The HOA’s annual general meeting was scheduled for the last Saturday of that month. Gary Purcell told me about it in a brief call midweek. He said attendance was going to be unusually high. Homeowners who had never attended a single meeting in years were planning to show up. He said the mood in the community was not good. I did not attend. It was not my meeting, but Gary called me that same evening after it ended.
He spoke for twenty minutes. I listened and took notes. He said over thirty homeowners had shown up. The normal attendance was eight or nine. Thorne had opened the meeting with his prepared talking points. He called the lawsuit baseless. He said Calloway was confident. He said the community’s water access was not at risk. He said everything was under control.
Then a homeowner named Paul stood up. Paul had apparently done his own research. He had pulled the court filing from public records himself and read the full complaint. He stood up and asked Thorne directly to produce the legal documentation proving Maplewood Estates had a recorded easement for the well. Thorne said the documentation was being handled by legal counsel and could not be shared publicly during active litigation.
Paul then read aloud from the HOA’s own board minutes, the entry from eleven years ago showing the tabled easement motion. He had found them in the disclosure documents Patricia had compelled the HOA to produce. He asked Thorne why the board had voted to pursue an easement eleven years ago and never followed through. Thorne said those minutes were being taken out of context.
Three other homeowners stood up and asked variations of the same question. The meeting reportedly became loud, not violent, just loud and uncomfortable. Thorne ended the meeting early. Several homeowners left without the answers they came for. Gary said Sandra Vail, the property manager, had looked deeply uncomfortable throughout. He said even some board members who had previously supported Thorne were visibly unsettled by the questions they could not answer.
The following week, Kendra Mills published a second article. This one was longer. She had obtained a copy of the court filing independently and had now read it thoroughly. She reported on the board minutes specifically, the tabled easement vote from eleven years ago. She quoted the minutes directly as a matter of public record. She also reported that multiple homeowners had raised concerns about disclosure at the annual meeting.
She reached Thorne for comment this time. He told her the matter was in the hands of legal counsel. That quote ran in the article under his name. The second article traveled further than the first. It was picked up by two regional news aggregator websites. The comment sections were active. People who had no connection to Maplewood Estates were reading it and forming opinions.
Patricia called me after the second article ran. She said external pressure was now doing work we did not have to do ourselves. She said the HOA’s internal unity was fracturing. She said Calloway had contacted her office requesting an urgent call. She took the call. Calloway asked if we were open to renewed settlement discussions before the court date. Patricia told him we were open to one conversation. She told him to come with a serious number this time. He said he would.