Tensions of Costa Mesa Mirrored in Family Feud

At first glance the fight between Chester Gamboni and Pat Dolan, two Costa Mesa neighbors and former friends, seems straight out of the files of Judge Wapner.

They are engaged in a lawsuit over the placement of a back-yard fence. But it is only the latest battle in a war that has seen such mudslinging over the years as to put the Hatfields and McCoys to shame.

Both parties have filed for restraining orders against the other. They and their families have traded accusations of verbal harassment, threats, even physical attacks, as well as spying, the injuring of pets and the poisoning of trees, according to documents on file in Orange County Superior Court.

In the next few months, the courts are expected to sort out the allegations and decide who has legal right to what amounts to a 14-inch-wide section of grass.

But Gamboni vs. Dolan may represent more than just a seamy squabble between individuals. Some observers say it reflects a tension wrought by change on Costa Mesa’s west side and, more broadly, in Orange County, as increasing numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants enter the community.

In Costa Mesa, observers point to a string of recent City Council actions--an attempt to withhold city money from groups aiding illegal aliens, an ordinance aimed at Latino dayworkers and a general opposition to longstanding social programs--as signs of a backlash among non-Latino residents.

Significantly, Dolan is ardent and public in his criticism of illegal aliens and what he regards as the intrusion into the residential west side of organizations serving the homeless and other needy. In contrast, Gamboni, of Latino and Italian heritage, supports those causes with nearly equal zeal.

Their differences are played out in a six-inch stack of court records.

Gamboni, 42, alleges in those records that the case is all about the Dolan family’s hatred of non-whites and their attempts to run his family out of their Mesa West neighborhood. Dolan, 47, counters in the lawsuit that the dispute is nothing but an inexplicable vendetta launched against his family by Gamboni.

Their five-year feud has culminated in a court dispute over who has rights to a strip of land that is technically on Dolan property but that the Gambonis have stepped across for years to get to a city park.

The most ironic twist to date came in November when a judge, ruling on one subsidiary issue, ordered Dolan to contribute $250 to the charity of Gamboni’s choice. The group Gamboni chose was Share Our Selves--whose mission and founder are among Dolan’s favorite targets.

Dolan’s cashier’s check was delivered to SOS in January--after he and other neighbors persuaded the City Council to evict the charity from its west side home in the Rea Community Center.

Meanwhile, neighbors have lined up on both sides, providing a briefcase full of accusatory court declarations that have not gone unnoticed in the community.

“If either one of them were living next door to anyone else, it would tend to be quieter,” said Sid Soffer, a city government-watcher who knows both men, “but Pat Dolan is radical in his thoughts, and Chester is about the same--they are not a very good match.”

Gamboni says his motivations are pure. “This is the land of the free, but sometimes you have to fight for your freedom and the freedom of others,” he declared in one court document. “I also fought for many others in the neighborhood and community that have been wronged, falsely accused or attacked because of the color of their skin. I have felt very oppressed at their (the Dolans’) hand.”

Both Gamboni and Dolan own several properties in the city. Gamboni’s residence on 20th Street is flanked on both sides by property owned by Dolan. Dolan’s own residence is two doors from Gamboni’s.

Gamboni asserts in court records that Dolan has generated a community uproar with his sentiments against illegal aliens, in part for the purpose of obtaining more property in the area. That allegation sparked an animated response from Dolan.

“I could talk for three hours on how bizarre this thing is,” Dolan said in an interview last week. “I am a man who has tried to improve conditions on the west side . . . and he has accused me of being racist and anti-Semitic. I would dispute all of those allegations.”

As to Gamboni’s allegation that Dolan wants to buy up the neighborhood, Dolan replied: “I can’t buy every house in Costa Mesa. I’m not a rich man, and I certainly don’t want his house.”

Gamboni also pointed to Dolan’s participation on a 1986 city panel that recommended ways that the city could deal with dayworkers who congregated in city parks.

Dolan and three other panel members broke with the majority and wrote a minority report that decried the “invasion of Costa Mesa by illegal aliens” and enumerated several “negative impacts” purported to be caused by undocumented workers.

Latino groups such as Hermandad Mexicana Nacional and Los Amigos of Orange County, and some civic leaders such as former mayor Donn Hall and Councilwoman Mary Hornbuckle, branded the minority report as racist, which Dolan vehemently denies.

Dolan said his quarrel with Gamboni has nothing to do with the social issues that have divided the community. But some people familiar with the quarrel indeed see broader implications.

“There seems to be (in this dispute) a reaction to the changing demographics caused by fear of those who are different,” said Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. “Mr. Dolan would seem to represent that.”

That view is nonsense, responded Jeffrey Evans, a friend of Dolan’s who also sat on the dayworker panel and co-signed the minority report.

