Court

Around 10:00 am, Karen showed up.
We took off towards court, even though it was going to start 1 hour and 15 minutes later.
We got there almost an hour ahead of the scheduled start time.

A little cafe down the street, I bought her a cafe mocha and I had a coffee. My coffee was pretty darn good - they didn't have any coffee made at the time so I got an espresso with water and cream. Karen was looking at some art on the walls - was quite intrigued by it.

Half an hour later, we leave and go back to court.
Mary shows up shortly after we entered the courtroom, we were almost 30 minutes early. We listened to a married getting divorced couple argue over kids and an order of protection.

I listened intently - mostly to the judge and how he was reacting to everything, since what I was doing was the same thing: order of protection.

After that was done, we were up next. He was a commissioner, but was in the seat of the Superior Court. He started with me. He basically said to prove my case. I was the plaintiff - of course. I went into everything, he cut me off on many things. I didn't argue with him about any of it - but he was cutting out stuff that I was attempting to present that was quite material to my case. It became evident that the only thing I could rely on was Mary's meth use. Not because he said so, but because it is a crime, my witness would attest to it, and that was the case.

So, I started in on that, almost without exception. Mary got her turn. She spewed forth one lie after another. I have learned to simply keep a straight face - even when the lie is SO far off, the truth is an ocean away. Because it was Superior Court, we were asked if we wanted to ask each other questions. I asked numerous questions of Mary - she lied on every one of them - BLATANT lies.

Moving on. Not worth going into her academics in court, Mary is a patent liar and has no reservations in doing so, even under oath.

The judge asks for my witness - Mary did not show up with witnesses, something that did surprise me. Karen got up on the stand, the Judge tells me to ask her whatever questions I might have. My questions were generic - to give Karen latitude to reply in full. And certainly, her replies gained keen interest from the Judge. When I was through with her, Mary had her chance. Mary - came up with a repository of accusations that was sickening in the depth and realm of it.

I was allowed a final statement. My statement included the fact that a current tenant had gone out and bought a fancy air cleaner to place next to the vents to try and clean the air before it got to her and her dog. My focus was pinpointed, directed towards Mary's intensive use of meth, in my house.

I am leaving out a lot - too much to go into. I offered my CDROM as evidence that Mary was lying about my shoving her. The judge wanted no part of it. I pressed - Mary had made the accusation, in writing, that I had shoved her. Nope. Okay, WHERE is this going, I'm thinking but not saying. The Judge abruptly cut it all off. He was determined to make his ruling. I had no clue who was the winner, who was the loser.

He started typing on his computer keyboard. No-one has any idea what the ruling is.
"The Order remains. I am making a slight modification to it. Mary *** cannot contact the plaintif in any way except that I am changing this so that Mary *** can email the plaintiff." The email is limited to making arrangements to get her things. After the Judge explained everything, Mary spoke up. "Can I ask you a question?".

Her question was why the Judge was not dismissing my Order of Protection against her. The Judge plainly stated that the testimony concerning the meth use in my home was convincing, and that the use and possession of it is a crime, and that is why he was maintaining the order. Mary started into the same spew she had tried several times today in that courtroom, only to be cut off by the Judge. The Judge said our (Karen's and I) testimony was convincing and that I had a witness.

I won. I am not gloating. I just wanted to get this over with. I did NOT want her to be coming back in here. The Judge informed Mary that she could arrange with me to come get the rest of her belongings. He further informed her if an agreement could not be made, that the ONLY recourse for her would be to sue me. I immediately responded, rather quickly, that we already had an agreement for her to come over here on Sunday for her to get her stuff.

Mary started to say something about "no, I can't...." the Judge cut her off and said that isn't going to be discussed here, you can do that in emails. Okay.

So, that's it. We went out to eat at a great BBQ place in Mesa - the least I could do was buy lunch - came over here and we spent the afternoon talking. I thanked Karen for coming to court - I do believe the fact that I had a witness is what helped me win the case.

I wrote Mary an email after getting home - please come at the date we agreed upon to get your stuff out of here. She is NOT going to get away with suing me. I do NOT want her stuff, she can have it all back - I am not a thief and I will never keep a tenant's belongings from them unless the time for them to come get the stuff has elapsed AND they owe me money.

If she does not come for the stuff, I will remove everything from her bedroom, put it wherever I can - in the storage shed and wherever else I can find, to get it out of there so I can rent the room out again.

That's it. I slept well last night, but I am drained.

I also found a letter from the City of Phoenix in my mailbox when I came home. Mary - in her vindictiveness - filed a complaint against me for having bags of cement out front (there are none), have construction materials "stored" out there - there are pavers out there to install in front of the front wall and it's obvious that it is an ongoing project - and alot of other BS. My human nature flared up - I wanted NOT to give her things back,let her sue me. But, my senses prevailed and I wrote the note to her about coming for her things without any statements about anything else.

I won, that's it. Just a matter of getting her stuff out of here. I am going into her room to see what it's going to take to box all of it up - she made note that she isn't coming on Sunday even though she made this arrangement through the police. Great. That room is not going to be held up forever by her - bs.

And with that, I'm done as I am tired again - these things always drain me.

ben