Is This Defamation?

1. This "surreptitiously crept" bit gives the impression that the hydrogen sulfide
was a character, possibly in my mind, because of the way that the piece
progresses. The fact is that I had respiratory problems from the hydrogen sulfide
as well as balance problems and memory loss, all of which are recorded in my
Time Line that I kept during the time I lived in my condo. I had no idea what
was causing my health to deteriorate, and the doctors I went to obviously didn't
guess there was a privy pit.

2. The fact is that I didn't think the hydrogen sulfide was a very serious problem,
and I was going to just put up with living there, but then Egypt, my kitty who
had been throwing up, wasn't able to walk and she was dragging herself and I got
really worried that she was going to be permanently hurt. That was when the
sewer pipe had been exposed and all of the sewer gas from the main sewer was
coming out because nothing had been done to seal the open pipe. I hadn't
realized what would happen and no one told me to think about the sewer gas
from the main sewers. So I called all the "cheap" hotels on Cerrillos Road, but
they all wanted a lot of money if I was going to bring my kitty. So I called the
hotels that were close and Santa Fe Inn, I think that was the name, gave me a
really cheap rate with my kitty. I forget now, what it was, but it was less than
any of the Cerrillos Road motels wanted, so I went there immediately which was
around 6 a.m.

3. I called several people with ads in the classifieds and others. Most wanted to
use a backhoe to excavate, which would have killed my wisteria. The men I
hired were willing to do the work by hand. They didn't speak much English, but
my friend Mario did. I paid them exactly what the other men had been asking. I
believe in a living wage and that if a living wage were paid to everyone there
would not be an immigration problem that could be described as a result of
Americans not wanting to work.

4. This is the sentence that has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars over
the years. To say "the real culprit" is a way of denying that the privy pit existed.
I believe the reason this particular description was written and printed is that the
Condo Association hired Christopher Alba. My belief is based on seeing a check
that was written to him for over a thousand dollars by the Condo Association. I
never saw him do any work in the common elements, so I feel that the check
was related to the article above, in which he made it seem as if there were not a
privy pit. The reason the Condo Association wanted this written and published
was that if there were no privy pit, then they had no obligation to pay any share
of the remediation. If it had been only a broken sewer pipe, then it would have
been a problem related to only my unit.

5. I was told the privy pit could be ten feet deep, and it was.

6. When the fellows were excavating, it soon became clear that the pit extended
under my condo, and after they'd dug a a lot of the pit out and the condo corner
was just hanging there in mid-air they were uneasy about going under it to dig.
So I called Doug McLeod the structural engineer who had identified the pit. He
had been hired by the insurance company, which was not liable when it was a
privy pit. (I had thought there was a sink hole.) Doug thought that structurally
the house was probably not going to break off and fall on the men, but he also
said that shoring it up was a good precaution to avoid an accident. So I called Ed
Crocker who had been suggested by one of the men who'd wanted to use a
backhoe, and Ed Crocker put in a helical pier. (Which sounded rather poetical,
but wasn't that beautiful in real life.)

7. Getting the sewer pipe replaced was not very expensive in the whole of this.
The fact that the City of Santa Fe failed to stop Wally Sargent, the developer,
from building a condo over an old privy pit is shocking to me. An old privy pit is
raw excrement, and with the pit below the canale it was wet a lot and that's what
caused it to keep subsiding and causing holes in my patio garden. If it had not
subsided my sewer pipe would not have broken and there would have been less
hydrogen sulfide.

8. "The environmentalist" is Michael Curtis of C.E.R.L., who'd done the air
quality tests which identified the hydrogen sulfide. He is the one who told me I
had to have it excavated, that I couldn't just keep living there with it. Prior to that
Robert Hunt had tried to get me to allow him to put a couple bags of top soil in
the latest hole for me, and that would take care of it. I can see how he thought
spending $12 was in order. The fact is that it cost me over $12,000 to remedy
the pit.

9. While I remain thankful to Michael Curtis for identifying the hydrogen sulfide,
I was not eager to pay his friend, Christopher Alba to have someone come in and
errect scaffolding inside the pit so that they could then hand tamp earth as the
material to refill the pit. (The pit material had been taken away.) The Structural
Engineer had said I should have it filled with a particular type of concrete and
he'd written particular instructions on his report. That was a fraction of the cost
of what Alba wanted to do, and I preferred to have a quick end to the pit by
means of a concrete truck dumping in just a few minutes half of the pit full. (It
had to be done in two loads so that there could be some settling of the first load
before the second load was poured.)

10. When I didn't hire Alba he wrote this demeaning piece which makes fun of
me and which is also untrue. It ruined my reputation as a good, conscientious
person and after it ran I was so embarrassed that I hated to go out and avoided
going out whenever I could because I didn't want to be seen or have to talk to
anyone after this false piece of self-serving copy had been published. (Not just
self-serving, but serving the Condo Association as well.)

11. The fact is that it is a lie to say I ignored the advise. I specifically followed
the advice of the structural engineer who had been involved from the beginning.
You can read his hand written notes on his report. I am getting sick and tried of
lies. And it's infuriating that the state court wouldn't let me show evidence in
court at the hearing in my Defamation Case. So of course if no evidence was
allowed, even though by Rule 56 I had a right to produce evidence, of course it
would seem like the mighty newspaper was right and I was wrong. And then I
got tetanus before I could effect an appeal.

12. Then, after writing all these lies about me, he goes into an advertisement
about himself. The privy pit should not have been under a home I bought to live
in. And when it was foreclosed John Hayes, the lawyer for Rick Green, the
Sotheby's Realty agent who bought my condo at the auction I knew nothing
about made a song and dance about how Green is living there. Well, he couldn't
be living there if I hadn't excavated the pit, because it would sill be full of raw
excrement and subsiding and the new sewer pipe I put in would be broken again
once there was nothing under it to hold it up again after further subsidence.

As an aside, I've been told Green is the real estate agent of Robert Hunt, the
Condo Association Director, who refused to pay for pit remediation and
authorized the check to Christopher Alba.