Billionaire defies court order to open gate to California coast

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

One week after a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ordered Vinod Khosla to reopen a private road leading to Martins Beach, the gate off Highway 1 remains locked, and a new round has begun in the fight over the public's right to access the cove.

The conflict stems from an ambiguous phrase in the ruling of Judge Barbara Mallach, who last Friday instructed the Silicon Valley magnate to keep Martins Beach Road open "to the same extent" as the previous owner, a farming family that sold Khosla the 89-acre beachfront property in 2008 for $32.5 million.

Those words could be interpreted in different ways, based on the trial testimony of Rich Deeney, patriarch of the family that owned Martins Beach for more than a century. He told the court in May that his family periodically closed the beach, particularly during bad winter weather. ... But the weather over the previous five days was mild and dry.

... The California Coastal Commission has also jumped into the fray. On Monday, commission staff sent Khosla's attorneys a letter saying he was violating the Coastal Act and threatening daily fines of $11,250. They gave Khosla 30 days to respond.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_27117343/martins-beach-khosla-accused-defying-judges-order-keeping

[belzabubba333]

1. so where's the apc and all the cops with the nade launchers

oh that's right it's not a blackman selling loose cigarettes

[hifiguy]

2. If anyone thinks the kkkops are actually gona force a BILLiONAIRE

to comply with/enforce something as paltry as a court order, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. When you're In The Club the law does not apply to you.

There are dope smokers out there whose homes haven't been invaded by APCs carrying SWAT teams yet. Priorities, people, priorities....

[Trillo]

3. One Billion divided by daily Coastal Commission fines

Interesting number, 1,000,000,000 divided by 11250 equals 8888.8 (repeating 8s)

Now, divide that by 365, the approximate number of days in a year, equals 243.

This guy has so much money he can thumb his nose at the fines for 243 years, the same fine that would crush 99% of us. For example, I couldn't afford one day of that fine. But this billionaire will most likely die before he runs out of money to pay the daily charge, given the average lifespan of a human.

Because of the severe inequality in incomes, fines should be applied on a sliding scale. Why should a billionaire be treated any differently than any of the rest of us? Why not a fine sufficient to break him or her financially in one day, just like it would for most of us?

[Nye Bevan]

4. The thing to do is to keep escalating the daily fine until he complies.

When it reaches a million bucks per day he might consider complying.

[quaker bill]

17. Actually the real thing to do

is to run the per day maximum until you reach the fair market value of the land, file a lien and then foreclose on it. Government does this frequently for code violations, but usually to poor people.

[Downwinder]

5. No different than Bundy.

[progressoid]

9. Yup. n/t

[dhill926]

6. Mr Khosla...

Tear down that gate!

[BlueJazz]

20. You're going to hell for that!

[dhill926]

21. well....

among a myriad of other reasons....

[Iggo]

7. Arrest him.

[Posteritatis]

10. I dunno, I like the idea of letting the daily fines accrue... (nt)

[Iggo]

13. He's a billionaire.

His whole thing is throwing money at a problem to make it go away.

Arrest him.

[hunter]

8. What an ass.

He ought to simply deed the road and the parking lot to a state or some other public agency and write it off on his taxes.

But I guess it just burns him that ordinary people are on "his" beach, even when it is, by the state constitution, "our" beach.

Some people get wealthy because they have trouble sharing. Even when they donate to charity, they're thinking about what's in it for them. The good will of beach goers has got to be worth something.

[Rex]

11. This is the Age of the American Billionaire, everything is theirs for the taking.

No judge, no cop, no politician will ever stop them from doing whatever the hell they want! I bet in my lifetime, I will still never see a single billionaire go to jail in America. It is more of a crime to be poor in the USA, than to steal billions from the poor - which seems perfectly legal (okay some fines, but what billionaire cannot pay some measly million or two).

[CK_John]

12. I was just reading about the new ship with a laser canon is now on duty and on testing trials.

The backyard would make a good test target.

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. Throw the thief in prison.

[vssmith]

15. America has been good to him

now he can be good to America

[Lugano]

16. Seize the house, his liquid assets, destroy the property, make it public

Turn his mansion to a parking lot.....

[hobbit709]

18. The state just needs to show up with one of these and drive straight down to the beach.

[LawDeeDah]

19. Why isn't Obama down at the god damned beach RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!??@#&#^&