, countless letters from Phil and Patricia Thomas were sent to the local sheriff’s department, Commonwealth’s attorneys, zoning administrators, Virginia Department of Transportation, and animal control wardens – all demanding that these taxpayer-funded officials take action against Boneta.
• Patricia Thomas, an attorney, realtor and member of the Virginia Bar, used her law firm’s letterhead on many of these communications.
• In one 24-hour period, Patricia Thomas called all of Boneta’s neighbors and followed up the calls by drafting letters for them to send to county officials to make complaints about the farmer.
• Aside from growing crops and engaging in other agricultural endeavors, Boneta uses her property as an animal rescue farm, providing a home for approximately 180 animals, including llamas, alpacas, emus, goats, sheep, ducks, and chickens. The Thomases claimed that Boneta was mistreating the animals and demanded county officials seize the creatures. They even sent a picture of an abused horse to the county to underscore their claim. However, the photo they sent was of an abused horse in Australia; the pic had apparently been pulled off the Internet. A county animal control officer inspected Boneta’s farm and found that her animals were in good health and well fed.
• Peter Schwartz, an attorney and real estate developer, a member of the PEC Board of Directors, and an elected member of the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors, conspired in written communications with the Thomases on how to force Boneta’s mortgage in to foreclosure on her farm. Schwartz had legal and ethical reasons to recuse himself because he drafted the conservation easement that the PEC and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency, jointly hold on Boneta’s farm.
• In 2012, Schwartz publicly disclosed that Boneta was the subject of an IRS audit. He disclosed this information before she and her family had been served with the audit. As it happens, Peggy Richardson, who was IRS commissioner under President Clinton, also sits on the PEC Board of Directors and also is Schwartz’s neighbor and close friend. Richardson maintains that this is a coincidence, but the audit coincided with Boneta high-profile resistance to the actions of Fauquier County, Phil and Patricia Thomas, and the PEC.
• Documents show that Schwartz provided Phil Thomas with his personal physical address so that the latter could send him “a package of Boneta materials” in what the suit alleges was an effort to shield Boneta’s personal and financial documents from FOIA requests.
• Patricia Thomas sent numerous communications, again on her law firm’s letterhead, to Boneta’s mortgage company, urging the bank to foreclose on the Boneta farm. Patricia Thomas even requested to purchase Boneta’s note from the bank. These written communications were followed up by phone calls, but the bank refused to comply. This resulted in a series of angry communications from the Thomases, who demanded to speak to the bank’s Board of Directors. The bank refused. Some of these communications can be found here.
• A paper trail reveals the Thomases directed their personal secretary, Rhonda Sherwood, who lives in one of the Thomas tenant houses, to sign an affidavit that Patricia Thomas also authored, about Boneta that was the basis for the county shutting down Boneta’s farm in 2012 when she was in full harvest. Recently, another Thomas tenant and employee also made a complaint regarding the farmer.

The list of transgressions against Boneta is endless, causing countless hours of time away from farming, lost business, hardship and duress. One is struck by the brazen attempt by the well-connected and well-to-do to use their outsized local influence to crush a local farmer. To the land barons, it was time for the farmer to go – by whatever means necessary. Phil Thomas had owned what is now Boneta’s farm before selling it to the PEC in 2000 and he now appears to have seller’s remorse. Patricia Thomas was willing to use her law firm’s letterhead in going after Boneta, even if this brought her in conflict with numerous sections of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Board of Realtors.


When there is no justice the people grow resentful and restless.