The Chronicles Of Markia 4

This week's episode features the last part of Mark Halburn's deposition. In this episode, Marky talks about how he thinks the City of Hurricane was mean to him, his mug shot and more excessive noise.

James Muldoon on behalf of the City of Hurricane and Ben Newhouse continues to question Halburn.

Our comments are noted in red. Please leave yours in our comments section.

Q. Were you ever prohibited from attending a city council meeting?

A. No.

Q. Were you ever removed from a city council meeting?

A. No.

(He always leaves just before the police show up)

Q. In count 2 paragraph 11 of your complaint, it goes into an issue of some blocked phone calls. I want to focus a little bit on that for a few questions.

A. Sure.

Q. In your own words, what that's issue about?

A. They have blocked the phone lines to the police department, the phone lines to city hall were blocked from both my home phone number and my cell phone number. Recently I noticed that the line to city hall now works for my number. They were blocked from -- I don't know about -- I believe D's cell phone number. At one point when I was in Myrtle Beach, Conway, Myrtle Beach, working last summer, our water was out. D could not call city hall to report the water outage. She called me and I happened to have the cell phone number of Ronny Woodall, I think is his name, the water superintendent. I had to call him from South Carolina on my cell phone to tell them that the water was out at my house in Hurricane because my wife could not call.

The only line that has been accessible consistently is they're -- there's a police department ticket line that you call and you get an automated voice saying the price of this ticket is this and then you push zero. I can get that on my cell phone only. So if I had to call the police department over the last year or so, I use that number, press zero, and hope that the secretary picks up. All of the other lines have been blocked. If there's an emergency and we need to call the police department, we can't call the police. We can call 911, but we can't call, we cannot call the police department. (That's what 911 is for, numbnuts) This has been brought to their attention. Chief Mullins has promised to get it fixed. It hasn't been fixed. He told me that this was done at the direction of Ben Newhouse because Newhouse thought that I complained about the noise too much. Rather than enforce the noise ordinance, rather than do anything, Newhouse made the decision to go ahead and block the phone lines, which violates our First Amendment right to redress our government for grievances.(By calling dozens of times every day)

Q. Did he state that you were harassing?

A. Pardon me?

Q. Did Mr. Newhouse ever state that you were harassing him?

A. He sent out a letter saying that our calls of complaint to the city council could be, I don't have the letter right in front of me, but, you know, could be or are harassment. We were simply redressing our government for grievances and saying, Hey, there's a problem here. You know, build your Wal-Mart, God bless you. I have, you know, I have no problem with businesses coming into Putnam County. I have given Ben Newhouse, Gary Walton with the PCDA, they had a group called Operation Ignite, a list of businesses that I know of in other states, California, Kentucky, the Carolinas, and said, Hey, I think these would be very successful here. But when you operate a business, you have a responsibility to not disrupt your neighbors. I'm sure, and I'm assuming, but I'm sure that if I walked in your law firm with my notebook computer and said, Hey, I've got this web site, it's progress, I've got to work, I'm earning a living, this is a great thing, stop everything you're doing and look at what I wrote today, you would have the police there and throw me out in five minutes or less. But yet the construction industry can terrorize people's neighborhoods for hours and days and months, and you know, even more than a year and we're supposed to sit back and say, Oh, that was great, can I have some more.

Q. How are you damaged by this, blocked phone calls?'

A. Again, as I said earlier, the inability to redress my government for grievances. The ability, inability as a web site publisher to contact the police department and say, Hey, you know, so and so was arrested, they're on the web site, the jail says it was done by the City of Hurricane, you know, give me some background on the arrest, what happened, where were they arrested, because the jail will say, the jail will have the name of the person, the charges, the bail, you know, and he was arrested for DUI. But they won't have who pulled them over and why did they pull the -- you know, and stuff that background information that you get by contacting the police department.

Q. Could you physically contact the police department, meaning drive down and talk with someone?

A. I could. That takes, that takes time, that takes gas, which continues to increase, which is not the fault of the City of Hurricane. But no one else, nobody else has to do that. I might add that I've complained to the sheriffs department about noise, I've complained to the county. Nobody else blocked their phone lines except for the City of Hurricane. They're taking the attitude we'll just turn our back on the situation, and, you know.

(Mark would rather sit around in his cut-off sweat pants and flip flops and have someone serve him the information. REAL news media actually go get the information instead of waiting for people to fax it to them)
 
And Ben Newhouse advised me on two different occasions to move. Ben Newhouse, the city manager, who advised a long-time Hurricane, I think after eight years you can call me a long-time resident, and, you know, before that I was dating her and visiting, and you know, and she's lived there for 15 years, 16 years. Here's a guy that doesn't even live in the city telling us we have to move. I can solve that problem in two ways. Ben Newhouse buy, comes to buy our house, we'll move, and he'll live in the city. End of problem.

