Crazy Court

I testified for the management company today at La Loca's eviction trial. It was a rotten experience. Mary Catherine, the neighbor with MS, is a ghoul. When I arrived at the courtroom, she pointed to the front two rows of seats and grinned saying, "These two are ours." I just nodded affirmatively. She really was taking a sick kind of delight in trying to get La Loca thrown out of her apartment. Mary Catherine and I were the only neighbors to show up, and midway through the trial, I told her to be quiet. She kept saying things out loud, like white trash at the Jerry Springer Show.

Court opened at 9:00 AM, and several cases were thrown out because neither the apartment management or the defendant showed up for the trial. Three cases had one party show up, so the judge knocked those out in about 10 minutes each. Then our trial came up, and it went on for two and a half hours. The management company vice-president was first to speak. Apparently, they had been confiscating her signs, so they had her Wookin' Por Nub sign and her Laptop for Sale sign. The short of it is that I told the judge that I was sure there would be retaliation on her part, but that I felt I owed it to Connor to come to court and tell them about her bizarre behavior. She accused me of being a liar, whipped out a sealed envelop and chucked it at the judge telling him, "There is a thousand dollars in that envelope, I want her to take a lie detector test." She brought up a lot of irrelevant issues, mostly "violations" she feels the management company has committed. She even tried to claim my plants were "trash" and cluttering up the courtyard. Her arguments were wild, varied, and even inappropriate. She brought up an argument that Mary Catherine's boyfriend was having sex with Mommy Dearest. There was an e-mail introduced into evidence in which La Loca proclaimed her lust for a tenant who moved out of her residence after only living here for 3 months to avoid the unwanted advances of La Loca.

The judge sided with the management company and told her that she needed to leave the courtroom and not accost any of the witnesses as we left. She has 5 days to file an appeal, or vacate the premises. My guess is she will be filing an appeal. I parked my car in the Medical Center and took the train into downtown this morning.

On my way back to train, La Loca pulled up to the intersection just as I was about to cross. She was stopped at a red light, but I was going to have to walk directly in front of her to get to the train. It was reflex, I waited until another pedestrian stepped out in front of her car before high tailing it across the road. She yelled at me as I crossed, "God is going to get you for this." I'm pretty sure that the only one who will try to get me is her. Before I got home, I got a call from the attorney who thanked me for my bravery. I don't feel particularly brave, but I am glad that there is a good chance she will be moving...at some point, anyway.