“I didn’t agree 100% with the minority report, but there was nothing racist about it,” he said. “I have heard people call Pat Dolan every name in the book, but what it boils down to is that when people don’t get their way, they start name-calling.”

In the early stages of the fence dispute, Gambomi filed a complaint with the Human Relations Commission, but the two sides were urged to seek mediation. By then, however, the legal fur was flying.

According to Gamboni’s court declaration: “In the past three years we have received anonymous phone calls, violent threats to my son and me, false code enforcement complaints, assaults on my pets, damage to my trees, my mail has been tampered with and various other harassments.”

In a 1986 incident, a dispute over a flyer placed in Gamboni’s mailbox ended with Dolan’s wife, Judy, being cited by police for allegedly brandishing a handgun at Gamboni and disturbing the peace. However, the charges were dropped after 60 days “in the interests of justice” after Judy Dolan, 43, agreed that police had probable cause to arrest her.

The fighting escalated in May, 1989, when the Dolans bought the house next to the Gambonis. According to the Dolans, the Gambonis’ chain-link fence extends 14 inches onto their property. They accuse the Gambonis of repeatedly trespassing through a gate in the fence.

The Gambonis contend that they have openly used the fence gate since they bought the home in 1977 and have established a legal right or easement that includes the northwestern tip of the Dolan lot.

Events came to a head when the Dolans began building their own six-foot-high wooden fence in front of the Gambonis’ gate to block its use. The Dolans allege that when Gamboni saw that, he knocked out the fence posts and used one to take a swing at Judy Dolan.

The Gambonis deny that but allege that Judy Dolan threw a clump of dirt at Gamboni, grazing his face and injuring his eye, according to lawsuit records.

In June, the Dolans filed a civil harassment suit seeking a permanent injunction and won a temporary restraining order restricting the Gambonis from tampering with the fence or trespassing.

In July, the Gambonis filed a $1-million countersuit that accused the Dolans of, among other things, assault and battery and infliction of emotional distress. The suit sought a permanent injunction against the Dolans’ alleged activities and legal title to the disputed patch of property.

In August, Superior Court Judge William F. Rylaarsdam denied the Dolans’ petition for a permanent injunction, finding that “it appears the Dolans have been the primary instigators of the outrageous behavior which has characterized the relationship of the parties.”

The judge granted the Gambonis an injunction, restricting the Dolans from harassing, threatening, following, telephoning or keeping the Gambonis under surveillance. The judge ordered the Dolans to stay at least five yards away from the Gambonis. As a condition of the injunction, however, the Gambonis were ordered not to communicate with the Dolans or keep them under surveillance.

“I told them that when this is all said and done, both are still going to be living in the same place, their attorneys are going to have a lot of money and they won’t have accomplished anything,” Soffer offered.

But both sides say they have come too far not to see the court case through to its end.

“I have got much better things to do with my time, but I have to defend myself,” Pat Dolan said.

Gamboni said the dispute has cost him more than $20,000 in legal fees, and he has had to take a second mortgage out on his home.

“I’ve been here for 12 years, and I have a lot of friends in the neighborhood,” he said. “I am not going to be forced to pull up and move somewhere else.”

TAKE THAT! In their lawsuit over the placement of a back-yard fence, the Gambonis and the Dolans have traded accusations ranging from bizarre to bitter: CHESTER GAMBONI: “Judy Dolan has threatened my life over 10 times. She has repeatedly stated that if I step on her property that I’m going to die and they will get my property.” “Judy Dolan verbally assaulted . . . Hispanic men who sought only to reclaim articles from her trash and when confronted with this injustice, she swore violently at me and stated, ‘Well, at least I’m not a (expletive) Mexican.’ ” “My small pedigreed dog has been attacked by someone who sprayed a chemical in her face. . . . Now the dog won’t go around the corner when Judy Dolan is near. The dog goes into a barking frenzy in reaction to Judy talking on her side of the fence.” PAT DOLAN: “In late 1984, (Gamboni) commenced a campaign of constant harassment against my family, including my elderly mother . . . contacting pro-Mexican groups and the Jewish Defense League, among other groups, calling me a racist . . . regular parking in front of my mother’s home to intimidate and annoy her . . . contacting my last two places of employment, making false accusations in an attempt to get me fired . . . almost daily surveillance (i.e. binoculars, photographs, eavesdropping) . . . regular hang-up calls, which I substantiated by calling back and hearing the same background noise.” JUDY DOLAN: “Defendant’s son and his friends are encouraged to harass my family in particular by bouncing baseballs off our car and using foul language.” “Every time we enter the back yard at the rental property (next door to the Gambonis), defendant turns floodlights into our back yard, (and) he stands behind his fence swearing and glaring at us.” Source: Orange County Superior Court declarations in the case of Dolan v. Gamboni.