9 Dave Rodney/Gleaner Writer A JAMAICA-BORN engineer in New York has filed suit in the Supreme Court of New York against his 79-year-old mother for theft of his Bronx property, currently valued at almost US$2 million. The suit lists the defendants as his mother, Lolita Channer, and his halfbrothers, Bryan and Oral Channer. Esroy Bernard, 62, is a University of Technology (UTech) graduate from Westmoreland who migrated to the United States (US) in 1986. He is seeking to recover a two-family dwelling he purchased on November 4, 1998, for $250,000 through working three jobs, from savings, and from a personalinjury settlement. Court papers say the property is located in the Bronx, New York City. After Bernard became a US citizen in the late 1980s, he sponsored his mother and his stepfather to migrate fromWestmoreland to that country. To facilitate their welcome, he terminated rental for the lower-level, two-bedroom unit at the property, losing out on $1,350 per month for rent, and he renovated the unit for their comfort and convenience. They lived there happily and rentfree for several years, and after they became US citizens, they quickly sponsored their two sons from Jamaica to join them. During those years, Bernard ensured that the needs of his family members were taken care of, sometimes even at the expense of his own wife and children. Around 2007, by virtue of his love and affection for his mother, Bernard entrusted all things to her, including a temporary transfer of the title of the Morris Avenue property. This was on the clear understanding that this was a short-term arrangement. For clarity, the lawsuit stated, he took his mother to the real estate office of Dalling & Dalling Reality in nearby Mount Vernon, where it was discussed that the premises would be required to be returned to its original owner, her son. REFUSAL TO COMPLY A few years later, several attempts were made by Bernard to have his mother sign over the property back to him, but to no avail. Her refusal to comply was strident. The dwelling was instead signed over to the two half-brothers, who arrived in the US between 2013 and 2015. In the words of the stepfather in court documents, the property was to be “his children’s legacy”. The situation escalated after the half-brothers arrived from Jamaica and started taking steps to exclude Bernard from entering the property by changing the locks. It became unbearable when they also changed the locks on the entrance gate. Additionally, the half-brothers altered the lease arrangement with the current tenant to divert the rent payments to their pockets. In a tearful, unrecorded confession by phone, Lolita Channer is alleged to have admitted to wrongdoing in relation to the Morris Avenue property, but said that she was pressured to do so by her husband and her in-wedlock sons. And in a strange twist, it turned out that the attorney who handled the original purchase of the house for Bernard revealed that Lolita Channer, her husband and their two sons were coming to her as clients behind Bernard’s back. Bernard secured another attorney, Lorna McGregor, to represent him after this disclosure was made. “I love my mother and family dearly, but I feel betrayed, and I want to get back my blood, sweat and tears from 37 years of hard work for my own two children,” he lamented in a STAR interview. He added that he first met his mother when he was seven years old, as she had left himwith a relative after he was born. Pretrial hearings and depositions are scheduled to begin this month. J’can engineer in NY sues mom for theft of property Jamaican-born engineer Esroy Bernard ... suing his mother for theft of property PHOTO BY DAVE RODNEY Simone Morgan-Lindo/ STAR Writer DR IVANAH Thomas celebrated her 55th birthday earlier this month and she was all smiles. The Jamaica-born, US-based woman has every reason to be happy, having overcome a tumultuous past, which involved being raped, and then becoming pregnant. SHE TURNED that pain into triumph as she has now fulfilled her dream of becoming a medical doctor, and now holds three other PhDs, an MBA, and a nursing degree. A mother of three, Thomas shares an extremely tight bond with her first child, KeronWilliams, who is the product of her vicious assault. She decided to share her captivating story with in the hope of inspiring battered and abused women worldwide. Born in Manchester, she grew up in May Pen with her beloved father who died in shocking circumstances when she was only 15. She got the message while she was heading to her educational institution, Glenmuir High School. “I rushed back home and found my father dead on the floor. I was very close with my dad and I remember just laying down beside him and telling him to wake up. I had never seen a dead person before and it was extremely traumatic,”Thomas recalled. “I remember clear as crystal that on the day of the funeral when they were lowering the casket, I tried to jump in the hole because I just wanted to die with my father and be with him. It took years for me to get over his death,”she said. About two months later, while preparing to relocate and live with relatives in Manchester, she visited a friend to bid her farewell. The unthinkable happened as her innocence was ripped away. “My friend wasn’t home and one of her family members was outside in the night. He had one hand over my mouth and a knife at my throat and he said‘do not scream’. I remember I was wearing a long dress that went down tomy ankles that my grandmother had sent me. It was a gorgeous dress and that dress, he ripped it off and that is where the assault happened. I remember it like yesterday, that piercing, knife-like feeling. It was horrible,” Thomas described. Thomas said she went back home and did not report thematter to the police. However, after relocating, and now attendingManchester High School, she told a family member. “I started school but a few weeks in I got sleepy and was vomiting. I was taken to the doctor and I found out that I was pregnant. I really didn’t understand anything about pregnancy. I had never kissed a boy or anything, I was innocent,” she admitted. “When the doctor suggested that I do an abortion and not ruin my life, my mother, who was living overseas, said she could not give consent to do so because it goes against everything that she believed in,” she recounted of her Christian mother. Still horrified, Thomas said she did several things to prevent having the child. “I lived in the country and people would say that when you are pregnant you should not walk fast or run or you could lose the baby. I would run everywhere, I would drop on purpose, but my belly just kept growing and growing,” she said. “At the time I didn’t feel any connection to my unborn child. “But my son is precious and means the world to me now.” At age 16, three months after the birth of Keron, they migrated to the US, and in 1985, she completed a General Educational Development test. A year later she got accepted at La Guardia Community College, in pursuit of a nursing degree. She sought a father figure and got married at age 18 to a man 21 years her senior. The union produced two children. That union later ended. But Keron, at age 12 expressed deep interest in knowing his father. “I knew he didn’t have a father figure because my husband did not like him. I don’t know where I got the courage, but I made the decision to take him to Doc turns pain into triumph Raped at 15, mother fulfils dream as medical doctor Photo shows Dr Ivanah Thomas (left) as a youngster in Jamaica with her son Keron Williams while at the family home in Manchester. CONTRIBUTED Dr Ivanah Thomas. CONTRIBUTED PLEASE SEE DREAM, 10 THE MONTHLY GLEANER | MARCH 9 - APRIL 8, 2023 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS
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