Fabulous Inns Board Meeting Boils Over; Director Arrested

The years-long, seemingly interminable corporate battle for control of small but profitable Fabulous Inns of America took a bizarre twist Wednesday morning as a special board meeting erupted in violence and a director was arrested.

San Diego police officers placed director Norm Caldwell under arrest after Fabulous Inns President David Yardley alleged that Caldwell had battered him.

Caldwell and fellow director Joe Letson are locked in a controversial and tense legal battle with Yardley and Chairman Jeffrey Krinsk. On Tuesday, they won a temporary restraining order to prevent a fifth company director--elected at a meeting last week that Letson and Caldwell said they thought had been canceled--from taking his position.

Wednesday’s special meeting was the first time the board has gathered since the contested election, and “things got a little heated,” Letson said.

There are several versions of what happened, but all parties agreed that the directors were having a lively discussion when Caldwell suddenly stood up and overturned a six-foot table where the group was assembled.

How the table was upended is not certain. A police spokesman said that Caldwell is alleged to have lifted the table in anger. Letson said that Caldwell “claimed that he got excited and stood up fast and his belt got caught (on the table) and lifted it up.”

The table hit Krinsk in the nose, drawing a few drops of blood.

Caldwell could not be reached for comment.

Caldwell allegedly then grabbed Yardley “from the rear and spun him up against the wall,” Letson said.

Krinsk then called police and Caldwell was arrested and taken to police headquarters in downtown San Diego. He was issued a misdemeanor field-release citation and ordered to appear at a court hearing on the matter, according to a police spokesman.

Krinsk described it as a “minor incident--not worthy of note and understandable within the context of highly charged litigants.”