OUR STORY Part 37: AWAITING A VERDICT: DEATH PENALTY SANCTION

Well the tables have turned quite significantly with regard to the focus of our upcoming June 30th hearing. I initially misspoke thinking it was scheduled for July 30th; nonetheless, the impact of the delay has had no less an impact on our stress and circumstances.

The hearing was initially scheduled to address the new defense firm's "Motion for Summary Judgment"; which in essence is their attempt to get the case thrown out of court; and although none of their basis are strong, we can't presume to know what the arguments will be and how a judge will rule.

The course of this hearing took a drastic turn when we were finally handed over our new request for discovery from defendants. As I shared earlier; a very important email and fax surfaced when our Realtor's counsel subpoenaed records from the title company. This included an email from one of the sellers' Realtors sent to the title officer regarding the drainage easement and flood zone characteristics; giving her specific bullet line instructions on what needed to be done to remedy these issues "in order to sell it to us or anyone."

In addition to him not turning over this email during multiple discovery requests; his partner, the listing agent on the property, was cc'd on the email and also failed to turn over her copy of the correspondence during multiple requests for discovery.

Lastly, it appears that neither of these Realtors testified truthfully under oath during their depositions, probably assuming that the email would never come to surface. A key example of this is seen in that on September 16th, 2007, the sellers' Realtors submitted a "Release of Drainage Easement" to our Realtor and mortgage company; implying that the easement had been moved. However, the release was never recorded with the county, and just one day after providing this document to satisfy the escrow process, the sellers' Realtor sent off the email below to the title officer confirming that there was still a problem needing to be addressed. The email (redacted) can be viewed here by clicking on the document and the zoom feature.

 

On another note; the old Cub Cadet finally succumbed to its stressing belts and we had to send it off to a local mower repair shop. The grass is growing rapidly during this peak season of sunshine. Over $500 dollars to get the repairs needed just to sustain it through the season. Not mowing is not an option with Chase Home Finance monitoring our maintaining the property; not to mention we live in an association with its own required guidelines on homeowner maintenance.

Tree limbs are falling everywhere, some 10 feet long and others 5 inches in diameter. A burn ban is in effect so we can't begin reducing our mounding piles of downed tree limbs. 

We're so tired and I'm noticing increased depression in Mike over the past couple of weeks. I pray this all comes to an end soon with some monetary recovery so that we can move on. It's no longer about just recompense, now it's simply about surviving.

OUR STORY Part 36: FOUR YEARS OF SURMOUNTING STRESSES

I haven't had the physical or the emotional wherewithal to write for a couple of weeks, but today is a very special day; and as such, it brings to the surface some emotions that we normally stuff down in order to maintain our momentum as we trudge along through the steepest and highest stretches of this extremely long and immensely rocky trial.

If you’ve ever gone on a long hike up in the Sierras or some undeveloped mountainous area, you realize the importance of pacing yourself and not resting for too long at any point before you reach the peak; lest you lose your aspiration to even finish the climb.

Mike and I have both made a commitment to oneness with God and one another; endeavoring on a journey of continuous spiritual growth in the very face of this adversity. If it weren’t for the strength, endurance and unconditional love resultant of our faith and commitment to God, I suspect that the trials we have endured over these past four years would have annihilated us, and most newly married couples for that matter. But praise be to God, we have yet to turn on one another; but instead have remained securely aligned in faith, prayer and patient love.

Having said that, we are still human and occasionally succumb to moments of difficulty; battling physical exhaustion, oppression, and disappointment. Delays continue to drag out this arduous legal battle of hearings, depositions and postponements; not to mention the looming threat of foreclosure.

On top of that, we are struggling to survive the maintenance on the property with a mower running on one belt and a very dull blade. And as if things couldn’t get any more stressful, we walked over to find a puddle of water developing along the fence line which means we have an underground broken water main pipe; and since we no longer have the home warranty coverage to help us with a plumber we can’t address this right now.

So why is today a very special day? Today is our fifth (5th) wedding anniversary; four of those years have been spent dealing with the trauma and legal circus surrounding our “dream home”; a house located in a flood zone and atop a designated drainage easement.

The fact that these individuals could betray us through the act of fraud; having us invest our life savings in this property is bad enough; but to continue to lie and perpetuate three years of malicious delays in our civil case, lacking any remorse over what they have done to our lives is unconscionable.

I haven’t had a question about our love surviving this experience; but we both have had a question as to whether we both will endure this physically.

The other day Mike shared that his chest felt concave and he was dizzy. Mike’s isn’t at all one to exaggerate; so I took it seriously when he said “I thought there for a while God was taking me home.” He hasn’t been looking good, and still doesn’t sleep through the night. Today after working outside mowing a while and weed whacking he sat on the Jacuzzi edge. I pulled up on the mower and turned it of; he looked really bad. I asked “Are you okay?” He couldn’t even get a word out of his mouth, but simply mouthed to me “I’m. . . okay.” He didn’t seem real coherent so I asked him again and he just gazed at me with this strange look. He eventually walked in the house and we called it a day.

This is one of those times that I struggle with feeling anger towards these defendants, and the ongoing evil in dragging on this charade of lies; especially with all of the indisputable documented evidence against them.

Bottom line; they have had an insurance carrier taking the burden off of them for a few years and now they apparently have someone bank rolling their defense, or they are so disgustingly rich from their successful real estate endeavors that they are unscathed by these delays.

It will be very painful if we lose our home and everything we have to a foreclosure; but if we were to lose one of us…. ?