Tag Archives: Ellen Schreder

Schreder Complaint 1

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This is in regards to the matter of Sara Elizabeth Berg vs. Steven William Berg, Court File No: 27-FA-06-7827, in Hennepin County, Minnesota

I am writing to complain about attorney Ellen Schreder and her code of conduct.  Ms. Schreder has been the attorney for my former wife since 2007.  Her deplorable and questionable behavior towards me extends at least that far.

My latest encounter with Ms. Schreder occurred during my latest child-support hearing with her and my ex-wife on August 29, 2019 at the Hennepin County Justice Center.  I was unable to attend in person and had made arrangements with the court to appear by phone.

Ellen Schreder’s treatment of me during the hearing was rude and uncalled for and I am extremely upset.  I was expecting this meeting to be a simple matter of clarification and explanation of my income since I was taken off of Social Security Disability Insurance last year, after having received benefits since 2009.  This also meant that my ex-wife was no longer receiving my disability benefits either.

Earlier this year, Hennepin County contacted me regarding the need to re-calculate my child support obligation since my ex-wife was no longer receiving it from Social Security.  I was unable to attend the initial hearing date set for February 28, 2019.  I was ordered to resume making payments of roughly $720.00/month.  Since there was a period where I was unemployed and unable to make any payments, I filed another motion pro se, in order to obtain another hearing.

My work situation has been complicated due to the fact that I have been working as an IT contractor and have been forced to move quite often.  However, I have consistently maintained a permanent address in Rockford, IL and have kept the child support office updated with this information along with my phone number.  That office has never been unable to contact me.

During last week’s hearing, Schreder would not allow me to explain the “Ticket-to-Work” program that I was supposed to be on, which is designed to allow those who are temporarily disabled to transition back to work while not risking losing their disability.  The Social Security Administration had mistakenly claimed that I (and subsequently Sara) was overpaid during the months when I was trying to get back to work.  I was surprised when I found this out and am appealing this matter with the federal government.  Because Ms. Schreder interrupted me and refused to listen to my explanation, I believe she was trying to implicate that I was deliberately trying to somehow defraud both the government and my ex-wife with such interrogating questions as, “Were you aware that Sara was being overpaid by Social Security because you were working when you should not have been?”

Ms. Schreder also interrogated me as if I were a criminal regarding my living situation despite my having provided the child support office with my permanent address in Rockford, IL, which is my mother’s address and where I have lived in between contract jobs.  She refused to accept that as a satisfactory answer and used fear and intimidation by demanding to know where I slept the night before and where I currently was.  When I hesitated because I was looking for the address of my location at the time, she pressured me and even warned me that I was “under oath,” implying that I might not tell the truth.  I believe Ms. Schreder was totally out of line by insisting I provide this information and speaking to me in such a condescending manner.

Further proof of Ellen Schreder’s predatory and harassing behavior is demonstrated by the fact that she authorized an unnecessary investigation pursuing not only regarding my income sources and history, but also in pursuit of personal, irrelevant details about me, my friends, and former roommates!  This investigation was instigated without my knowledge or consent and I regard it as a total invasion of privacy of not just me, but also others who are completely disconnected from this matter.  This investigation went so far as to provide details about my friends and their lifestyles on social media, and their whereabouts.  She had absolutely no business conducting such an investigation.  I confirmed this with my child support officer, Don Patterson this morning (9/11/2019) who said that this not part of the child support practice.  This investigation was completely unnecessary!  My permanent address, phone number, and employment have always been easily accessible to the county and child support office.  I was NEVER contacted by this investigator who went so far as tracking down a former roommate of mine in California that I no longer have any association with.  This investigator also dug into the social media contact of one of my close friends and included that in the report.