Q. When did you have those conversations with Ben?

A. Once about a year ago. And they had a send-off for Mayor Peak, who retired, and the night of his send-off I approached Ben to complain about the noise and he looked at me and says, Move. I mean, that's completely arrogant. Ben, by the way, lives on a nice quiet neighborhood. He didn't put the Wal-Mart across the street from his house, although I wouldn't object if he put another one in there.

Q. Now, you did state that you still have your 911 service?

A. I still have my 911 service.

Q. And that's never been disconnected or stopped or blocked?

A. Correct, to my knowledge.

Q. Have you ever had to call 911 ?

A. Can't remember when it was that I had the breathing problem where I had to go to the hospital, and then she had a situation where after she had the baby, it was a C section, there was a wound, the wound reopened and was bleeding, and I had to call 911.

Q. There were no problems with those phone calls?

A. There were no problems with those phone calls. And this really is a case of common decency, and the City of Hurricane couldn't spell "common decency" if I spotted them the vowels, the consonants and brought in Vanna White to turn the letters.

Q. In the paragraph 11 you also say that it otherwise interfered with your state constitutional privilege to petition the government for redress. That's just not being able to call the, that police department or the city hall?

A. And I wish that that could say instead of privilege, right. Because that's in the Bill of Rights in the First Amendment, which apparently the people that run the City of Hurricane either have never read, don't understand or have forgotten about.

Q. Your next count has to do with the vegetation and the citation. We talked a little bit about that.

A. Right.

Q. Anything else to add on that issue?

A. Again, common decency. They, they could have given her several weeks so that I could come back in town and work on it. Or quite frankly they could have ignored the problem with us like they did on the mayor's business or the neighbors on both sides of us and half the rest of the city. We don't -- we didn't have a problem, you know, and we've since hired a kid that ironically lives in Hurricane, and I'm giggling because his last name is Kidd, but a teenager, you know, who, you know, has come out and groomed that hill again. We don't have a problem, you know, complying with the law, you know, but going to a woman in August when she's, you know, extremely pregnant in a high-risk pregnancy, someone who's, you know, not even working because she's not allowed to work because of her medical condition, and giving her 48 hours to chop weeds down that aren't hurting anybody when right across the road in front of our house the weeds along the Wal-Mart property, they were tall. I've got video and pictures of all of this. What they did was despicable. What they, what they did was despicable.

(No one forced her to get out and do the work. Except maybe you. Some man you are. Run off when there's work to be done and leave your pregnant wife to deal with it. THAT'S despicable.)
 
Q. Did your wife suffer any physical injuries because of that?

A. She can answer that question. I was in another state. You know, probably some cuts and lacerations.

Q. I believe you testified that her nephew fixed it?

A. Nephews.

Q. Nephews.

A. I think she hired at least two nephews.

THE DEPONENT: D?

Q. We can ask-

MS. SOLOMON: Just tell him you don't know.

Q. We can ask her about that.

A. I don't recall. I think she hired two of them. And the thing about it is our neighbor John Clay went to a city council meeting and said that he rides, there's a hill in back of our home and he rides his riding mower up there when he didn't flip it over the wall recently while he was minding my business when I was talking to a realtor broker, but, and said he couldn't hear, and even Scott Edwards in the council meeting made the comment, Oh, is that Mark Halburn's property. You know, I don't know if John Clay was asked by Edwards to bring it up in the meeting. It seemed awfully, you know, suspicious to me.

(Everybody is out to get you, aren't they, pussyboy?)
 
Q. The next paragraph talks a little bit about selective enforcement of laws. I think we've covered that quite a bit.

A. Yeah. You know, they use the laws to pick on the people that they don't like, and their friends and buddies and cronies they let get away with what they want. And then, like I said, the speed bumps on, you know, Councilman Ellis's street, somebody went down and complained and, bam, they approved it right away. We go down, yeah, we'll enforce the noise ordinance, but they don't.

Q. The next paragraph talks about on August 15th of 2007 you received a letter from Ben Newhouse which threatened you and your wife with prosecution if you continued to make complaints about the enforcement. What was the substance of that letter? You don't have to say it word for word, but what was the substance?

A. Yeah. It was harassment by Ben Newhouse of people that were complaining about excessive construction noise. It was a violation of our First Amendment rights to redress our government for grievances by a city manager who doesn't even live in the city and has ordered us to move. It was plain and simple, despicable behavior by an out of control arrogant city manager.

