Cops and Court Dates

What a hectic two days. Good freaking god. =_=; If I never see another legal proceeding, it will be too soon. Let me explain why.

My boyfriend Steve has been renting a room to a tenant, who we'll call Bob for the sake of my ass not being brought up on libel and slander charges. Bob is not a nice person, and has already been to county jail four times now, at least.

Last night was the court date for the eviction process, and this guy went in there trying to claim the house had always been unlivable, and that he was brought in to try and fix it up and stuff. That he wasn't supposed to pay rent, but to mow the lawn and do the dishes. Which is bullshit, first and foremost, and even if that was why he was brought in, he didn't do that stuff anyways. The guy just drank his life away. Then he's trying to claim he has $60,000 worth of a lawsuit in fines for the tenants bill of rights that was broken, which is also complete shit. I'll explain in a moment. The whole thing was started by unpaid rent, but the judge ruled that since there was no actual paper trail or contract to prove it, that it didn't make a convincing case. He did say however that it didn't seem like a good situation, and then asked Steve if he was more worried about claiming the money or reclaiming his home. Steve told him he didn't care about the money, he just wanted his home back. So the judge asked Bob if he would be willing to just leave and avoid the legal proceedings, and he said no. The judge asked him why, and he started in with the lawsuit shit again. The judge stopped him in the middle of it, told him that played no part in this case, and asked him again if he'd take the offer. Bob said no. The judge said then, "Maybe I'm getting old here, but I fail to see the logic in your decision. You're claiming this house is uninhabitable, and yet you're fighting to stay." You know what Bob's response was? "Yes sir."

The court hearing took far longer than it should have though, because Bob kept trying to adjourn so he could seek legal council on the lawsuit thing, and to show the judge photos he had taken, and all this other shit. None of it flew, and the judge denied him the chance to seek legal council because he didn't feel it was necessary. So he signed the papers to send them to the sheriff's office to issue the warrant, and began explaining it all to Bob. The sheriff's office would get the papers, and would serve them to Bob. He would have 72 hours after being served to vacate the premises or he would be removed by force. And that the whole process would take 7-10 days, including the 72 hours. Bob, upon realizing that he really was screwed, started claiming it's all rather sudden, and he has no where to go, could he get at least 30 days. He was denied, and the judge told him to call social services, and that they could put him up for a few extra days while he found a place. He then asked Bob if he really couldn't go anywhere, and Bob replied thus:

"Well, I had $660, and I was gonna put it as a down payment on an apartment that would be $480 a month, but then Steve said he really needed the money and that if I gave it to him I could stay. So I did."

The judge's response?

"Wait, you made the choice to give the money to Stephen when you could have gotten out of a place you say is unlivable? Why would you stay?"

So in the end, the judge did issue the warrant and sent it off. Bob was pissed, and gave both of us the worst look upon leaving. The best part is, we asked Steve's lawyer if Bob could sue for the tenants rights, and because there is no contract he definitely can't. He has no grounds. And that was it.

We went home, were worried, but tried not to be.

So today... it just all exploded. And if Bob had even the slightest chance of suing Steve, it's gone now.

Steve had some job interviews and stuff this morning, so he was out of the house by 8:30am. Bob shoved him on the stairs during their only interaction this morning, but Steve let it go and went about his business.

After the interviews, he came over to my place so that he could do his school work, and so we could decide on what to do today. Plus he really didn't want to be around Bob, and just wanted to let him pack. However, we did decide we wanted to get Steve's two cats out of the house and take them to his parents', just in case. Both of us had this sick feeling in the bottom of our stomachs.

We arrived at Steve's house around 5:30pm, and upon walking in the door I noticed two things immediately. First, I smelled paint. Second, the cats that always came running to greet us were no where to be found. So alarms were already going off in my mind. Three steps into the house I saw the damage.

Graffitied onto Steve's living and dining room walls with black spray paint and black crayons were the following messages:
"$60,000 in civil rights."
"Enjoy the power I paid for"
"I paid for the paint"
"Cocky box, don't cross me" This one was aimed at me. Box is a derogatory slang for the vagina for any who don't know.
"This house is cursed."
And then just plain drawings of skulls and scribbles.

He smeared cat shit into the carpets in both rooms as well, and ironically the power does not work in either room. The dining room has been out for a while, but not the living room.

Our next move was to go upstairs. By now my mind is back on the cats, and it's telling me they're dead. So I began checking rooms. In the first room I went in (there are five), the mattress was slashed, and the piled up garbage that was left by the other tenant who left after getting the 3 day notice was strewn everywhere. But no cats. There was no damage in Steve's room, that we noticed, and then came the room with the stairs to the attic. The cats were in there, safe and sound but starved and confused. However, there was also another slashed mattress in this room, and a hole in the wall. Shit was flung everywhere in here too, and a knife was jabbed into the stairs to the attic.

