St. Albans land dispute battled out in court

SKOWHEGAN – Motive is always a key element in any criminal case, but motive is taking center stage this week in a complicated civil trial in Somerset County Superior Court.

Gary Jordan of St. Albans is suing 17 current and former neighbors around Town Landing Road in his hometown for trespassing across his land.

Jordan – who has sued the town of St. Albans twice and lost his land to eminent domain over the issue – maintains that the home and camp owners continually trespass on his property to reach their homes and that they illegally removed sections of a stone wall to create driveways.

Town Landing Road extends from Route 43 to Big Indian Lake. Jordan maintains that a right of way allowed travelers access to the town’s boat launch and a fish and game club only.

On Monday, Newport attorney Steven Packard admitted changing a boundary line in a deed in an effort to help his client, Peter Duncombe, avoid a confrontation with Jordan.

But every story has two sides, and Jordan’s original motive for purchasing the land under Town Landing Road in 2002 from fellow neighbor Arthur Vicnaire has a pivotal role in the case.

Depending on which witness or attorney the jury believes, Jordan is:

. A kind-hearted man who is fighting a battle for the elderly and ill Vicnaire, a battle that Vicnaire was unable to wage himself.

. A self-serving businessman who convinced a frail old man to sell him 3 acres for $500 that Jordan then would lease and sell to the property owners he now is suing.

Over two days of testimony, more than 20 witnesses have been called in the case before Justice Joseph Jabar. Many said they had been using Town Landing Road to get to their homes on the west side of the road or on an abutting road, Sparrow Lane, for decades.

Kent Frati, along with a half-dozen other defendants, is representing himself against Jordan’s claims. While Frati was questioning Jordan on Tuesday, Jordan admitted he did not know him and that he assumed that because Frati owned one-fifth of a camp off Town Landing Road that he had trespassed.

“I have a barn also,” said Frati. “That doesn’t make me a dairy farmer.”

Another defendant, Isabelle Renfrette of Vermont, testified she had not been to her lakeside camp since 2001, when her husband became ill, a full year before Jordan bought the land from Vicnaire, and therefore could never have trespassed on Jordan’s land.

Jordan spent much of the day on the witness stand Tuesday and was frequently admonished by Jabar to answer only the questions posed and not embellish.

At one point, when defendant Charles Brine was questioning Jordan, Jabar was forced to call a halt to their back-and-forth arguing.

“Time out, gentlemen,” Jabar said. “We will not have a debate.”

In testimony earlier this week, Vicnaire said he granted two separate rights of way to St. Albans, one in 1963 and another in 1971, but that he never gave anyone permission to break through the stone wall.

Several other witnesses, however, testified that there was a 50-year-old break in the wall that loggers used.

Jordan testified that he began complaining to the town on behalf of Vicnaire when he bought his house and lot in 1988 at the corner of Town Landing Road and Route 43. In August 2000, Jordan placed a sign on his land that notified those using the road that if they were headed to property on the west side of the road, they were trespassing.

“The problem was never going to the boat landing,” he said. “The problem was going through the stone wall. That was a boundary memorial.”

Jordan said the Vicnaire family came to him in 2002 and asked him to take on the responsibility of fighting the boundary issue for Arthur Vicnaire. They then sold him the strip of land, which totals about 3 acres, for $500.

“I’ve been fighting this for eight years,” Jordan said.

Many of the 20 people watching the court proceedings are St. Albans residents who have been following the land battle for years. At least four are former selectmen.

The jury of eight women and one man is expected to begin deliberations about noon today and will have more than 50 pieces of evidence to sift through, including dozens of deeds, maps and photographs.