There was another pair of briefs filed by Solare’s attorney yesterday. I have read every brief and attended almost every hearing in this twisted court case but yesterday’s briefs are among the most twisted. After reading and analyzing them, I almost felt like letting my citizen journalism go full tabloid and start with a New York Post style clickbait headline but instead, I’m going to describe them in detail with my most profound sarcasm. The first is a long and rambling brief in response to the brief filed previously stating all kinds of obscure legal reasons the case from 2004 should be reopened and the previous default judgment set aside. It doesn’t have much that hasn’t been presented before but is just longer. It does have the two quitclaim deeds signed by James Massera and April Bryant to Solare of the whole 65 acre parcel of Great Southwestern land in Unit 3 as exhibits A and B. Solare has very distinctive handwriting and both deeds are obviously written by her. They were signed in 2004 but not registered until 2023. Apart from these obvious red flags, almost all of us in Tres Orejas know James Massera, in my case since 1981. There is no way he would ever just give Solare all that land. He would have done exactly what he did with other land he owned, he would have sold off parcels and populated the neighborhood with hippies. I have done some extensive title searching in the county clerks office to see if Great Southwestern Land Co. ever transferred the land to any other party and the answer has been a resounding no. There were lots of different deeds but all of them including the 4 filed by Solare were all fake and none of them with one exception resulted in the county assessor’s office assessing it to a new owner. I traced the one exception which was one 1/4 acre lot and it went through several parties until Solare bought it in 2023. The chain of title ended abruptly in the early 1990s as I recall and either someone did succeed in fooling the assessors or someone simply put the wrong block on the deed for a legitimate sale and nobody noticed there was something wrong in the property deed when it was first filed. The gist of the legal argument Solare’s attorneys have been making in this and many other briefs is that only someone with another claim on the property has legal standing to oppose the land grab and us landowners and community members who will be adversely affected by it don’t count. As bad as the first brief is, the second is the clincher that really merits sarcasm. It’s titled “NOTICE OF COMPLETION OF BRIEFING” and states that the time to file a response has expired and the other attorney can’t file any response to this brief. In other words, these briefs were filed at the last possible minute of the time allotted and they are playing fast and dirty with procedure to compensate for the lack of merit in their brief. One would have thought civil court would be more civil but this is more like sniping an eBay auction than a normal court proceeding. And then there’s the sheer irony of filing a brief stating that there’s no time limit on reopening a case that was decided 20 years ago and then following it up with a brief saying the time had already ran out to file a response to it on the same day it was filed. I was also here in 2004 and the reason the 2004 case ended in a default judgment is that Solare and her girlfriend went to Thailand that winter and didn’t show up in court. Also worth repeating in this post, the main motivation for trying to reopen the 2004 case is that Solare’s claim in that case was for the whole 65 acre parcel of Great Southwestern land while the current process would give her much less even if the court ruled in her favor. As I have said, this whole legal process has been twisted and convoluted and even the title of the first brief reflects that. Here it is, “REPLY TO RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION TO MOTION TO RECONSIDER COURT’S ORDER DENYING MOTION TO REOPEN CASE AND SET ASIDE FINAL JUDGMENT BY DEFAULT”

This latest brief really shows why we need a functioning neighborhood association in Tres Orejas where we have this sort of attorney working on a land grab of the Great Southwestern Land of which we have so much of in our community. So on to the report on the second community meeting to reestablish the Tres Orejas Neighborhood Association.

There were some people there that weren’t at the first meeting and we discussed a lot of different issues but the main focus was on reincorporating the Tres Orejas Neighborhood Association. The one thing actually voted on was a decision for an initial board of directors to have 5 directors from a choice of 5 or 7. This was decided in a broader discussion of basic governance with myself favoring the traditional structure of a non-profit with a board of directors and officers and meetings done with agenda and minutes and Angie Fernandez promoting “Dynamic Governance” where everyone speaks in turn and the agenda is formed ad hoc. We also discussed one attendee of the first meeting writing and distributing draft bylaws without the group even discussing bylaws or what should be in them. We did come to an informal consensus that this shouldn’t be done going forward. I presented six draft articles of incorporation that were discussed and that I made changes to after hearing comments. In this I am acting as a facilitator, basically doing research and making sure things are done right in terms of paper work, procedure, and filings. For this I have my long experience as a board member of the West Rim MDWUA to guide me and I also have as role model, The Rural Community Assistance Corporation or RCAC which is a non-profit that assists water associations with all sorts of issues, governance being among them. RCAC worked with our community starting in 2002 to start the West Rim water association and is currently helping set up with the help of UNM Taos an umbrella organization of the different water associations called the “Greater Valle de Taos Water and Waste Water Alliance. I was pleased at the tone of the meeting. It was very nice and civil overall without arguments or strong emotions. That’s a good start for a community as diverse as ours and hasn’t always been the case with the water association.