I was endeavoring to approach this recent child support hearing with the best of intentions and with the good news that I had recently obtained new PERMANENT employment, and even supplied a recent paystub to prove it.  I was able to then change my motion and to ask the court to re-calculate my obligation based upon my new salary.  Ms. Schreder, however, failed to give me the benefit of the doubt and just assumed that I had been trying to dodge paying child support altogether.  The reality is, I do want to contribute to the financial care of our son and stated as such right off the bat at the hearing.  But, given my tough circumstances, and the fact that my own ongoing health is a priority (as a heart transplant recipient, it literally costs hundreds of dollars a day on average to keep my alive), I can only do the best I can.  Ellen Schreder failed or refused to recognize this, despite my plea and insistence that I “don’t want to fight” and only wanted to do what was right and feasible.

As I have already mentioned, Ellen Schreder, has been terribly cruel to me ever since our divorce in May 2008.  My medical team and I believe that she is partially to blame for the PTSD that I suffered as a result of the divorce, which was a primary factor leading to my heart failure and eventually needing a heart transplant in November of 2008.

Schreder used several cruel, intimidating, and outrageous tactics during the trial often resorting to hearsay evidence, included providing as an “Exhibit”  private, personal pictures of me that my ex-wife had given her without my knowledge in an attempt to prove that I was unfit as a parent.  The judge at the time, Jay Quam, immediately rejected this along with other similar forms of “evidence” that she provided as irrelevant.  However, I was horrified and humiliated. 

After the divorce was final, it was only a couple weeks that I lost my job, and then a few weeks after that, that I was rushed to the hospital and discovered that I had severe congestive heart failure and was in desperate need of a heart transplant. 

After several more weeks, as my condition worsened, one of my cardiologists informed my family that I had at best, only a couple days to live.  Within a matter of weeks, Ellen Schreder sent a letter to my family while I was hanging on for my life in a Chicago hospital, demanding to know what my life insurance was since Sara was supposed to be a benefactor according to the divorce decree. At the time, I didn’t even have health insurance, much less life insurance and my family was working on getting me on Medicare.   The callous gall shown by Ms. Schreder in sending this letter while I was quite literally on my death bed, is a horrifying reflection of her character.

To this day, I am terrified of Ellen Schreder and have suffered from nightmares and flashbacks of her and the divorce.  I cannot bring myself to open any email I receive from her or her office, and I am highly considering getting a harassment restraining order against her.

I believe that Ellen Schreder has been abusing her legal authority and deliberately creating unnecessary expenditures (such as this recent unwarranted investigation on me), primarily because I cannot afford my own attorney, to not only intimidate, ridicule and bully me, but to force me to pay for her client’s attorney’s fees, something which she has done in the past as well.

Ellen Schreder is a menace and a disgrace to her profession.

I am happy to provide any documentation in support of my claims.

I am seeking protection from Ellen Schreder who has most recently engaged in harassing, bullying, intrusive and unnecessary tactics which cause me undue fear and anxiety. 

Forced to Pay Schreder’s Fees

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Monday, June 22, 2020

To Whom It May Concern:

It is to my great chagrin that I am forced to comply with the court order demanding that I pay for Ellen Schreder’s wasted time and effort for the unnecessary work that was spent prying into my and my acquaintances’ privacy and digging into my previous employment history when the motion I submitted never inquired about it.  The magistrate’s decision was based on inaccurate assumptions that I was less than straightforward in reporting my employment.  I answered truthfully and to the best of my knowledge, completed the questions on the pro se motion that I submitted.

The reason for my delay in paying this is due to my original intent to appeal this decision, but I was only recently informed by my counsel that it will be too late by the time my next motion is filed.  Nonetheless, I feel the need to set the record straight.

First, I was misled by the Hennepin County Attorney who initially notified me in early 2019 that this matter was being brought before the court.  At that time, I was unemployed and had mounting medical bills.  The consequential hearing occurred before I was made aware of the hearing date. As such, I motioned the court myself.  I informed the County Attorney of my desperate situation and indicated that I could not afford to pay any child support because I had no income at the time with no assurances of any upcoming employment changes.  She assured me that I would not need an attorney and that I had nothing to worry about since, “you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.”  I was STILL unemployed when I submitted the motion.  Needless to say, I was surprised to find out that Sara obviously did have the financial resources to hire an attorney, unlike myself.

