Spokane7
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May 6, 2009 in City
Nightmare neighbors evicted
Don Bain can keep an eye on his detached shop (reflected in sliding door) from his back porch in Spokane Valley, Wash., where he says squatters have moved into the shop and refuse to leave. 4/15/09 DAN PELLE The Spokesman-Review
(Full-size photo)
An elderly Spokane Valley couple’s battle to have a woman evicted from their backyard garage is apparently over.
An eviction order was signed by a judge last week and sheriff’s deputies posted a notice on the door of the garage Wednesday, ordering Susan Pierce off the premises at the North McCabe Road home. Pierce and several others had been living intermittently in the garage despite the efforts of Don and Peggy Bain, both 81, to have her removed.
“Everything’s fine now,” Don Bain said Wednesday. “She can’t step foot on the property any more. There’s a big old red tag on the door warning her.”
The Bains had been trying for about a month to have Pierce and the others thrown out, but the Spokane Valley Police Department refused to remove her because she had established residence by receiving mail at the garage – which has been modified as a living quarters. Pierce had initially lived there with Peggy Bain’s son, Skippy Ray Davis, who was arrested and ordered into prison for failing to pay fines associated with drug convictions at the first of April.
Police said their policy in such cases is to require a formal eviction notice, rather than having officers make decisions to throw people out on the spot. The Bains began eviction proceedings, but in the meantime, police twice allowed Pierce and others back into the garage when the Bains tried to lock them out, including allowing Pierce to break a window to get back in.
The department relied upon its standard practice for handling landlord-tenant disputes. The Bains’ attorney, Pete Schweda, said he believed this was a case of trespassing or burglary, since there had never been any lease or other formal rental arrangement.
The department drew a lot of criticism for its decision, and the initial Spokesman-Review story on the situation spread far and wide on the Web. Don Bain said he’s heard from people all around the country who were outraged by the case.
“I had a hundred calls,” he said. “It just went crazy.”
The draw of the unknowable 
Jimmy on May 06 at 3:31 p.m.
It’s about friggen time. Now to sue the idiot officer who counseled the freeloader into staying in the first place and actually sanctioning the destruction of their property.
JeanC on May 06 at 3:55 p.m.
This is ridiculous. The squatters should have been trespassed on the first complaint and Mr & Mrs Bain NEVER should have had to go thru any of this.
AlaskanJules on May 06 at 5:25 p.m.
The Spokane Police Department should be ashamed of themselves for letting a LOW LIFE Loser and probabaly a bunch of Druggies take advantage of an 80 some year old couple, If that was my Dad and Mom I wouldn’t care what happened - those people wouldn’t be staying there under any circumstances and they would of wished they wouldn’t of met me either.
This was just Ridiculous !!!!
westside on May 06 at 9:25 p.m.
Spokane Valley keystone cops…close relatives to Spokane City cousins…
henry76 on May 08 at 6:45 a.m.
My girlfriend and i had a similar situation where we tried helping a couple with a place to stay in the winter, the boyfriend got abusive,they made threats against us in our own house and it took forever to get them out. People can get there mail changed and totally take over your house. legally in washington apparently, we even turned an eviction over to a judge for domestic violence and the judge completly denied it so i guess you can beat your girlfriends and the llaw will protect the abusers. awesome way to go washington. we later found out the punch holes in the walls and the cops wouldnt let us in there room to check for damage. on this issue alone the cops suck big time.
Unbelievable_UR_Joking_Right_ on June 03 at 3:32 p.m.
I’m glad this fiasco is over. NO homeowner ever deserves this! The Bains really should sue the City of SV to set precedence so that this does not happen again to another homeowner.
The Police Officer, who counseled the son’s girlfriend of her “rights,” seemingly spoke and acted out-of-line. Perhaps Bains, in their 80’s, were crotchity, negative, over-bearing and so the Officer “wanted” to help the “young people.” But, despite the homeowner’s unlikeability (which if that were the case, really should not have mattered!), the Officer was wrong in attempting to play “lawyer” with the jailed son’s girlfriend. Here are two of the major flaws as to what the City did:
1. The “apartment” was not legal. Hence, it would be illegal for anyone to ‘reside’ there. (And, I won’t even mention that there was no contract, no payments, thus, NO RIGHT!)
2. Second, for “squatter’s rights,” generally every state has a Statute of Limitations, a time period, that the potential “squatters” must meet–you know, 5-7-10-15 YEARS!!!! I find it hard to believe that Spokane Valley wouldn’t have this very common provision incorporated into their “squatter’s rights” statute… and further, should it be there, I DOUBT this woman was there for even 1 year. Hence, she has NO RIGHT!
Based on that and the Police Department debacle, Bains should sue the City for all their costs, their attorney’s fees, the broken window, the value of their time in dealing with this, possibly pain and suffering for sleepless nights; sickness-naussea, chest-pain, anxiety attack symptoms; as well as worrying about retribution by any one of the woman’s “friends” that occupied the property.
Really, the City should offer the Bains increased surveillance for a reasonable period of time since the Police Officer’s actions may in fact have encouraged a sense of ‘entitlement’ and ‘strike-back’ by the tresspassers.