Then there were violation fees.
Late charges.
Administrative review charges.
“Special inspection” fees.
Hundreds of small amounts.
Twenty-five dollars.
Forty.
Seventy-five.
People paid because challenging cost time.
Some fees had no basis in the bylaws.
Others used legitimate categories but were applied inconsistently.
A forensic accountant was brought in.
The president called it a witch hunt.
The retired judge replied at a meeting:
“Witches are not usually undone by spreadsheets.”
My daughter framed that quote.
The most disturbing records were not financial.
They were communications.
The investigator obtained board emails and texts through the civil discovery process.
The president’s language changed depending on audience.
In official messages:
maintain standards
protect values
ensure uniformity
prevent neighborhood decline
In private texts:
teach him
make them understand
don’t let that family think rules are optional
hit them with everything
if they appeal one, find another
Sometimes names were replaced by house numbers.
Sometimes descriptors.
“the contractor guy”
“the nurse”
“the renters”
“the Lambo man”
That was me.
One message to the management company after I challenged a landscaping violation said:
He thinks expensive toys make him untouchable. Start documenting everything visible from the road.
The management employee replied:
Need objective violation basis.
The president responded:
Then find one.
That email ended the management employee’s testimony for the defense before it began.
The company fired her? Actually, the employee had pushed back. The management company eventually produced emails showing she resisted several requests.
That helped them distance themselves.
The president tried blaming her son.
She said he acted independently.
Then investigators recovered the messages.
Not from me.
Not from rumor.
From his phone.
Their exact conversation the morning of the vandalism became central.
The president:
He’s got that ridiculous blue car out again.
The son:
lol
The president:
Investigator is supposed to be around this week. He wants a show.
The son:
Want me to move it?
The president:
Not your job.
That line initially helped her.
Then twenty minutes later:
Some people only understand embarrassment.
The son sent a laughing emoji.
Then:
Feathers?
Her reply:
Do NOT do anything permanent.
The son:
So yes 😂
The president:
I didn’t say that.
Then a photograph.
A grocery bag of feathers sitting in a garage.
The son:
You’re insane.
The president:
Harmless joke. Make sure no cameras.
My attorney read that line twice.
Make sure no cameras.
At my house.
In a neighborhood where she had personally cited doorbell cameras during meetings.
The son replied:
His whole place has cams.
The president:
Then don’t be stupid.