May 26: The World According to Gary

IT’S OVER!!! -ish. Gary showed up both sober and composed, and the case was finally heard.

This whole time I had been hoping it would all play out like an epic courtroom drama, where Gary had come up with some sinister web of lies and in the end he calls his surprise witness; James (the tenant he stole from), Dan (the other tenant he evicted) or Mat (the Indian friend he called a ‘spic’) to the stand and unravels my entire case. Sadly this is not how it played out. Whoever Gary’s surprise witness was going to be, they will forever remain a surprise. And amazingly, Gary’s case really was centered around me not giving him two weeks notice of his drunken eviction. More amazingly, I think he must have been thinking he had a solid case. If he was certain he would lose, why bother showing up or going through the effort of getting a continuance?

A quick run through:

I presented a shortened version of my case, explaining that I was asking for my security deposit back after I was evicted for refusing to shut the door on the police. Gary responded that he didn’t want me to let the police in because he was tired and wanted to go to bed, and the only reason the cops were there was to harass him. The judge asked why I was not entitled to my security deposit, and Gary said that it was in fact because I did not give him 2 weeks notice of my moving out. I showed the judge the “GABE/COWARD: YOUR ARE EVICTED” note, along with the police report claiming Gary told me to “pack my shit and get out." Gary’s defense on this matter: "I was very angry at the time. Had he talked to me the next day, I think we could have worked something out.” I pointed out that I did try to talk to him the next day, but he wouldn’t open his door, and that the following day he had screwed the door shut while I was trying to move out my remaining belongings and would only yell profanities from the upstairs window. Gary once again admitted that he was very angry at the time. I tried to submit all or some of the kind words Gary had sent me this past year to show that he had not been open to “working things out,” but the Judge decided he head heard enough. He ruled in my favor for the full amount of the $500 security deposit and $189.42 in court costs; $689.42 total. He then said that with the threatening notes and his actions in the police report, I could have asked for $5,000 and he would have awarded it to me.

If he got to $5000 with just the police reports and notes, I wonder what I could have gotten with the emails and voicemail?

The whole trial reminded me of when you get in trouble as a little kid, and an adult asks, “What were you thinking? No really, I want to know what you were thinking." And you never had an answer other than "I don’t know/I was angry/I was really drunk." When the Judge kept asking Gary, "Why would you write this note/sign and date it/not let the cops in/screw the doors shut?” it was clear he hadn’t come up with a good answer in the past year.

As many of you have pointed out; just because the Judge ruled in my favor doesn’t mean this is all over. I still have to get Gary to pay me the money. Be that as it may, this was still the defining victory I was hoping for. Rest assured, I will keep working on getting Gary to actually pay-up. But, I doubt this will be a very entertaining process, so I’m afraid to say that this is where this blog will come to an end, barring any magnificent actions on Gary’s part.

…Still, you never know. In the world according to Gary, no case is a civil one.