Time & Money Spent Fighting

– A lot of things have happened in the last week – some good, some bad. First the good news: I received an email from our lawyer with a copy of the ruling setting aside the default judgment! At last – after about 9K in fees, the courts finally overturned something that should not have even happened in the first place. This means that the bad guys 75K of claims against the estate can easily be denied. A victory, but it still sickens me that so much time and money had to be spent fighting something that was ridiculous and not even served! Now we move on to dismissing the claim by inept lawyer guy from 2005.

And here is the very disturbing news – we found out from one of Mike’s friends that the neighboring landowners “private drive”, which cut right through Mike’s property, was completed!! I had not mentioned this before, as I was being very careful about writing things that could identify individuals involved with Mike’s harassment, disappearance, etc. However, since the Sheriff’s Dept basically allowed everything (names, dates, etc) to be dispensed to the public via the non-sealed Mehan affidavit, I can now give a little more detail. Some background on what happened when we were there this past July: One day while we were leaving Mike’s, we noticed a sign posted a bit off Turk Rd, at the entrance to the logging trail that runs below Mike’s house, on his land. This sign basically designated the logging trail on MIKE’S land, as someone’s “private drive.” We were shocked….how does someone else’s (Leon Ford’s) private drive go through my brother’s land? We advised the detectives and were told to make a formal complaint against him. I made a formal complaint on July 5th, after we got home, and was told that they would make Ford prove that he had the right to use Mike’s land for his thoroughfare. Now, keep in mind that we had just recently gone to the County for an official map of the area, and Ford actually has a driveway clearly marked on the County map, in a completely different place! The following day, when the detectives went up to arrest Mehan for trespassing, he was with Ford. They advised Ford that he could not build on Mike’s land unless he could prove that he had the right to.

Well, I thought that my formal complaint, combined with his lack of proof that he could do this on Mike’s land, would stop the driveway from going forward, so I did not give it another thought….that is until I received an email from one of Mike’s friends last month that when she went up there to check on his property she noticed a driveway/road….completed!!! From what I can gather, Ford’s lawyer called the detectives and told them that he had proof Ford could make the driveway, but then never sent anything in. Meanwhile, the construction went forward, unchecked by my complaint. The complaint was handed off to the County Attorney’s office, was not followed through, and even though I am told that this road is indeed outside of the easement (which means nobody should be able to access it except for the property owner – Mike) the person who handled the complaint had not yet had a chance to talk to their superior for guidance on how to proceed. Wow – a complaint I made almost two months ago, virtually ignored. I am shocked that this would not have been watched closely, as that road is the same one that Mike and Ford had been arguing over for years, and the same one Mehan continually used when trespassing. There are SO many complaints by my brother, for trespass involving this road, a gun pulled on him over this road, and his gate across this same road was discovered freshly cut by the murderers as soon as the deputies came up to investigate the missing persons case. Mike was not protected, and violators not prosecuted for using this road, and now we are experiencing the same thing. I know that the County Attorney’s office spent ten times the effort maliciously prosecuting Mike that they spent protecting him, but you would think that they would at least try to make up for some of it by doing right by us?

I really wish that I could afford to move to Helena for a month or two, and just micro- manage all facets of this, because Mike was never treated fairly while he lived there, and I am having serious doubts that there will ever be justice for him or for my mother