My name is Hans Croteau. My life has been turbulent. As I child, I stood in awe and wondered how mankind had accomplished the technological marvels that it had. Wanting to do the same, I decided I would become an inventor. Later, I wondered how mankind had managed to avoid its own extinction. Now, I realize that the sixth mass extinction is indeed already under way. I take responsibility for wanting to imitate those who invented technology which may have brought about humanity’s own demise, even if only in part.
In 1999, I designed and patented a self-lacing shoe similar to the one portrayed in Back to the Future, Part II. I expected a cult like following of that cute, benign, and yet awe-inspiring concept. In 2014, Nike, Inc. patented the Mag design, and released its first pair to actor Michael J. Fox on October 21, 2015. It seems even Nike recognized the interest the masses had developed for that shoe. In the process, I learned more than just mechanical design. I learned the harsh political reality that I presume comes with the design of any product. Without teamwork and genuine human connectivity, even the greatest of concepts stand little chance of success. But then again, success is also in the eye of the beholder.
In 2007, my sibling, a contractor, destroyed my elder mother’s home. He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her. Litigation ensued. Being my sibling, he had personal knowledge of my trials and tribulations. He leveraged that knowledge to not only defend against his liability to my mother, but to concurrently destroy our reputations. Our lawyers treated the matter as a simple construction defects case, as opposed to the complex financial elder exploitation that it really was. Faced with a slew of fabricated contentious accusations that the judge undoubtedly wanted to ignore, he adjudged both parties to be liars and gave no judgment to either side.
My sibling then sued my mother and me, purportedly for malicious prosecution. Our insurance agreed to defend us, but then betrayed us by paying my sibling $325,000 to settle. We retained a lawyer who then sued our insurance for bad faith. That case was dismissed when we ran out of money. My sibling then targeted that lawyer, again for malicious prosecution. Due to these complexities, that lawyer suffered a debilitating depression. He thus failed to appear at his own trial. My sibling thus obtained a $1.4 million dollar judgment. We had been served with deposition subpoenas in that case. Our insurance had refused to honor its illegal settlement and defend us at those depositions. Our efforts to force our insurance to get us an attorney by challenging the illegal settlement were dismissed without prejudice. We then claimed that the Department of Insurance has a duty to control the misconduct of its licensee, our insurance. That too was dismissed. That dismissal is now pending on appeal in the Ninth Circuit. The California Attorney General will be responding to our claims of judicial corruption on June 9, 2020, and we expect to reply, in pro se, on June 30, 2020.
I do not tell you this story to provoke fear. If it shocks you, I sincerely apologize. I understand if you are skeptical of my claims. Any reasonable person would be. Yet I swear I tell you the truth, and I tell you this so that you can understand my motivation to bring my concept into reality. I published it on my website in 2017, along with my unfinished screenplay. Being that my sibling has corrupt judgments against my mother and me, I pursued my concept under the fictitious name of the character I had developed for my screenplay. Instead of my picture, I represented myself with my red, blue, and green hexagonal avatar which eerily resembles Solid’s purple and white insignia. When I found and joined the Solid community three days ago, I decided to reveal my true name, regardless of any future consequences. I had tried to join several internet communities, but my legal troubles keep dragging me away from my work. None of those communities, although beneficial in ancillary ways, was a fundamental platform like Solid. One last thing. In court papers, my sibling, whose initials are J.C., refers to me as his estranged brother. This is why, hereinabove, I refer to him as my sibling. He is not my brother. If accepted, then Solid will become my family. If accepted by another man whose initials are also J.C., then that man will become my brother, albeit from another mother, and born at a time long, long ago.
It looks adorable.
