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Ukiah >> The California First District Court of Appeal on Thursday unanimously affirmed a Mendocino County civil judgment against a Santa Cruz man for a marijuana trespass grow in Covelo.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Jeanine Nadel’s judgment awarded Maria and Ernesto Salazar $262,987 in damages against Ross Matejcek for trespassing on their Covelo property by taking land, water, and 225 trees to facilitate his marijuana grow. Matejcek was also ordered to remove a gate, fencing and irrigation lines, and restore an excavated hillside to its natural grade. The Court of Appeal also upheld Nadel’s award of treble damages for timber trespass.
The Salazars first discovered the damage to their property in 2010 and later filed their civil suit in 2012 after paying for a survey. The Salazars have owned their ten acre parcel improved with a cabin in the Chicken Ridge area of Covelo since 1982, which they used as a vacation spot for their family.
“We are happy that the Court of Appeal took this case as seriously as the trial court did and that most of the opinion will be published and become binding legal precedent,” said the Salazars’ attorney, Brian Momsen of the Ukiah law firm of Carter Momsen PC. “Trespass marijuana grows and the damage the growers cause to neighbors is a common problem in our community. Unfortunately, law enforcement usually can’t provide a remedy and someone like the Salazars, whose property was bulldozed and their water taken for years, often have to hire a surveyor and a lawyer in order to get relief.”
http://www.record-bee.com/article/NQ/20160311/NEWS/160319958
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Jeanine Nadel’s judgment awarded Maria and Ernesto Salazar $262,987 in damages against Ross Matejcek for trespassing on their Covelo property by taking land, water, and 225 trees to facilitate his marijuana grow. Matejcek was also ordered to remove a gate, fencing and irrigation lines, and restore an excavated hillside to its natural grade. The Court of Appeal also upheld Nadel’s award of treble damages for timber trespass.
The Salazars first discovered the damage to their property in 2010 and later filed their civil suit in 2012 after paying for a survey. The Salazars have owned their ten acre parcel improved with a cabin in the Chicken Ridge area of Covelo since 1982, which they used as a vacation spot for their family.
“We are happy that the Court of Appeal took this case as seriously as the trial court did and that most of the opinion will be published and become binding legal precedent,” said the Salazars’ attorney, Brian Momsen of the Ukiah law firm of Carter Momsen PC. “Trespass marijuana grows and the damage the growers cause to neighbors is a common problem in our community. Unfortunately, law enforcement usually can’t provide a remedy and someone like the Salazars, whose property was bulldozed and their water taken for years, often have to hire a surveyor and a lawyer in order to get relief.”
http://www.record-bee.com/article/NQ/20160311/NEWS/160319958