Secondly, I have no income that can be imputed upon me since I have been largely unemployable.  Any employment I have been lucky enough to find has been occasional, temporary and tenuous for over a decade now since I usually fail pre-employment background checks.  This is a direct outcome of Sara’s unfortunate decision to press criminal charges against me over a disputed $200 utility bill during our divorce which resulted in my obtaining a misdemeanor theft on my record.  As such, I have only been able to find short-term contracts with no guarantee of extension or permanent hire.  I have actually been offered at least a dozen positions over the past 10 years with companies such as UnitedHealth Group and Wells Fargo only to have these job offers withdrawn because of my background.  In one instance, a hiring manager at UHG was so eager to have me come on-board that she had set me up with an entire cubicle, computer, login accounts, etc. before having to pull the plug on me at the last minute.

I believe Ellen Schreder, in her infinite wisdom, counseled her client to press charges against me over this trivial matter which has since been preventing me from being able to pay my child support since I have not been employable on a long term basis.  Had I been able to easily pass these background checks like I used to, I would have had a full-time, permanent job with a six-figure salary 10 years ago and would have been much further along in my career, and would have been able to pay Schreder’s client much more in regular child support and would not be so deeply in arrears now, if even at all.  Not only does Schreder lack any concern for the best interest of our son, she apparently does not even have her own client’s best interest in mind either.  Perhaps, instead, she was too blinded in her zeal to destroy me to even realize that she had shot her own client in the foot. If it weren’t for Ellen Schreder, neither Sara or I would have suffered so much financially. 

In any event, this was the situation early last year.  Right after the submission of my motion last summer and before the August 29 hearing, I was luckily and finally able to find a good, permanent job despite my criminal background, working for a smaller company that was willing to take a chance on me.  However, since it was a new position, and since, historically, it can take several weeks for background checks to clear, I was not sure when it would be appropriate to inform the court of my status change.  Since I did not have a lawyer and was even advised not to secure one, in good faith, I informed the court at the hearing itself, not intending to cause any inconvenience.  The purpose of my motion was to supply the court with accurate employment information in order for my obligation to be correctly determined.  Schreder’s presence and the extensive background investigation she had conducted was unnecessary and frivolous.  What I was told would be a simple, straightforward matter, Ellen Schreder has managed to muck up (again) and then charge Sara and I for it.  While it is unfortunate that I was not able to bring this information before the court, I’m glad, at least that Sara now realizes this herself.

Since I cannot afford to pay this entire bill at once, I am supplying your firm with these 4 checks of $250 to be deposited no sooner than they are dated.  And, in case I need to repeat myself, the reason for the long delay in sending this money is because I was under the impression that I would be able to appeal this decision, but have since discovered that the time to appeal it has expired.

Ellen Schreder Donaghue – The Wicked Witch of the Upper Midwest

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Ellen Schreder Donaghue is a Minnesota attorney who is partially responsible for almost destroying my life – and quite literally, as I almost found myself on my deathbed that same year.

  • 2008 is decidedly one of the worst and yet best year of my life. I nearly lost everything, including my own life.
  • I was going through a wicked divorce that I did not know how to handle.
  • Sara and her attorney, Ellen Schreder are partially responsible for causing the stress and anxiety that led to the deterioration of my heart health ultimately resulting in my heart failure.
  • She has unscrupulous tactics that left me utterly dumbfounded. I could not believe that someone was capable of doing the evil, things she did to me.
  • Now, Sara is again sicking her attack dog, old crony lawyer on me to try and suck money out of me.

On Thursday, August 29, 2019, I had a hearing with Ellen Schreder and Sara and the judge/magistrate.

My original motion was that I was not employed and could not pay. Well, when I submitted the motion, I WAS unemployed. But, I have since found full-time employment. at LTCG.