Q. Did he-

A. Those are the words I can use with the ladies in the room.

Q. Did he allege that you were harassing?

A. Yes.

Q. Are you aware of anyone else receiving letters?

A. No.

Q. Were you ever prosecuted for threatening or not, for complaining?

A. Just the prosecution, the malicious prosecution by Cleveland Construction when I discovered their blaster was blasting without a license.

Q. But you'll agree the city had nothing to do with that?

A. No, I think the city, I think the city had everything to do with that. I think that they took that as an opportunity to try to shut up one of their critics and order the police department to go over there and have me arrested. They never contacted me. If they did, they would have found out what I was calling about. The man was cited for not having a license. He whined and said, Well, my boss didn't renew it. That's like somebody that drives a truck saying, Well, it was my boss's responsibility to renew my driver's license and not my fault because my license expired.

Q. So the, so the city just randomly sent police over or intentionally sent police over?

A. They never sent them to me. I never heard about it until I was arrested. They never got my side of the story. And in any issue there's at least two sides of the story.

(Usually when the police arrest someone they don't ask the criminal for his side of the story)
 
Q. So-

A. They talked to, they talked to the, you know, to the liar at Cleveland Construction and took his word for it, had me arrested, and when it went to court I was acquitted, as I should have been. It should never have been, it should never have been charged.

Q. So how did the city act improperly on that case?

A. By refusing to get the rest of the story, by going for a warrant for my arrest, by arresting me, by doing it at 1 or 1:30 in the morning and scaring D and her mother that was with us and by having me jailed, violating my civil rights. My mug shot was on the internet, it was on other blogs, it was in the newspaper, the story was on the radio. It was a blatant intimidation tactic on the part of the City of Hurricane and Cleveland Construction to try to shut up somebody that was reporting that their blaster wasn't licensed and illegal activity was going on. The only thing more despicable about that is the people that represent the City of Hurricane and Cleveland Construction that, you know, are trying to say that they did the right thing.

Q. So you just believe it's total retaliation?

A. Absolutely.

(It's a bitch, isn't it?)
 
Q. The Ben Newhouse letter, did you ever talk with anyone else about that letter, besides your council? And I don't want to get into attorney-client privilege.

A. Not that I recall.

MR. KONSTANTY: I don't mean to interrupt, but do you still have a copy of that letter? I haven't seen it.

THE DEPONENT: Our attorney has a copy, Mr. Clifford has that letter.

MR. KONSTANTY: Is there some reason why it hasn't been disclosed in this case yet?

THE DEPONENT: I thought it was disclosed in the, in the complaint. There was disclosure of the letter there. I mean, the complaint discloses the letter. As far as a physical copy, that you would have to ask Mike Clifford.

MR. KONSTANTY: Okay.

MR. MULDOON: We can do that.

THE DEPONENT: I do know that he told us to get him the original ASAP, and I believe that she brought it to him within a day or so. Personally when I read it I couldn't believe that anybody could be so stupid as to write something like that, but then I considered Ben Newhouse and that adds up.

BY-MR. MULDOON:

Q. How often do you feel that a person should be able to complain about something?

A. Until the issue is resolved.

Q. In one day?

A. Until the issue is resolved.

Q. So you wouldn't have a problem with someone complaining 10, 15 times in a day?

A. If I was making noise that disrupted my neighbors, my neighbors wouldn't have to complain 10, 15 times.

You know, we used to, a couple of times we held a luau in our yard, and I went to Mr. Clay and the people there and said, Hey, we're going to hold it on this date, is that a problem, if it gets too noisy, let us know. That's what considerate neighbors do.

But until the problem is resolved, yeah, absolutely. I don't have, you know, a problem with somebody complaining multiple times. And several times when I talked to Ben his response is they're still blasting? He wasn't aware that the problem was continuing, and I believe that, you know, his response wasn't being facetious, I believe it was legitimate, especially when the blasting was supposed to end in I think it was June or July and Kanawha Stone signed another contract and more blasting continued. And I remember going to him in city hall and he said I didn't know that they were still blasting, I'll look into it. And I think he was genuinely shocked that it was still going on, but also negligent in not being up there to find out what's going on in his city. He should have done that, he should have known.

Q. I want to turn gears just for a second and talk a little bit about some damages that you're claiming as a result of the actions of the defendants. In your complaint you allege that there's some permanent injuries. What would the permanent injuries be?

