Patricia immediately changed her tone. She said he should have told her that. Marcus asked the question she could not answer: “Would my profession have changed the rules that allowed me to use the park?”
The officers left without arresting or removing him. Marcus remained for another twenty minutes, then went home and documented the entire incident. He called his law partner, who warned him not to become his own lawyer in a dispute involving him personally.
CHAPTER 4 — THE RECORDS
An attorney from another firm helped Marcus send a narrow preservation request to the HOA. They asked for security complaints, park-access rules, surveillance footage, board communications, and documents defining Patricia’s authority.
The records revealed that the safety coordinator position had never been given power to demand identification or decide who belonged in the neighborhood. Patricia had gradually treated an informal volunteer role as if it were a police position.
More concerning, the HOA files contained years of complaints describing contractors, visitors, delivery workers, and residents as “unfamiliar,” “suspicious,” or “not belonging.” Some were legitimate concerns, but others involved people who were later confirmed to have every right to be there.