Patriot hoists lawsuit in flagpole battle, but fight might be futile — now he’s losing his land

The land’s still there. The lawsuit’s still on. But the flag will have to fly someplace else.

Matt Erickson filed court papers against the city of Leavenworth five years ago, charging he’d been denied his constitutional right to erect an 80-foot flagpole on his parcel along Highway 2 near Chumstick Highway. Now, even if he wins, the property won’t be his — it’s been up for sale for about 18 months, and he expects his bank to start foreclosure this week.

“Life throws its hard knocks at you,” Erickson, 48, said last week.

The foreclosure comes on the heels of the 2009 failure of Erickson’s Cashmere-based cabinetry business, leaving him unemployed. But it also comes as Erickson finds new life as a local tea party activist, pushing the constitutional principles that brought him into this confrontation in the first place.

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