Since we've now already found damage in two of the rooms, we check the final ones. One seemed fine upon looking, but in the room Bob was renting... it's almost indescribable.

Graffitied onto the walls with the same black spraypaint is "Puff the Magic Dragon", and there are two butcher knives holding a note to the door, one of which wasn't just in the door, it was sticking out the other side. We did see that before entering. It smelled like drugs and urine, and considering this asshole urinated all over his ex's clothing, we figure he did the same to the carpet in the room. The note was very liberal in its use of derogatory terms against Steve, and then on the door in crayon was another note that included Bob's cell phone number.

We called my parents to bring me my camera, I took photos of everything, and we called the cops. More specifically the sheriff's office.

So they sent out someone to look at the place, and he took down the information he needed. He was in his car when a taxi showed up, and don't you know it's Bob. Ironically the assholes he has across the street watching Steve's house for him showed back up at the exact same time. The deputy got out of his car, looked at us to confirm it was Bob, and then went over to Bob and asked "Are you Bob?" And the idiot said yes. The deputy then asked him "What's with the damage to the property?"

Do you know what Bob said? Oh god I still laugh at this exchange.

Bob tells him, and I shit you not, "What damage?"

So the deputy says "There's no damage to the property?", with that sarcastic kind of tone. Bob replies with a no, and the deputy made me smile when he said "Do I look retarded to you?"

He lead Bob into the house, and started grilling him as to why he did it. How could he possibly think it was okay. And he took none of the lawsuit shit Bob was trying to spew, and so Bob told him he owned the paint that was on the walls because he bought it and painted it on. So he just added some more. The deputy told him to his face that was a stupid move.

Bob then asked if he could just go upstairs and get the last of his stuff and leave. The deputy denied him, sat his ass outside on the hood of the car and told him "Don't you move from this spot, or I'll put a warrant out for your arrest." and proceeded to tell the cab driver, who was a friend of Bob's, "And if you take him anywhere, I'll have you arrested too."

Another cop was called, this one a sergeant, to take photos, and because the current deputy is a K9 patrol unit, so he couldn't take Bob in. By now though Bob is in handcuffs. So he finagles his cell phone out of his pocket to call his whore, because he already told us he doesn't want a girl for anything other than sex, and goes "Yeah, I'm getting arrested. Apparently trying to reclaim my paint is a criminal offense." Then they made kissy noises at each other, since he couldn't get it to his ear and had to use speaker phone we were all privy to this conversation, and the deputy is in his car chuckling at Bob. You could tell by how his body moved. It's like, seriously? You were reclaiming your property? Wow.

The other thing was this backpack Bob had that he was going to have sent to her. As soon as the deputy heard, he took possession of it to check for illegal substances and such. No idea what they found, but we heard Bob say there was a pocket knife in it.

So we were required to go down to the station to make the written complaint. No big. When we got there Bob saw us, and we got another dirty, dirty look. But we made the complaint, and asked for an order of protection. Unfortunately, because no physical threats were made, it's unlikely that we'll get one. However, the deputy is going to push for it because of the knives stuck into the door and such.

We figured that was it though. Bob was going to be brought up on felony charges since the damage would probably be over $1,000, and he's definitely going to prison. For right now though, he's being held in county jail until his official court date.

Upon returning to his house tonight, Steve went to play a bit of video games to calm his nerves, and I got a text that said "The bastard cut the cords to my TVs." I called him right up, and from what he told me, I'll see the damage tomorrow, Bob cut half the wires on both his TVs so that they won't work. Something so small it's easy to miss. So we have to scour the house tomorrow, and Steve called the sheriff's right back. So we get to see that fine deputy again tomorrow.

What a mess.

I spoke with my friend Brendan on the phone about it all as well. Apparently everyone at the market, which is where he works and where Bob and Steve frequented for food and stuff, saw Bob today, totally stoned out of his brain, or drunk, or both. But he's an angry drunk, and today he was being really friendly. They then saw him board a bus to Saratoga with his bicycle, and this was after 4:30pm. So we literally just missed him.

I'll know more of what's going to happen tomorrow, and what else has been damaged. We're taking the cats to Steve's parents' house anyways, simply because now there's a shitton of work to be done and whatnot, and we don't know what the smell is in Bob's room.

I also don't know if we'll have to appear in court, but the TVs were worth $1,100, meaning it's definitely a felony, and Bob could be looking at more than two years.

The past 48 hours have been absolute chaos, and I don't think we've seen the last of it just yet. Thankfully, it's almost over.