In case you missed it, I wrote here (and here) about allegations that Mr. Huntoon was involved in water theft. Many allegations and charges were leveled via comments and email that I had to block until I could verify them.
First off, here is a picture of the “modified” piping by which the water was diverted around the meter. Next to it is a copy of a letter from the subsidence district proving that the association did in fact have to pay a fine because of the diversion.
So, yes, there is no question about the diversion. Still no proof that Mr. Huntoon did it, only the recording in which he suggested it. Remember that Mr. Huntoon maintains that someone else actually did it and that he was only trying to get an out of control homeowner off his back, never intending to do this himself.
A second recording has surfaced that might actually help Mr. Huntoon, although the purpose it was sent to me was to hurt him. The audio isn’t great but it is understandable if you turn up the volume and listen carefully. In it, the homeowner, Alex, records Mr. Huntoon, they get into an argument, Alex tells George that he should resign, George tells Alex that he is a loser and that George will always win.
{mp3}georgeh02{/mp3}
Like I said, it is intended to hurt Mr. Huntoon but at least it does verify that there was an ongoing dispute and that Mr. Huntoon didn’t just lose his temper out of the blue one day.
There were also charges that Mr. Huntoon has several open cases in JP Pct 5, Plc 2 and these turned out to be true. Houston DWI Attorney Paul B. Kennedy was able to find those and listed them in this blog post: By George, you might just be on to something
Lastly, there was a charge that Mr. Huntoon had been arrested for assault. This too turned out to be true and this too provides added context for this whole affair. You can view the record of the case here.
It turns out that this occurred at…a homeowners association meeting. The complainant, Brunello “Bruno” Salesi, charged that Mr. Huntoon put him into a headlock at the meeting in February, 2006, threatened him and then pushed him. Police were called, Alief ISD officers responded, and Mr. Huntoon was eventually charged. Eventually, after 2 No-Shows and 5 Resets, the case was dismissed in December of 2008 when Mr. Salesi failed to appear in court. I asked him why he did not show after persisting almost 3 years to obtain justice:
The first court date was exactly one year after the incident. I went to court repeatedly as the date was reset I kept taking off of work and going to the court, along with witnesses, one of which specifically flew back in from a work trip to Atlanta (none too happy) to respond to the courts request to appear. This witness showed a couple of times and then was pretty upset about being drug into this mess so he eventually bowed out. Another woman was more devoted and continued to show after a couple of years of no-shows, the whole thing starts taking a toll on both me and my neighbors. I believe on the final date, I was either on a trip out of town for work or vacation. I don’t recall that far back but usually I am off of work around mid-December and I think that year, I may have been at a customer site in North Dakota in the run-up to vacation. Between George, JP Yeoman, and George’s attorney, I believe there was some delay tactics employed outside of what would be reasonable delays/resets – see the record below. When it appears that the system is rigged, what is one to do? I personally called JP Yeoman’s office to inquire what was going on and I spoke to an assistant and also left a voicemail for Yeoman who did not return my call – I expect that perhaps he could not speak to me directly but my voicemail was clear that I was prepared to file a complaint with the state against Yeoman if he did not bring this case to an end. I had hoped that at least the next time I was in court that the issue would be addressed but there was no such luck. George bragged a bit about being connected and it appears that he was. Exactly how many times is it reasonable for me and other witnesses to miss work for this when the case appears rigged? I felt particularly bad about the witnesses from my neighborhood being drug through the mess and at considerable expense.
Other than the “rigged” charge, it seems reasonable that at some point in time, people just give up. Clearly, Mr. Salesi made an effort to have this case brought to trial. I left a voicemail for Mr. Huntoon, asking him if he wished to comment on the number of missed court appearances and resets but have not received a return call.
Voters will have to make the ultimate decision but at least there is some context to the charges. Homeowners disputes can and often do become very nasty, which is why most people would do well to avoid neighborhoods without them. Of course, then there’s the guy down the street that thinks he’s the real Jethro Bodine and drives your property values down. So it is a tradeoff but at least be very wary about them.
Does George Huntoon have the temperament to be Justice of the Peace in one of the largest courts in the State? We’ll find out what the voters think on April 13th.
UPDATE 3/9 12:30 pm: Mr. Huntoon has objected to my use of the term “arrested” above. I was simply looking at the case file on the JP website, where it states “Arresting Agency” and “Arresting Officer”. I asked a legal scholar about this and this is his reply:
It would be very unusual for a person to be arrested for a Class C misdemeanor. My experience with the JIMS system is that it says “arrest” because that’s how the system is set up to process the information. The JP’s site is pulling information from a county-wide database that’s not limited to the JP courts, and that system is set up to process information about arrests and arresting officers, not citations and citing officers — it also handles more serious misdemeanors and felonies. For instance, here’s a case from Judge Lawrence’s court showing that the defendant was “arrested” by an “arresting officer” for failing to yield the right-of-way while leaving a driveway, http://web.jp.hctx.net/
CaseInfo/GetCaseInfo?case= TR42X2220659, and another showing the same for not carrying proof of insurance, http://web.jp.hctx.net/ CaseInfo/GetCaseInfo?case= TR42X2222149. For good measure, one from Judge Yeoman’s court showing a parent “arrested” for contributing to a child’s non-attendance at school: http://web.jp.hctx.net/ CaseInfo/GetCaseInfo?case= CR52C1024743.
Mr. Huntoon also objected to my use of “big fella” and “big guy” in the comments section of this post. I admit that I was ticked off that he didn’t return my call and instead chose to dispute the post via comments. Nevertheless, I should have refrained from the temptation to escalate the issue and for that I apologize.