A. I'll let you ask my counsel who wrote that.

Q. So you're just not aware of --

A. I believe he's referring to the devaluation of the home.

Q. No physical permanent injuries?

A. We have not been physically permanently injured.

Q. What about psychological permanent injuries?

A. There's still pictures of my mug shot out there on the internet. You know, I mean --

MS. SOLOMON: Stress.

(Were they talking to you? STFU)
 
A. Yeah. I found out, for example, I used to work at Rock 105, and that group is, we mentioned earlier, as a public affairs there, somebody I know got hired to work there, and I don't want to mention who because I don't want it to get back to them, and he happened to call me about something completely unrelated, said, By the way, do you know that your mug shot is up in one of the control rooms. You know.

(And all over the internet. And right here)
 
Q. So it's more of an annoyance and embarassment type of thing?

A. Yeah, and humiliation.

(You deserve everything that you get.)
 
MS. SOLOMON: Trust. I don't know if you have it.

(You again? Shut your damn cake hole)
 
THE DEPONENT: Well, yeah.

A. You know, I don't trust the City of Hurricane, I don't trust the government. I don't trust the government in West Virginia period.

Q. Why is that?

A. Because look at all this crap that we've been put through. A reasonable government would say, Okay, fine, let's have a noise ordinance that protects these people. And, you know, the other attorney, I don't remember, I think Ms. Sanders made the comment, you know, you went to the state. Yeah, the reason I asked for a state noise ordinance is because it takes it out of the hands of the local government that could sell their souls for a Wal-Mart and turn their backs on their people, whereas if there's a state ordinance you can call in the WVDEP just like we did when there was smoke, and they came down within a day, cited them, the smoke, the burning got stopped, actually got moved to the other side of the property, because the burning was done right next to the edge of the property closest to our homes. They had to move it over to the other side and they said there will be no more burning, and a couple of days later I come home and you could see the flames, and they shut it down.

There should be a state response. Now, the state people, and I understand their point of view, says, Well, the problem is if we make a law, you know, restricting construction noise in West Virginia, nobody will build in West Virginia, that will hurt us. So that's when I went to the Feds and said, Okay, let's eliminate that, just make it a federal standard that people, you know, the construction noise has to be, you know, curtailed to the construction site in every state so that people aren't going to build in Kentucky and build in Pennsylvania, build in Maryland, build in Ohio, and not West Virginia because we have a law that protects our citizen's rights properly and the other states don't. So, you know, we lose jobs, we lose business. I don't want to see anybody hurt, but at the same time there's common decency and there's common sense. You know, some governments can be trusted more than others. I grew up in the hometown of Richard Nixon. I learned, you know as a very small child that politicians will lie, they'll cheat, they'll steal, they'll cover up crimes to do whatever they want to do, and I think that's what goes, a lot of what we see around West Virginia. Look at Nitro. Need I say more?

(Why don't you say you come by your lying and cheating honestly?)
 
Q. Currently, I don't know if we -- I don't know if you're still taking -- you are taking blood pressure medication?

A. Yes.

Q. Any other meds right now?

A. I have some diabetes medication that I'm actually out of it, I need to get refilled, but...

Q. The diabetes you're not alleging as part of this lawsuit at all, are you?

A. No.

Q. Just the high blood pressure, which we've talked about already?

A. Right. I don't know if they're related. I -- you know ...

Q. Have we talked about all of your complaints in this lawsuit with regard to the City of Hurricane?

A. For the most part, yes.

Q. How about Mr. Newhouse also, we've talked about all those complaints?

A. They should fire him. You know, it's just incredible that a city manager who doesn't live in the city, even if he did live in the city, to tell people that have been here for that long, Well, if you don't like it, move, you know. I mean, this is a home that my wife and mother-in-law invested in. You know, we've spent thousands of dollars renovating the home through the years to make it nice. It's my understanding from what the police have told me, including Joe Sisk, including Dave Boyles, former city council person, that when she bought the home it was the ugliest home on the street and now it's the best looking. I wasn't here then to see how ugly it looked. But, you know, even Boyles who disagrees with me about enforcement says, Yeah, your wife, you know, the first thing she did was fix up the outside of that home and made it look good for the neighborhood. Then we started working on the inside. You know, and we've still got more work to do. It's frustrating. The other day I saw a gazebo, I'd like to buy a gazebo and put it in our yard, but what's the point if we're going to have to move, you know, we've got it for sale to move out of there. We've got carpeting in a room that we would like to replace and some other things. All that stuff is on hold because, you know, we don't want to live there anymore. Our lifestyle has been destroyed by a corrupt city that has turned its back on its long-time citizens. She's done nothing to them. I mean, if they want to go after me because I point out their stupidity and their corruption and the things that they, you know, that they do and don't do and their selective enforcement and their harassment, if they want to go after me, that's one thing. Pick out a pregnant woman, have our baby woken up at 5 in the morning or at midnight or whatever, that's despicable. Only a neanderthal would do that. Only neanderthals would treat people the way we've been treated. And the amazing thing about it is they've destroyed property value in the city that destroys tax revenue that hurts them. They could build the Wal-Mart in a proper way. If you go down to the Wal-Mart in Barboursville and you take a look at the mounds and the berms next to the Wal-Mart and across the street next to the homes, that was done in a way that protected everybody. The Wal-Mart has its business, the traffic doesn't go in front of the homes, there's something to stop the noise. None of that was done in Hurricane. I mean, I think it was planned by, you know, somebody with a three-year-old's amount of intelligence, and I don't really want to insult the three-year-old. Would you want to live across the street from that?

