Court rules charges against resident leader were vague

7/21/2000

By ELAINE HOPKINS
of the Journal Star

PEORIA - When the president of the residents association at Kingspark Mobile Estates organized picketing that embarrassed the park last year, the mobile home park sued to have him evicted.

The lawsuit failed because the legal notice to the president, Mike Mitchell, was defective, Peoria County Associate Judge Richard McCoy ruled on Thursday.

Mitchell was jubilant. "This is great, this is fabulous," Mitchell said. "I was worried."

The lawsuit, filed by park owners Colorado Real Estate and Development Co., also sought to have Mitchell pay double rent totaling $4,300 plus their attorney fees and court costs.

The lawsuit may have worked to get rid of Mitchell, even though it failed legally. Mitchell said he recently resigned as president because he has purchased a house elsewhere and is moving.

He still lives at Kingspark, he said, while he works on his new property.

The judge's opinion noted that constitutional rights also were at issue in the case. "There are free speech and assembly rights to consider," McCoy stated, as well as state laws protecting the rights of mobile home park residents.

But his ruling focused on the notice Kingspark sent to Mitchell, telling him to stop "repeated and deliberate noisy and disruptive group action at or near the entrance to Kingspark Estates."

It was too vague, the judge found. "What exactly did the defendant do wrong?" he asked.

The notice should have been more specific in its instructions, for example, ordering Mitchell to stop carrying signs that said 'honk,' the judge stated.

Mitchell organized the residents association after Kingspark began charging residents for water. He and others picketed the park for months to call attention to the problems there.

The picketing mainly was on public right of way. The group stopped using signs asking passing motorists to honk in support after Kingspark officials complained, Mitchell's attorney Dan O'Day said in closing arguments on Wednesday.

The attorney for Kingspark, Jeff Neigel of Canton, argued residents were disturbed by the picketing and honking. Park rules forbid tenants from disturbing other tenants, Neigel said.

Eviction notices against four others who picketed were dropped, O'Day said.

Mitchell said on Thursday that his problems with Kingspark managers are likely not at an end. Since he received the eviction notice last fall, the park has returned his rent checks, which he has saved, he said.

He's not sure how that situation will be handled, he said.

About 1,200 people live in the mobile home park.