The exterior of the North Shore Health & Rehab Facility in Loveland is pictured on March 18, 2020. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
On the morning of Sept. 4, Lauri Thompson watched as four men, dressed unusually in business attire, walked into the Loveland nursing home where she works.
“We’ll show ourselves around,” one of the men told Thompson, as she recalls.
Lynn Stockwell, executive director at North Shore Manor, soon found the four in a resident area that is off-limits to the public. She ordered them to stop walking and identify themselves. “But they ignored me and walked past me,” she claimed under oath, “as if I was not there.”
Over her objections, the men took photos as they walked, which spooked both the staff and residents, who had emerged from their rooms to ask who the strangers were.
Jesse Wood, a chef, was baking bread when the four appeared in a kitchen doorway. He asked who they were and what they were doing; they ignored him and took more pictures, he recalls. When Wood told them they would need to wear protective gear, such as hairnets, so as to not contaminate his food, the men took the last of their photos and moved on.
Of the four, one was especially standoffish, refusing to provide even his name or to shake Stockwell’s hand, according to her and Josef Davis, another North Shore employee. The other three also refused to identify the man, the best-dressed of the four in a dark suit.
“The man in the dark suit then told Ms. Stockwell, in a very stern and powering voice, that he will be leaving with a check today,” Davis recalled in a sworn affidavit on Sept. 9.
“Ms. Stockwell,” Davis said, “did as the man in the dark suit instructed.”
Surveillance video from the morning of Sept. 4 shows four men in the North Shore Manor nursing home in Loveland. (Courtesy of North Shore Manor)
Chris Carrington, a lawyer representing North Shore Manor, claims that the man in the dark suit that day was John O’Brien, an attorney in the Denver office of Spencer Fane. Carrington wants O’Brien held in contempt of court and removed from a case involving North Shore.
“O’Brien and three confederates entered North Shore’s facility and conducted a shakedown worthy of a Martin Scorsese mob movie,” Carrington claimed in his request for sanctions. He said that “O’Brien’s conduct was likely criminal” and unbecoming of a lawyer.
O’Brien has acknowledged being at the nursing home but denies the other allegations.
After refusing to identify himself or shake her hand, Stockwell recalls that the man in the dark suit and two others followed her into her office, towered over her and blocked the exit.
“It was then that the man in the dark suit looked me in the eye and told me that the men would not be leaving until I had written two checks for $70,000 each and provided all the other information they requested,” Stockwell recalled in an affidavit a few days later.
“I then realized that it was actually me who would not be leaving that office until I wrote the checks,” she says, referring to the man in the dark suit as “very serious, angry.”
The two $70,000 checks were for rent in August and September, which Stockwell had not paid, fearing the checks would bounce or leave North Shore unable to make payroll.
North Shore’s real estate has been run by a receiver — Scott Shuman, one of the four men who is said to have shown himself around Sept. 4 — since August because it defaulted on a $2.5 million loan. North Shore said that loan was taken out by its ex-CEO, Bob Wilson, who it is suing for $1.1 million that the nursing home believes he stole. Wilson denies that.
A seven-day trial is scheduled for January in Fort Collins. But first, Judge Michelle Brinegar must decide whether to penalize O’Brien, who is an attorney for Wilson and his companies. Carrington’s motion asks that O’Brien be kicked off the case as punishment.
In a partial response to Carrington’s allegations Sept. 11, O’Brien refers to the Sept. 4 incident as a “receivership visit” and said he was invited there by Shuman. O’Brien notes that Shuman has the power to collect rents. He calls the allegations of wrongdoing “disputed.”
Brinegar gave O’Brien a small and initial win when she ordered Carrington to refile his motion for contempt, finding that the initial document was “replete with inflammatory, unprofessional, and unnecessary language.” O’Brien’s client has seized on that order.
“Columbine Health Systems is pleased that the court, in a harshly worded order directed towards North Shore Manor’s counsel, Christopher Carrington, rejected the personal attacks on Columbine’s representatives,” one of Wilson’s companies said in a statement.
“Mr. Carrington’s attacks on Columbine Health’s professionals followed a litigation setback for North Shore,” the statement went on to say, referring to the August receivership.
Then, on Friday, O’Brien filed a motion asking that Carrington and North Shore Manor be held in contempt in court for stopping payment on the two $70,000 rent checks.
O’Brien has been a lawyer here since 1985 and has an unblemished disciplinary record. He is a partner at Spencer Fane, which has 540 lawyers spread across 27 U.S. cities.
