On Friday morning, I met with Warren Goodman at his former property at 187 Bill’s Place. We sat together on the ground, near the center of his Medicine Circle, and I learned a few things about Mr. Goodman and his hopes and dreams for a better world.
Mr. Goodman is not well liked by some of his neighbors. One neighbor had emailed me on Thursday, with the following comments:
I have read your three recent articles about the problems at 187 Bill’s Place.
I’m anxiously awaiting your opinions regarding the buckets of human feces placed neighboring properties, the toilet paper festooning the trees downwind, the 13 unvaccinated dogs recently rescued from an old trailer “ankle deep in feces” and the constant drug traffic into the property.
My opinions about these details are not yet fully formulated. The more I learn about the property at 187 Bill’s Place and the people connected with the situation there, the more unsettled I’ve become about what, exactly, has been taking place.
The complaints against Mr. Goodman and his family date back several years, but the situation has recently taken a change of direction. We will discuss that change of direction later, but suffice it to say that we — as a community — could view the drama in a couple of ways.
On the one hand, the drama involves an individual family that has been living in poverty for 20-odd years, and is now being evicted from their homes (several travel trailers) by the new owner of the property, while the County government prepares to remove the trash (including the travel trailers) from the property, at taxpayer expense.
On the other hand, the drama involves a clash of cultural values that’s been ongoing in Pagosa Springs for quite a while — probably, ever since the first white settlers built cabins here back in the 1880s, but especially since developers began, in the early 1970s, buying up the old family ranches and turning them into subdivisions. Those subdivisions in turn attracted second home buyers, investors and retirees who found themselves at odds with the relatively poor working class folks already living here, or who were also moving into the community.
A curious paragraph appeared in last Thursday’s issue of the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, under the heading “25 Years Ago.”
Taken from SUN files of September 16, 1993
A number of residents of the Aspen Springs subdivision are angry about unsanitary conditions on some Aspen Springs lots, and about what they consider is a failure by San Juan Basin Health Department to take action to remedy the problems. Many residents in the Aspen Springs subdivision are concerned about the behavior of some of their fellow property owners and neighbors — in particular those residents who use lots as trash dumps or who live in temporary structures (trailers, campers, tents, etc.) and allegedly dump garbage and human waste on or near their property. Residents of Aspen Springs have said they made repeated calls to San Juan Basin Health, and have not received the satisfaction they desired.
My meeting with Warren Goodman marked my second trip to 187 Bill’s Place, where I indeed saw numerous piles of trash. I did not any human or animal waste, but I also understood that the property has never had a septic system installed, even though it was first platted in 1969.
I saw no sign of toilet paper in the trees. And no sign of the 13 unvaccinated dogs that had already been “rescued.”
Or that had been stolen. Depending on your perspective.
So let’s talk briefly about the dogs. I had a chance to view a couple of Mr. Goodman’s dogs during a trip to the Pagosa Humane Society on Friday. I would describe them as smallish black mutts with friendly dispositions, and they appeared to have been well fed. One of them was pregnant — and that made perfect sense, considering the story I’d heard from Mr. Goodman earlier that same morning.
But before we listen to that story, it helps to know that, back in October of 2012, Warren Goodman had been charged with 40 counts of animal mistreatment and failure to control his dogs. His dogs had been confiscated by the County government, and apparently, most of them had been shot or euthanized.
The 2012 case, “The People of the State of Colorado vs. Goodman, Warren Douglas,” was given the number 2012M129. According to documents I obtained from the Sixth Judicial District, the case was dismissed by Judge James E. Denvir on June 26, 2013. His dogs had been dead for eight months, at that point.
When we spoke on Friday, Mr. Goodman provided me with a transcript of the hearing on June 26, 2013, when the District Attorney moved to dismiss all charges. The four-page document states that it was transcribed by Erin Grigsby, CSR, RPR. (“CSR” refers to a person trained in Continuous Speech Recognition. “RPR” indicates a Registered Professional Reporter.) You can download the transcript here.
Here is an interesting section from the transcript. Deputy District Attorney Eric Simonton is addressing Judge Denvir. Attorney Simonton has just explained that, when the alleged mistreatment took place, Mr. Goodman was undergoing medical treatment and had, in fact, assigned the care of his dogs to another person.
Then:
“Animal control officers who went to that property shot up numerous dogs, killed numerous dogs… and took numerous dogs to the the Humane Society where they are impounded, and I think adopted out… if not euthanized.
“Understanding Mr. Goodman didn’t mistreat his animals in any way, in fact, I believe that Mr. Goodman often went without food himself so he could provide food to his animals. In hearing those facts, I think we have a very different case than what was presented to me as a complete denial of responsibility. I think the facts show that Mr. Goodman did nothing wrong.”
Judge Denvir: “Okay. Okay. The motion to dismiss is granted and the case is dismissed.”
This was in 2013. A few weeks ago, the County government again confiscated Mr. Goodman’s dogs, under court order, but were not allowed to immediately kill the animals.
Mr. Goodman referred to his dogs as “my family.”
My own family has a dog, and I suggested to Mr. Goodman that it’s a lot of work to take care of just one dog. I didn’t understand how he could take proper care of a dozen dogs.
“Locked up in there,” he said. He pointed to the kennel — a fenced yard surrounding a travel trailer where the dogs had been kept, and where he himself had lived, among them. Among his family.
Six males and six females, living together, and producing puppies.
Mr. Goodman: “Thank God four of them are pregnant right now, so they can’t spay them. They can’t mutilate them.
“I’ve given away 250 puppies, to happy families. The puppies aren’t [vaccinated], they aren’t traumatized, they aren’t chipped.”
He said he was told in a dream that the dogs killed by the County government in 2012 could be reincarnated and return to him, if he offered the proper prayers.
When the County authorities arrived recently to — once again — confiscate Mr. Goodman’s dogs, he said he asked the officers for permission to place the dogs into the truck himself.
Instead, he told me in a pained voice, he was made to watch as the officers dragged the dogs by their necks, with ropes. Three of the officers suffered dog bites in the process, he said.