Gabe heard these threats by eavesdropping on a call Susan placed to his father during her drive back from Montana on Monday, October 7. She threatened to shoot Felix with a shotgun if he didn’t move into the pool house and let her live in the main house with Gabriel, a warning that sounded real enough to the teen.
The warning also sounded real enough to Felix. Eventually he became so frightened that he called the police, arranging to have them come to the house for Susan’s return, but after hours of waiting, the officers left the property, instructing Felix to call if trouble arose.
It was after 11 PM when Susan pulled into the driveway in Eli’s Dodge Ram truck. Gabe and his dad were on the couch watching TV when his mother strode into the living room.
After a brief discussion with Felix, Susan slept in the master bedroom, and Felix stayed in the spare bedroom/office on the first floor. Things seemed okay until Wednesday, October 9, when Felix returned home to find that Susan had enlisted Gabriel to help her move all of Felix’s belongings to the redwood guest cottage. The first few minutes after Felix entered the house were riddled with tension, and Gabe had no idea what would happen. He began to relax when his parents sat down and engaged in a reasonably civilized conversation. Susan told his father that she did not want him to stay in the main house, and shortly thereafter their discussion turned to the recent court hearing while she was in Montana in which his father had won custody of him and control over the Orinda house. A Superior Court judge signed the order on September 27, 2002.
Not surprising, things quickly heated up, and at one point, Susan asked that Gabe leave the room. He didn’t move; he just stayed on the couch watching a program on the giant-screen TV his mom had bought when his dad had first moved out in November 2001. It was one of the first big purchases she made on her own without Felix’s approval, since he had long opposed the idea of an entertainment center in the living room. Still, Felix enjoyed it in Susan’s absence.
Gabe grew worried as his parents’ voices began to rise. He heard his father tell Susan that if she threatened him, he would call the police. Suddenly, his dad began yelling, then grabbed the phone. But he returned the handset to its receiver and tried to speak calmly to Susan. Still, the threats continued. When Susan whispered something in Felix’s ear, he jumped up and dialed for help. Gabe was too far away to hear what she said, but it was clear from the look on his father’s face that it was serious.
Gabe watched his father enter 9-1-1 on the phone.
“Can I talk to somebody about a domestic dispute, please?” Felix said.
“Okay, what’s going on?” the dispatcher on the other end of the line inquired.
“I’ve been residing at 728 Miner Road with my son. And my wife came and kicked me out of the house, and I am not interested in being kicked out of the house.”
“Okay sir, is your wife there at the house with you?”
“She’s right here.”
“Okay, is it physical?”
“No, it’s not physical but it’s…”
The dispatcher jumped in, “but she’s kicked you out the house.”
“Well I’m standing in the house, but she says I have to leave, which I’m not going to do.”
“Was there a reason that she gave why you have to leave?”
Felix responded curtly. There was annoyance in his voice, as if he expected the dispatcher to know the problem and understand the urgency. The mere fact that he was dialing 911 was sufficient. “She was living away, she decided to come back,” he blurted. “I have custody of the kids, I have legal custody of the kids and…”
“Okay, do you live there?” the dispatcher didn’t need the particulars, just the reason why this man felt he needed emergency personnel at his home. “Are you guys still married or are you separated?”
“We’re still married.”
“So you both live there?”
“No, she vacated, and I took over the house, and take care of Gabriel the kid here, and we’ve been living here.”
“Have either of you been drinking? Using drugs?”
“No.”
“Are there any weapons in the house?”
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask my wife. She has a shotgun,” Felix replied matter-of-factly.
The dispatcher’s tone took on a new urgency. “Your wife has a shotgun—as in she’s holding a shotgun?”
“No.” Felix replied with no further explanation.
“She’s got one in the house?” the dispatcher pressed on for information.
“I don’t know where it is. Probably in the car.”
“You don’t know if it’s locked up or not then?”
“I don’t know anything about it. You’ll have to ask her. But I feel at risk.”
As patrol units were dispatched to the scene, the operator continued to question Felix about what seemed to be a potentially threatening situation at 728 Miner Road. “So you said she vacated? Now did she move back in?”
Felix’s responses were brief, perhaps because Susan was standing beside him. “She moved to Montana, and she came back, actually to pick up her things and move back to Montana, and while I was at work, she moved me out of the house.”
When police arrived, they found Felix and Susan seated at the granite breakfast bar in the main house having a quiet conversation. Both parties appeared calm, yet Felix was annoyed that his wife had moved him out of the house. He insisted the officers ask Susan to leave and provided a copy of the signed order giving him sole custody of the Orinda residence. At one point, he told the officers that his wife had a shotgun, a claim that she immediately denied. In response to the officers’ questions, she explained she had been in Montana and recently returned to be with her sons, Gabriel and Eli. But after an argument with her husband, she had moved his belongings to the pool house, where she insisted he remain.
To the officers, the situation appeared to be under control. Even the teenage boy who had witnessed his parents’ fight assured them that there had been no physical contact or threats made. It was almost midnight when police advised Felix to find another place to sleep that night. He didn’t have the
Shortly thereafter, Gabriel and Felix left for the nearby Lafayette Park Hotel. Gabriel insisted on joining his father, who had been a frequent guest of the hotel, visits which led to rumors—albeit unsubstantiated—that he entertained women friends there while married to Susan.
The following morning, Felix drove Gabriel to school in the family’s beat-up blue Volvo sedan. That afternoon he called police from his hotel room, determined to regain control of the house.
“I was living there, and the officer [who’d come to the house the previous night] said that unless I had a court order indicating that I had use of the house, I couldn’t continue to live in the house,” he calmly explained to the operator. “I do have that court order now and I want to talk about implementing that court order.”
It was after 7 PM Thursday evening when Felix phoned police for a second time, requesting an officer be present while he and Gabriel went inside the Miner Road residence to fetch some of their belongings. Questions over Felix’s paperwork remained and it appeared he and his son would be spending a second night in Room 304 of the posh, hillside hotel, a standard room with two queen-size beds, French furnishings, and ample books on the shelves.
When officers met Felix at the base of the driveway after 7:30 PM, they informed him that he would need to be prepared to make a “citizen’s arrest” if his wife refused to leave the premises. Felix was visibly hesitant and asked if they would be able to speak to his wife first, but, in the end, it didn’t matter. As it turned out, Susan was not at home when Felix went to the front door with the police. Instead, he found a note posted there. It read:
Dear Felix,
You do not have a signed court order. By law, I have 10 days to respond from date of receipt of proposed order. I received it today. Adam and I are at the movies.
PS You are welcome to stay in cottage tonight.