The exterior of the North Shore Health & Rehab Facility in Loveland is pictured on March 18, 2020. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
On the morning of Sept. 4, Lauri Thompson watched as four men, dressed unusually in business attire, walked into the Loveland nursing home where she works.
“We’ll show ourselves around,” one of the men told Thompson, as she recalls.
Lynn Stockwell, executive director at North Shore Manor, soon found the four in a resident area that is off-limits to the public. She ordered them to stop walking and identify themselves. “But they ignored me and walked past me,” she claimed under oath, “as if I was not there.”
Over her objections, the men took photos as they walked, which spooked both the staff and residents, who had emerged from their rooms to ask who the strangers were.
Jesse Wood, a chef, was baking bread when the four appeared in a kitchen doorway. He asked who they were and what they were doing; they ignored him and took more pictures, he recalls. When Wood told them they would need to wear protective gear, such as hairnets, so as to not contaminate his food, the men took the last of their photos and moved on.
Of the four, one was especially standoffish, refusing to provide even his name or to shake Stockwell’s hand, according to her and Josef Davis, another North Shore employee. The other three also refused to identify the man, the best-dressed of the four in a dark suit.
“The man in the dark suit then told Ms. Stockwell, in a very stern and powering voice, that he will be leaving with a check today,” Davis recalled in a sworn affidavit on Sept. 9.
“Ms. Stockwell,” Davis said, “did as the man in the dark suit instructed.”
Surveillance video from the morning of Sept. 4 shows four men in the North Shore Manor nursing home in Loveland. (Courtesy of North Shore Manor)
Chris Carrington, a lawyer representing North Shore Manor, claims that the man in the dark suit that day was John O’Brien, an attorney in the Denver office of Spencer Fane. Carrington wants O’Brien held in contempt of court and removed from a case involving North Shore.
“O’Brien and three confederates entered North Shore’s facility and conducted a shakedown worthy of a Martin Scorsese mob movie,” Carrington claimed in his request for sanctions. He said that “O’Brien’s conduct was likely criminal” and unbecoming of a lawyer.
O’Brien has acknowledged being at the nursing home but denies the other allegations.
After refusing to identify himself or shake her hand, Stockwell recalls that the man in the dark suit and two others followed her into her office, towered over her and blocked the exit.
“It was then that the man in the dark suit looked me in the eye and told me that the men would not be leaving until I had written two checks for $70,000 each and provided all the other information they requested,” Stockwell recalled in an affidavit a few days later.
“I then realized that it was actually me who would not be leaving that office until I wrote the checks,” she says, referring to the man in the dark suit as “very serious, angry.”
The two $70,000 checks were for rent in August and September, which Stockwell had not paid, fearing the checks would bounce or leave North Shore unable to make payroll.
North Shore’s real estate has been run by a receiver — Scott Shuman, one of the four men who is said to have shown himself around Sept. 4 — since August because it defaulted on a $2.5 million loan. North Shore said that loan was taken out by its ex-CEO, Bob Wilson, who it is suing for $1.1 million that the nursing home believes he stole. Wilson denies that.
A seven-day trial is scheduled for January in Fort Collins. But first, Judge Michelle Brinegar must decide whether to penalize O’Brien, who is an attorney for Wilson and his companies. Carrington’s motion asks that O’Brien be kicked off the case as punishment.
In a partial response to Carrington’s allegations Sept. 11, O’Brien refers to the Sept. 4 incident as a “receivership visit” and said he was invited there by Shuman. O’Brien notes that Shuman has the power to collect rents. He calls the allegations of wrongdoing “disputed.”
Brinegar gave O’Brien a small and initial win when she ordered Carrington to refile his motion for contempt, finding that the initial document was “replete with inflammatory, unprofessional, and unnecessary language.” O’Brien’s client has seized on that order.
“Columbine Health Systems is pleased that the court, in a harshly worded order directed towards North Shore Manor’s counsel, Christopher Carrington, rejected the personal attacks on Columbine’s representatives,” one of Wilson’s companies said in a statement.
“Mr. Carrington’s attacks on Columbine Health’s professionals followed a litigation setback for North Shore,” the statement went on to say, referring to the August receivership.
Then, on Friday, O’Brien filed a motion asking that Carrington and North Shore Manor be held in contempt in court for stopping payment on the two $70,000 rent checks.
O’Brien has been a lawyer here since 1985 and has an unblemished disciplinary record. He is a partner at Spencer Fane, which has 540 lawyers spread across 27 U.S. cities.
