John McCain, a US tug of love and a family facing eviction
A WOMAN who was evicted from her home in Dalkey this week was previously the subject of a deportation request by former US presidential candidate John McCain.
Christa Johnson, 38, who has been living with her 70-year-old mother rent-free in an upmarket Dublin home since June, was this week given less than a month to leave the property by the Circuit Court.
Now it transpires that the US senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain led a campaign to have Ms Johnson returned to the US after she fled here with her mother, Laraine, in the 1980s.
The development comes as the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that the two women have tried to crowd-source enough money to fund a purchase of the house from landlord James Foley, who has an address in Florida, and turn the home into a woman’s refuge.
The pair, who both also go by the name of Willis, arrived in Ireland via Switzerland claiming that Christa Johnson had been abused by her father.
Laraine Johnson’s exhusband, David Pankratz, a pilot from Phoenix, Arizona, denied the charges and his former wife was charged with abducting their daughter, then aged five.
Mr Pankratz started a highprofile campaign to bring his daughter back to the US and enlisted the help of politicians, including Mr McCain, a senator for his home state.
Mr McCain wrote letters to the Irish government and the thenpresident, Dr Patrick Hillery, as part of the campaign.
In the letters, he said Laraine and Christa Johnson should immediately be deported back to the United States.
However, his pleas failed to move the Irish authorities, who said that it was a private matter.
Mr McCain had also expressed anger at the government’s decision to grant the Johnsons Irish citizenship.
Their cause was championed by the Irish Times newspaper.
Christa Johnson eventually returned to the US in 1999 to pursue a legal case against her father.
But the case was thrown out, prompting Ms Johnson to scream at the judge in court in an episode that made headline news in Phoenix.
Her father won a €750,000 judgment against her mother for abducting his daughter and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Ms Johnson attended St Andrew’s private school in Dublin and studied philosophy at Trinity College, before undertaking postgraduate study at UCD. Her mother is a former singer. Both told Judge Jacqueline Linnane this week that they were unemployed and unable to support themselves. The court heard they had not paid the monthly rent of €1,600 for Twin Trees, Nerano Road, Dalkey, since June. They had also reneged on an agreement to vacate the property by June. Judge Linnane said that though she normally gives only seven days to those who renege on rent payments, because of the time of year she would allow the pair to spend Christmas and the New Year there. They have to be out by January 6. Barrister Paul Binchy, representing landlord James Foley, told the Circuit Court that Mr Foley was seeking to enforce an order issued by the Residential Tenancies Board in January. Mr Binchy said that the board’s order was made on foot of a written agreement reached in November 2015 between Mr Foley and the Johnsons which promised they would be out by June. After the hearing, the Johnsons said that they faced homelessness. ‘For a long time we both worked hard and then things slowly disintegrated,’ said Christa Johnson. ‘We’ve been painted as privileged, wealthy, wilfully staying here as if we’re just going to stay here forever and we have no problems.
‘That’s not the case. We’re in a really bad state. We have no idea what’s going to happen or where we are going to go. We are literally facing homelessness.’
Meanwhile, it transpires that the pair launched a website last year called oursafehaven.ie looking for the public to help them crowdfund the purchase of the €800,000 Dalkey house.
On the site, the pair acknowledge that the amount involved was large but they hoped people would be sympathetic. In return,
Christa Johnson screamed at a judge
‘Things have slowly disintegrated’
they said they would provide a safe haven for ‘anyone who needed it’.
‘We live in Dublin, Ireland, and have recently been given notice to vacate our rented home after ten years,’ it read. ‘It is our hope and dream to purchase the property from our landlord before the given date of departure: September 30th, 2015.
‘In order to do this, we will need your help, and the help of anyone you think might wish to support us. The amount we need is great, but we believe that it is not impossible.
‘If we succeed, it is our dream to give back with a similar ethos, by opening a “safe haven” for others.’
Approached outside the Dalkey property yesterday for a comment, Christa said: ‘There’s been enough damage done this week already.’