THE DEPONENT: He didn't say yes.

MS. SOLOMON: All right.

MR. MULDOON: I don't think I have any more questions right now. Does anyone else have any follow-ups?

MR. WHITE: Yeah, a few.

VIDEOGRAPHER: We're going off the record at 5: 14 p.m. (Whereupon, break.)

VIDEOGRAPHER: This begins tape number 5 in the deposition of Mark Halburn, and we're back on the record at 5:22 p.m.

EXAMINATION

BY-MR. WHITE:

Q. Mr. Halbum, my name is Patrick White, and I'm here on behalf of Kanawha Stone. I'm going to ask you a few follow-up questions. And if we could, just briefly, where were you working in November of 2006? Were you at Cingular?

A. Yes.

Q. And how long were you at Cingular?

A. I started I think it was May 9th, 2005, and left the end of January, the last part of January 2007.

Q. Okay.

A. And then I also substitute taught in the Kanawha County Schools on occasion. I didn't teach that often by choice. They called me all the time. But my primary employer was Cingular Wireless.

Q. And then in February '07 where did you go?

A. PRC in Huntington. And the reason for doing that, I was just tired of the commute.

Q. I'm just trying to get a time line-

A. Sure.

Q. -- set for answering questions. And you were at PRC how long?

A. Until I think it was June.

Q. And that's when you went to South Carolina?

A. 2007. I gave notice, and they, like a lot of employees when they give notice, they buy you out, and they bought me out. And then I went down to -- I think it was July 7th I started at WPDE in Conway, Myrtle Beach.

Q. Okay. When you worked at Cingular in Grayson I believe you testified that your shifts were somewhere between 2 and 11 or 3 and 11?

A. Correct.

Q. Somewhere in that neighborhood?

A. Usually, not always. And then on Saturdays they were, I believe it was 11 to 7 or 10 to 6 or in that. They were more midday Saturday, because we weren't open past 7:00.

Q. How long did it take you to get, to drive from your house to Grayson?

A. 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic and how fast I went.

Q. Okay. So if you had to be at work at 2:00, you would probably leave 12:30, 12?

A. Or, well, at 2:00, I'd probably leave about 1.

Q.1?

A. And 1:15. But, again, I didn't work every weekday. I usually had a weekday off, either a Tuesday or a Thursday, and I think it was usually Thursday that I was off during, off, because I worked, I worked on Saturday, so I got a weekday off, and I was off -- pardon me. Sorry about that, Mr. Headset. I was off on Sundays.

Q. During that period of time, how many blasts did you experience?

A. A lot. I don't have an exact count. I've made notes of them, you know, in the blog.

Q. You were present for all the blasts on your blog?

A. I was present for all the blasts that I -- no. I was present for some of the blasts, and some of them she told me when they were and I noted them on the blog. There were a couple of times that she would call and say, you know, the house just rocked.

Q. So you really can't use the blast as a guide as to whether or not you experienced the blast?

A. I can use most of them as a guide.

Q. But you weren't there?

A. I wasn't there for all of them.

Q. Did you indicate in your blog which ones you were there for?

A. I don't -- I think I indicated some of them, I don't recall if I indicated all of them, but someone was there. And blasting someone's house is rude no matter who's there.

Q. But the blog does not indicate whether you were there or not?

A. Sometimes. I don't recall if it indicates every time. I would have to, you know, we're talking about almost two years of blog, I'd have to go back and read every page and every entry.

Q. You, you update your blog every day, don't you?

A. Usually.

Q. You spend several hours on the blog?

A. No.

Q. No?

A. No. Usually it's about a five-minute entry. I spend several hours running the web site. The blog is one fraction, one small fraction of the web site.

