Encounter in the park
Whenever I have a meeting with someone I don't trust, I take the precaution of making a recording of the conversation. Not secretly, you understand, because that would be illegal. I do it with the knowledge and consent of that person. In full view, and with the permission of everyone present, I start my recorder. I find it helpful to do this because later on, if there are any differences in the way the meeting is recalled by persons who were present, either through dishonesty or simply mis-remembering parts of the conversation, then the recording is available to correct any errors. I had already done this once before with city officials, when I had met with the Recreation Manager and other City managers to show them the Senior Coordinator's dishonest emails on March 16th.
On the afternoon of Friday, April 2nd, I was walking through Rengstorff Park on my way to visit a friend who lives in a complex on the other side of the park. As I passed the Ranger station I noticed the Recreation Manager heading towards me, coming in the opposite direction. This was the person who had telephoned me at my home two days previously to discuss a matter which should have been discussed face to face at the Senior Center, so I already suspected her of being someone who did not respect other people's boundaries.
As she drew nearer, it was apparent that she intended once again to accost me. But this was an even more inappropriate place and time to do so, in the middle of a public park while I was on my way to an appointment. Although I don't like to be unduly suspicious of people, and I prefer to presume that they are honest before I have evidence that they are not, I recalled that she had been shown clear evidence that one of her employees was dishonest, yet she had not condemned that dishonesty, so I suspected that this would be one of those times when, for my own protection, I should record any conversation between us.
However, I did not have my recorder with me, so if I stopped to have a conversation with her and she later claimed that I had said something offensive, or if she made any other untruthful claim, I would have no way of proving that she was lying. I decided therefore that I was unwilling to have a conversation there and then, and so I walked away in another direction. She changed direction in order to follow me, so I made it clear that I did not wish to have a meeting at that time, in that place, by telling her firmly and clearly to stop harassing me, in a manner which ensured that I was overheard by passers-by.
This was now the second instance of what I felt to be inappropriate and unwelcome contact by someone who appeared to be intent on invading my privacy, possibly as retaliation for my having raised serious concerns about the way the Senior Center was being managed. This harassment had begun immediately after our initial contact with the police department, and appeared to be a form of retaliation, so on Saturday April 3rd I wrote to the Chief of Police to make a formal note that these two incidents of unwelcome and inappropriate contact had occurred, and to place my concerns on record. You can read the text of the letter to the Chief of Police here.
If the nuisance continued to occur, I wanted there to be a clear trail of documented evidence of incidents of harassment by this person and/or her cronies. A charge of criminal harassment is difficult to prosecute at the best of times, but I was game for it if they wanted to play rough. However, what I didn't anticipate was that the harassment would be carried out by a tag-team . . .