What a LONG day in court. I just thought my nerves were shot dealing with this the past few months. Nothing compared to yesterday. I was physically ill for two days, could not eat yesterday and have only slept a few hours the past few nights. It was draining, totally draining, but may finally be over.
We had subpoenaed 5 witnesses. Hazel showed up with 9 people. Don and Johnny came in and sat with us. Our case was called a little before 11am. My attorney asked that the witnesses not be in the court room during testimony. I glanced back and saw a look of total anger from all of them. They wanted to be in there to hear the whole thing and feed off of each others testimony. The Judge agreed and all the witnesses had to leave the courtroom.
Poor Chris was put on the stand first and I felt so sorry for him. Hazel’s attorney drilled him but he did great. Then the police officer was brought in. I was unaware that he had taken pictures of the property and he presented those. He was honest in everything he said and it was all in our favor. After him was the investigator that was called when Hazel claimed I stole 300 cedar boards. He testified that he called me and I offered to allow him to search my farm, I told him I took 12-15 cedar boards that Jimmy had given to me and they were at my farm, I offered to being them back and was genuinely shocked when he said they were claiming 300 cedar boards were missing. I told him there were never that many cedar boards in the workshop. After this, we broke for lunch. When we returned, the remaining witnesses were ordered outside the courtroom and my attorney rested his case for the time being.
Hazel’s attorney called her to the stand. She ended up being one of OUR best witnesses. She was all about being the poor old lady who was a victim and just “wanted it all to end”. UNTIL….my attorney started questioning her. She turned it off like a faucet and became a snippy evil little woman. I counted 5 bold face lies that she told under oath. I was shocked and could not believe she was lying in court. She complained about where the outhouse was, not because it was not covered properly but because she knows what is there under the ground. She admitted it was covered and there was no odor. She complained about the cedar boards. My attorney chewed her up and spat her out on it. Basically he got out of her the boards were there for 2 years (which is a lie because me and Chris hauled the boards to the workshop for Jimmy in April 2008) and said Jimmy put them there. But the main thing is, she was drilled in a way that she admitted she had no clue how many boards were there and there could have been less than 20. He also got out of her in court that the “Bob” has his horses there, there is no written agreement, he is not paying her any money, she don’t know when he will pay her, she trusts him and he is honest, he will pay her when he gets ready, she made him power of attorney over her estate AND he has a lot to gain from being in her will.
Then “John” was called in, who supposedly bought the $3000 in cedar boards. He was our BEST witness. In his testimony my attorney pulled out that he was given two receipts, one was written out in Hazel’s handwriting and given to him before he even gave any money to her saying he gave her $3000. BUT….for some very odd reason, mine and Chris’ names were written at the bottom of the receipt. He was asked why and he said he did not know. My attorney said “was it so you would know who to lie about today?” John could not say anything much. THEN…he said he never looked at all the wood before he bought it but he did look at what was in the workshop and believe it or not he was so bumfuzzled at this point that he said there were less than 20 boards in the workshop. Don was called in and testified that he was in the workshop in September and there were never 300 boards in there. He said we left the property in better shape than it was when we moved onto it.
My attorney rested as well as her attorney and the other three witnesses, including Bob who was dying to get on stand, were called back in but the best part of it is, they had to stay outside ALL day and never even got to tell the lies they were prepared to tell.
The Judge awarded us the money Hazel was supposed to pay from the last court, the money she agreed to pay. He did not award additional damages, which is fine with me BUT…there was no charge for court and Hazel has to pay for half of the subpoenas, which means she basically has to pay for Bob, Bill and his brother to sit outside and not benefit her in any way. In addition, her attorney asked for $3000 credit for the cedar boards. The Judge said that everyone testified there was less than 20 boards, that I was questioned by the investigator, who testified that when he called me I was shocked when he said 300 boards and that I admitted I took 12-15 boards that Jimmy had given to me. Also, that he believes Jimmy gave them to me and maybe Hazel did not know, men do not always tell their wives everything. He said I offered to take them back, let them search my farm, etc. and he has been a Judge long enough to know that a thief and a liar is not going to offer to bring something back like that and offer to have their property searched, take a lie detector and all of that. He said he believes they were given to me, I took them, there were less than 20 and there will be no credit given for the cedar and he don’t want to hear about it again. So that above all else made me very happy.
So we get the original amount agreed on, he ordered her to release the check, told her if she really wanted it over, this was her chance to have that. We are supposed to have the check in 15 days because she has 10 days to appeal and then 5 days to release it. We paid for a court recorder to transcript the hearing so there is really no way she can win an appeal as it will go before the same Judge and he was not very pleased with her. So it looks like it may be over…finally. I don’t have to worry every day about those cedar boards and this weekend Chris and Don are going to take the boards to his workshop and let them dry out good and then they are going to build me a cedar chest to put at the foot of my bed to store quilts in. It will be something that has a story behind it that I can leave to Lakota when the time comes. I plan on writing the story of the cedar boards up and putting it in the cedar chest so she will have it some day.
This entire ordeal has really taken a toll on me. When I get some things caught up at work, I plan to take a few days off to just hang out at the farm and do nothing. I am tired and am still having difficulty eating and keeping it down. Chris and I both have been so stressed and yesterday really took a toll on us. Our case was not over until 3pm. 5 hours!
It saddens me at times that Jimmy approached us and made the agreement so Hazel would have someone to watch over her and not allow someone to manipulate her and take everything she owns. We were unable to fulfill that request and she is being manipulated by someone Jimmy told me himself that he did not trust. But I do feel we did everything we could. Of course now we have to worry about all of the legal fees. But things will come in time. We finally feel like we are free to focus completely on our new home and get things done that need to be done before Winter.
I appreciate everyone that has stood by us, gave so many well wishes and supported us in this struggle. It looks like finally we have reached the end and we are pleased with the outcome. She cannot ignore the Judge’s order a second time. Seeing Hazel lie in court taught me a lot, seeing her turn from sweet and innocent to evil in a split second taught me a lot. Being accused of stealing something like that cedar when you know beyond any doubt you are innocent…hurts. I am glad that was addressed in court and is over with. We have been weakened some by all of this, but in all honesty, what has happened this past year has strengthened us. We never gave up, we never argued over it, it never affected our relationship in a negative way, it made us even closer than ever before and we learned so much from it. Now, it is time to take the experience, grow from it….and move on. Thankfully we have a beautiful farm that will provide us with that opportunity.
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