Q. It's fair to say you've spent five hours a day working on the blog? Or the web site. Excuse me.

A. I'd say it's fair to say three to five hours.

Q. Three to five hours depending on the day?

A. Depending on the day, depending on what's happening with news, depending on, you know, whether -- on Sundays I spend very little time. On Saturdays I don't spend as much time.

Q. What were your hours while you were at the PRC?

A. Pretty much the same as Cingular, evening hours.

Q. How many blasts did you experience while you were working at the PRC?

A. I don't recall.

Q. And, again, your blog doesn't indicate whether or not you were present during those blasts?

A. Not, not for every one, but I that -- you know, again, I'd have to go back and look. I don't recall.

Q. What were your hours -- well, when you left in July to go to South Carolina you were gone until your son was born?

A. I was gone until a couple of days before my son was born.

Q. So during that period of time any blasts, if any, your knowledge about those would come solely from your wife?

A. Yes.

Q. What during -- let's say November '06 through August '07, describe your typical day.

A. Get up in the morning, have breakfast, work on the web site, do some, you know, some housework, although, you know, in a big house there's never time to do enough of it, you know, have lunch, go to work, come home. I would at work on my breaks when I worked for Cingular, we had an internet cafe, and so I had the ability to go on line and, you know, find out, okay, this happened. And sometimes I would come home after work and, you know, with the notes that I made work out, you know, work out a story. During the day I'd go out and take pictures of people, places, events that were going on. Sometimes taking pictures of the construction work. I shot a lot of video. After we bought our video camera, which was just before our son was born, I've shot lots of video of the harassment that we endured every day by the excessive noise and construction. By that point I believe all the blasting was done, but there was still a lot of work being done by graders and dozers and other things that were, you know, that were going on that, you know, harassed our, harassed us. I wish that I had the video camera a year earlier. The stuff that I could have captured on tape were -- it's, it is a tapeless camera, on the hard drive , rather, would have been very graphic and very bad.

Q. You agree with me that -- strike that. During the time period I stated, November '06 through August '07, you were, you were basically obsessed with the construction project, weren't you?

A. No. I've never been obsessed. (Really?) But your client was obsessed with terrorizing my family with the blasting, the grading, the dozing and everything to make a buck at the expense of a family that had nothing to do with your Wal-Mart, nothing to do with your contract, and you had no right to treat us like dirt like you guys did.

Q. You made numerous phone calls to the city during that period of time, didn't you?

A. Yes, absolutely, because -

Q. And you were -

A. -- because your, because your company was out of control.

Q. You made numerous phone calls to CCI Construction, yes?

A. I'm sorry, to TCI Construction?

Q. Cleveland Construction.

A. I made numerous phone calls to Cleveland Construction.

Q. And you made numerous phone calls per day to Kanawha Stone; correct?

A. Not each day, no. On occasion I made numerous phone calls.

Q. Numerous phone calls each day?

A. Quite frankly, calling - no. Quite frankly, calling Kanawha Stone was pretty much a waste of time. You guys didn't give a damn about us.

Q. Sir, sir, if your -

A. I'm answering your question.

Q. My question was yes or no. You complained a lot of this noise was in the morning; correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you ever get up and determine whether the noise was coming from your neighbor?

A. Yes.

Q. How often was it coming from your neighbor?

A. Rarely.

Q. Rarely. So the noise from your neighbor only came in the afternoon, that's your testimony?

A. No, I said the noise from the neighbor for the most part might be one to two days a week, if it's that. Many times our neighbor is off doing whatever he's doing, I don't follow him to know, and isn't there. And then when he does, when he is there on the occasions that he is, it's usually pretty loud and it's usually pretty, you know, pretty bad. But for the most part our -- you know, it's like, kind of like living with somebody that, you know, works on a barge, they're gone more often than they're home, you know. But the noise from Kanawha Stone and from Cleveland Construction was blatantly out of control.

Q. You make, do you make harassing phone calls to your neighbor?

A. No. No. After he complained about the weeds, I called him and asked him why he didn't call me and say, you know, and at least come to us and say there's a problem as opposed to going to city council and saying what he did to city council. He didn't like hearing that.

(Probably because he didn't want you harassing him either. And you were afraid he'd walk over and whip your fat ass)
 
MR. KONSTANTY: Sorry, just to clarify. We're talking about the neighbor next door? What's his name?

MR. MULDOON: Kanawha Construction.

MR. KONSTANTY: Are you talking about the construction company or the -

BY-MR.WHITE:

Q. What's your neighbor's name?

A. I'm talking about John Clay.

MR. KONSTANTY: Okay. Thank you.

