I’ve received information from the Mateel which is based upon information received from attorney Bill Bragg.

From the Mateel’s perspective it was Tom Dimmick’s attorney Jeff Knowles who sank the negotiations. He informed Mr. Bragg that his client could not agree to the third party escrow agent handling and disbursing the proceeds of the ticket sales. According to Mr. Bragg this had been agreed upon previously and it was understood that it would be essential to the agreement. People Productions’ attorney had drafted the written guideline for the settlement which included that provision.

According to Mr. Bragg, when he confronted Mr. Knowles on the issue (prior to the Mateel meeting), the latter told him that Carol’s attorney does not speak for his and that any agreement with the Mateel was premature in any case until Tom and Carol reached an agreement between them.

Those of you who heard Mr. Bragg’s presentation at the Mateel meeting may remember that he referenced “one attorney” who was setting the negotiations backwards. I suspect this is what he was talking about.

This perspective obviously differs sharply from the account in the Dimmick Ranch statement I posted earlier in the week. I post, you decide. Except that most of you weren’t there, so we can’t say what the parties had agreed upon prior to the meeting.

In any case, it’s all academic now. The trial is set for Monday at the Red Lion Inn in Eureka. I’ve also been corrected in that it is an actual trial even though a professional arbitrator is handling it. There will be a court reporter and at present the attorneys seem to agree that the decision will be appealable. It begins on Monday at 9:00 a.m. and the seats will be available on a first come first serve basis. The trial is booked for next week and three days out of the following week if necessary.

Monday could very well mark the beginning of the end of the Sohum community as we know it, whatever the results. I mean that in the sense that I don’t see this ever completely “healing.” Something has died here. I’m not going to point fingers myself. I don’t know what happened. But the warrior factions have their way for the moment. This is not a happy day. Justice will not be served here. Truth will not be revealed. There will be a fight and one side will win and one will lose. If that. It will be about money.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.

-Simon and Garfunkel

Addendum: Okay, I ran into a Board member tonight who wanted to clarify that it is not the Mateel’s perspective that Knowles sank the negotiations. The member wanted to emphasized that the issues are more complex than that and that it’s off base to blame the situation on any one party.

The member was also confused about the 3 million counter-offer figure I’d heard. The member surmised that perhaps it was in reference to a proposal for a percentage of any increases in ticket sales should the county allow it in the future, perhaps the calculation taking the amount closer to the three million figure. Other than that nobody knows what my source was talking about.

Hopefully, after the trial the parties can provide their own narratives about the process – assuming it matters to anybody by then.