Trouble on the Hill

Up on the canyonside here in California's Carmel Valley, pristine order moved in beside cluttered whimsy.  It was 1999.  And, for a moment, all was quiet.

Every story has a beginning of course, and every war an original cause, and in the case of this story, this war, that would be this bridge, which in the year 2000 was in desperate need of repair. The neighbors decided if they didn't do something pretty soon, a car would fall through the boards here to the creek bed below and so they set about deciding what to do. And perhaps somebody should have warned them then about the law of unintended consequences. But, as we say, the bridge is where it began.

According to Segolene Kenney, her father wanted to hire a company to fix the bridge. But Mel Grimes offered to repair it himself so Kenney agreed to wait.

Segolene Kenney: And so, several weeks later, still the bridge was not fixed.

Frustrated, John Kenney took matters into his own hands and hired a company to make the repairs. He assumed the fee would be equally split.

Segolene Kenney: And-- and Mel didn't pay his fee. He said, "Well, no.  I didn't agree."  And-- and, "No, I-- I don't care." And so, they had to go to court for this.  But my dad won.

But now the irritant was planted, and began to grow. 

Christine Williams: Jack was one of those people that really was sensitive to the surroundings around him. 

Christine and Kim Williams attended the same church as John Kenney, they called him Jack.

Christine Williams: I think one of the things that kind of was difficult for him was, every time he would come out of his house to go to his car, which was at the other end of this house, and facing the Grimes property, he was-- he would look at their house, which was pretty funky, and a lot of-- you know, things that weren't real neat and tidy and aesthetically beautiful at all.

Tom Ellington-Wills: To some, it was garbage.  But to them, it was just unique and neat and funky.  You know, they were up on the hill, on their-- and on their own, doin' their own thing.  No one could see, you know.  (laughs)

No one, that is, except the man who so loved order, John Kenney.

Tom Ellington-Wills: I just don't think he-- he liked looking out the window and seeing all the cars and all the funky yard stuff. 

Well, it wasn't just that, as Kenney told his daughter.

Segolene Kenney: Mel was dumping garbage and branches and all kinds of stuff on his property.  But also on the--  in the garden of others.  And this was causing a fire hazard.  And this was dangerous for the valley.

Tom Ellington-Wills: I only got to hear from my mom, like, "Oh, you know, now this neighbor's becoming a nightmare."

In 2003, a new neighbor moved in a little farther down the hill: Joyce Scampa.

Joyce Scampa: Mr. Kenney wanted us to take sides. He would call me to run profiles and get maps for him to distinguish exactly where the property lines were.

Joyce is a real estate broker, so she had access to property records. And she and her husband were friends of the Grimes. But:

Joyce Scampa: We did not want to get involved in any kind of a feud between neighbors. And we really really asked not to hear any of the problems. 

Kenney and the grimes both went to local authorities, tattling on each other's violations of local building ordinances. Even though they couldn't even see from their own properties some of the illegal add-ons of the other. Such as a detached studio tucked in behind the grimes house.

Tom Ellington-Wills: It was a meditation room for my mom. It was surrounded by all like oak trees that over 100 years old.  And my mom just really found peace in that corner of the property and really wanted somethin' to just kinda get away, listen to her music, read a book, you know, that kind of stuff.

And, such as, the lovely sunroom, invisible to the Grimes, which Kenney added to give him a better view of the Pristine Valley.

Segolene Kenney: But Mel - as a vengeance-- vengeance, he contacted the Sheriff.  And said that my father didn't have the permit to build the veranda.  It was just a vengeance, you know, because they had troubles.

Mel Grimes hired an attorney: Andy Swartz.

Andy Swartz: Over the year, from April of '04 to about April '05 it began escalating as different issues arose. They wrote letters to each other-- which were also escalating in tone. And-- ultimately Kenney asking the Grimeses to lock his dogs up and not let them run loose. 

And when something awful happened to the animals, the Grimes - though there was no evidence - suspected Kenney.

Andy Swartz: Mr. And Mrs. Grimes' home was burglarized.  Three of his cats disappeared. The Grimeses' dog was poisoned.

Elizabeth confided in a new friend, Elyse Battey.

Elyse Battey: When I first met Elizabeth she told me she had this real crazy, hostile neighbor.

Whenever Elyse went to visit, she said, Elizabeth warned her: Never cross John Kenney's driveway.

Elyse Battey: She was frightened of him because he would make claims, or say things to her in the driveway. She would pull up and it would upset her. And that would frighten her. What would happen next? Would it only be a verbal confrontation? Could it sometime be something else?

Tom remembered the advice his parents received from one of their attorneys.

Tom Ellington-Wills: "You know, I've dealt with cases like this.  The best advice I can give you, if you guys can do it, is just pack up and leave.  Just move. You-- you never know what this could escalate into.

Eventually, the growing conflict found a focus: the property line that separated kenney from the Grimes. It ran right along there. The road, of course, was an easement, legally it had to be shared. But then there was this tiny spit of land, 4 feet wide, maybe 10 long. Technically, as you can see, it's kenney's property.  But it's on grime's side of the road, Grimes had to cross it to get to his carport.

In june, 2005, Kenney planted a garden to keep the grimes off the strip of ground...which of course meant they wouldn't be able to use their carport.

A few hours later, he would claim, he was backing out of his driveway, and saw grimes driving back and forth over the new garden he'd just planted, destroying it.  Then, he claimed, elizabeth charged his car, up in his own driveway, and blocked him in.

Kenney pulled out his camera - and snapped this picture of Elizabeth.

Then, again his story, she assaulted him, and yanked his camera strap so hard that his head slammed against the door frame of the car.

Joyce Scampa: After that episode, things really really accelerated with the hatred, the spewing of words and the fear. And I would say the fear was something that we thought was overly emphasizes but in fact it was real.

And the cold war was now hot.

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