A. I don't know the phone number, I've never called.

Q. John Clay owns the crane shop next to you?

A. No.

MR. KONSTANTY: No.

A. As I was starting to say before you interrupted me, I don't know the phone number for Kanawha, Kanawha Construction. I wouldn't know how to call them.

Q. Do you own a phone book, sir?

(Heh)
 
A. I'm sorry?

Q. Do you own a phone book?

A. Probably.

Q. You have access to the internet obviously?

(You should see his porn collection)

A. Yes.

Q. Did you ever attempt to find the number for the crane company?

A. No, because when there was a problem with the crane company they were there, I had no need to call them.

Q. The, the construction -

A. All I needed to do was walk to the fence to talk to them.

Q. Wal-Mart construction project has been good business for PutnumLive, hasn't it?

A. Pardon me?

Q. The Wal-Mart construction has been good business for PutnumLive, hasn't it?

A. I wouldn't agree with that, no.

Q. Didn't give you something to write about?

A. It's given me something to write about. There are many other things that I could write about, too, and many other things that I did write about. Remember when phones just rang?

(Who the fuck do you think you are? Andy Rooney?)
 
Q. During the period, and I think this is -- we got off on this.

A. I think the Wal-Mart construction has been good business -

MS. SOLOMON: Let him finish.

A. -- for, for Kanawha Stone.

Q. Between November '06 and August '07, what was your typical day like?

A. I think we already described that. I get up in the morning, work on, have breakfast, work on the web site, shower, change, do the things that people do.

Q. And you left off in the middle of the day is why I asked.

A. And then I'd go to work, drive to work on the days that I was working in the evening, and the days that I wasn't I would work more on the web site or do other things around the house.

Q. What did you do in the evening?

A. I would be working at Cingular or PRC.

Q. Until 7?

A. Until 11 on most cases. On Saturdays it was a midday shift.

Q. Well, if you got off at 7, what did you do for the rest of the day?

A. Drove home, sometimes go out to dinner with my wife. I have never kept a diary of what I do from the moment that I get up until the moment that I go home or at work or whatever.

Q. Do you watch TV?

A. Sometimes, not often.

Q. What's your favorite TV show?

A. The news, Dodger games. I used to watch "Party of Five." There was a show called "Everwood" that I used to watch. You know, "Extreme Home Makeover." You know, I don't watch that -- I probably watch other than news maybe an hour of prime time, two hours of prime time a week. I don't have time to watch that much, and I'm usually gone during the evenings anyway. During the day I'll watch the noon news, the morning news when I get up.

(What a pussy. I'll bet you sat around and watched shit like "What Not To Wear" while D put hot compresses on your irritated vagina)
 
Q. Do you have a VCR, DVR, anything of that nature?

A. No DVR. We have a handful of VCRs. I'd have to do, I'd have to do -- I'm guessing three or four VCRs.

Q. What do you do with those?

A. I rarely record on the VCRs, quite frankly. The last time I've used them mostly has been to duplicate the footage of what's happened to provide copies to the attorney to give to you. I can't remember the last time I programmed the VCR to tape something. We have, we have one downstairs, we have one in the master bedroom, I have another one. I think we have three VCRs now, and a couple of DVD players, and I can't remember the last time I watched it, the last time I watched a DVD.

Q. You mentioned in the beginning that you didn't have a camcorder. When did you purchase that?

A. Towards the end of August, shortly before the birth of our son. And I need to clarify that we had one that broke probably a year before that, and we, there was a gap in between the time that we replaced the one that broke before we replaced it and bought a new one.

Q. You've, you've harassed many of the construction workers with your camcorder, haven't you?

A. No. I've documented the harassment that they did to us.

Q. You haven't invaded the construction site without, without an invitation?

A. No.

Q. You've never been on the construction site?

A. I have been on the Wal-Mart property after it opened. I went to the office when things first got started to complain and was told to leave, and I never went back to the office.

(They should have banned you from the property completely)
 
Q. Mr. Konstanty earlier mentioned an incident involving Kanawha Stone water truck. It's true that you were harassing that gentleman with your camcorder, weren't you?

A. No, I didn't, I didn't -

Q. It's your testimony here today that you made no statements to that gentleman?

A. No. What I said was that I did not have video. The police asked me if I had video, and I said I did not. I took digital pictures of him coming at me with a wrench. He was at the back of the truck, I was towards the front of the truck, so I wasn't even within 15 or 20 feet of him.

Q. You were making harassing statements to him, weren't you?

A. No. I asked him if he was aware that there was a water shortage in Hurricane, and that they were using a lot of water. And he went off on me and came after me with a wrench, which I did not get video of because -- and unfortunately I did not have the camcorder, because the police told me that if I had it on videotape they would have arrested him, which they should have done even with the digital images. And by the digital, by the digital images you could tell that he was coming from the back of the truck and I was at the front of the truck, so I wasn't even within 15 or 20 feet of him.

Q. Do you agree with me that the still camera also doesn't record any harassing statements you made to him?

A. The still-- no, I would disagree, and I would say the still -

Q. The still camera, the still camera does record those statements?

(At this point, Halburn starts to squirm)

A. Let me finish my statement. You're harassing me. The still camera does not record any statements of any type. And your question about record harassing statements is a -- you know, you're tainting the question with your comment. And so I'm not going to come across and walk into -

Q. Sir-

A. -- the trap that your trying to set,

Q. Sir.

Q. Your counsel can help you.

MS. SOLOMON: You didn't make any harassing statements.

A. I did not make any harassing statements.

(These aren't the droids you're looking for.)

Q. The noise that you complain of came from what machinery?

A. The graders, the dozers, things that did drilling and broke rock. I'm not a construction expert, so I don't know the names of all the pieces of equipment.

Q. You did-

A. Backhoes.

Q. You did about several pieces of equipment. Cement trucks, delivery trucks. You agree with me those are not all Kanawha Stone vehicles?

A. The cement trucks are not. The trucks are not. Some of the vehicles had Kanawha Stone's logos on the doors or on the sides of the vehicles.

Q. Your blog does not set out what noise came from what machinery, does it?

A. I would have to go back and read the entries. I don't recall.

Q. Do you have -- you don't have any independent recollection of what noise came from what machinery, do you?

A. Oh, I've already said. The dozers --

Q. No.

A. -- the things that the things that did drilling and broke rock.

Q. You don't have any independent knowledge of what noise came from what vehicles on what days, do you?

A. When you say "independent knowledge," define your question.

Q. Do you -- as you -- as we sit here today, can you say that on November 1st this machinery belonging to this company was making this noise, on January 2nd this machine belonged to this company was making this noise? You can't do that, can you?

A. There's notes in the blog. I don't recall specifically what date what machine made what noise as we sit here on, what is it, July, July 23rd, 2008.

Q. Sir, you just agreed with me -

A. There's no -

Q. -- that your blog did not -

A. I'm not done with my answer.

Q. You're not answering the question, you're running on. You just agreed with me that the blog did not indicate which company owned which machines. Now-

A. On some days it did.

Q. -- is there a reason as you sit here today that you don't want to answer my question?

(Because the truth hurts.)

A. I don't recall specifically what dates and what events and what machines made what noise. There are dates and times in the blog, and you're hitting me with loaded questions and you're having a good time doing it, but the bottom line is I don't recall on what specific dates what machines made what noise. Kanawha Stone was out there for nearly a year making excessive noise terrorizing our neighborhood. It doesn't matter whether it comes from a dozer or whether it comes from a backhoe, it's excessive noise and it has no place disrupting us in our home and in our yard. Period.

Q. But you don't know who did it, do you?

A. I know a lot of times that Kanawha Stone did it. On other days no, not all the machines were labeled with the company logo on it, so it's impossible to tell. And I, you know, I can't, if a thing doesn't have a logo on it, you can't -- just like the guy that disrupted us at 4:23 on Thanksgiving morning, didn't have a name on the truck, so I don't know who did it but I know that he did it. And the bottom line is your people were out there making a lot of noise that was completely inappropriate and unnecessary for, to destroy the peace and quiet in our home and in our neighborhood.

Q. Sir, answer my question. You don't know it's my people because you don't know who was doing it?

A. I know some of it was your people, I don't know that all of it was your people. That's the answer to your question.

MR. WHITE: That's all I have.

VIDEOGRAPHER: We're going off the record at 5:42 p.m.
(Whereupon, off the video record.)

MR. KONSTANTY: Is he going to waive or read? Mr. Halburn, your attorney should tell you this, but I will. You have a right to read and review this transcript or you can waive that right. We need you to indicate so on the record so that the court reporter knows what to do with the transcript.

THE DEPONENT: I want to read the transcript.

MR. KONSTANTY: Okay. He'll read.

(Whereupon, read and sign.)

(Whereupon, the Videotaped Deposition of MARK VANCE HALBURN concluded at 5:43 p.m.)

Next week, we'll continue with Exhibit B, the videotaped testimony of Halburn's second ex-wife, DH.

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