About 35 minutes into the 6 p.m. meeting, one of the organizers, Robert Carlson, spotted the developer's field superintendent, Rob Hunt, in the audience. At the time, Carlson had finished speaking, and co-organizer of the meeting Fred Board was at the podium in the community room at Queen of Peace Catholic Church.

Carlson walked to the back of the room and asked Hunt to leave. When the non-Cherrywood resident declined to go, Carlson and the crowd gathering around them began demanding that he leave, with shouts of, "You don't belong here."

When residents discovered Carlson's tape recorder on the table, the men around the 41-year-old man began to get angry and demanding that he leave. At least one man placed his hands briefly around Hunt's neck.

Hunt, who remained passive during the incident, later said two men, at different times, grabbed him around the neck with their hands. A Sheriff's report notes a one-and-a-half-inch abrasion on the left side of Hunt's neck was consistent with being grabbed around the neck.

During the scuffle a man identified as Donald Torrusio allegedly picked up a chair, as if to hit Hunt with it, the report charged. There were two or three persons between Hunt and the man with the chair, and did it didn't appear as if the man was able to swing the impromptu weapon. He set it was set aside.

Hunt's tape recorder was taken from him and the half-dozen men around him were becoming more vocal and adamant about getting the perceived intruder out the meeting. Collectively they got him out of his chair as a woman, identified as Geraldine Kolberg, positioned herself between Hunt and the crowd as he made his way to the door.

The incident spanned no more than five or ten minutes and Board quieted the angry crowd and resumed the meeting. A visibly upset Carlson began gathering up notes and flyers turned in by residents as Board was trying to continue the meeting.

About the time tension in the audience was subsiding and suggestions for addressing residents concerns were in discussion, Hunt and two Sheriff's deputies entered the room. The crowd immediately protested police presence with shouts of "he doesn't belong here" and a group of residents rushed over to the deputies.

The deputies asked Carlson and a few others identified by Hunt to step outside the meeting room. As the group exited, a cry of "let's go" went out from the audience and about half the room followed outside.

After interviewing a number of eyewitnesses to the incident, charges were brought against two men. Later that night, Torrusio was charged with aggravated battery, according to reports. His bond was $5,000.

Carlson was arrested at his home and charged with simple battery. His bail was $500.

In a telephone interview, the 82-year-old Carlson said, "It's a lot of BS. They treated us badly in that jail. I had to strip down, naked. They even took my underwear. I've never been treated like that." He was placed in a cell with 27 other people, he said.

"They came to my house a couple of hours later (after the meeting) as I was getting ready for bed. Three cop cars came. You'd think they were after Al Capone. We didn't do nothing. I don't know why we should be charged," Carlson added.

In reference to Hunt having a tape recorder, he said, " I did not invite that guy to the party. It's against the law to tape a meeting, like that."

On March 15, Carlson said he went to the state attorney's office with a complaint about the Cherrywood developer, to no avail, and was told to get a lawyer, he said. 

Especially, he said, after responding to a hail of questions from 150 or more upset Cherrywood residents in a sales office parking lot 10 days earlier. Hunt has been concerned that upset homeowners' complaints are unfounded.

But he said he can't address what he doesn't understand. "I came to listen, not to talk," he said.

"I wanted to find out what the problems were and what they were thinking," he added.

Hunt, a Corridor but not Cherrywood resident, said he didn't know the meeting was closed. "There was no sign on the door saying, keep out," he said.

He walked into the 6 p.m. meeting a little late, along with a few residents and sat quietly in the back of the Parish Hall at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, he said. Hunt was not noticed by co-organizer Robert Carlson until approximately 35 or 40 minutes into discussion, and he was forcibly ejected by several angry residents. See related story.

"If half the people had stood up and said, 'Leave,' I would have," Hunt said. He added, "I remember what my grandfather said: "He who throws the first blow ran out of ideas.'"

Having attended only part of the meeting, Hunt said he still brought back some good ideas. "The question about deed restrictions in the clubhouse was good. Why not have them there?" he said.

"Deed restrictions are legal documents, and you have to be careful how they are distributed," he added. Developer Johnny Zacco is going to find out where and how the documents can be made available to residents, he said.

One of the things the 200 or so letters citing deed restriction violations revealed was that a lot of the recipients were owners of resale homes who apparently did not get complete sets. He said resale owners have previously been advised to get certified copies of the documents through the clerk of circuit court.

Hunt said the developer is researching the possibility of being able to make copies of the documents in the future for owners who have incomplete sets.

Noting that there are more than 700 homes in the development, he feels the number of residents at the March 11 meeting represents a minority of people with issues in Cherrywood.

"We are not the big bad developer. We built a bunch of homes and have a bunch of happy people," he said.

Hunt said he thinks a number of the home owners are confused with the deed restrictions, having never dealt with them up norths and the company is trying to address the issue the recent letters raised.

About 100 responses have been sent in for the two office assistants and Hunt to review. They have been working day and night process them, he said.

It may take a little while to deal with all the letters. They are sitting down with residents, one at a time, to talk over differences, he said. 

Since a confrontation by a couple of hundred residents with Cherrywood field superintendent Rob Hunt in the sales office parking lot on March 1, Carlson and Fred Board, with the help of a few volunteers, had been trying to rally residents for the March 11 meeting.

A flyer titled "If-N-Ands of Cherrywood" had been circulated in the development. The form on a half-sheet of paper said:

"Please attend this meeting if you are interested in forming our own Homeowners Association. For the explanations the following:

Contract of house

Covenants

Closing papers

Please bring above papers with you regardless of statues. Each will be different."

The flyer also asked attendees to bring it to the meeting, filled out with the resident's name, address and phone number, and place it in a basket in front of the table on stage.

Carlson started the meeting by telling of his ongoing difficulties with the developer and his recent small claims court judgment against Johnny Zacco for $1,800 over construction issues.

Co-organizer Fred Board took the microphone to outline the apparent differences between deed restrictions and covenants given to Cherrywood homeowners. According to Board, there are 53 pages in the complete version of the development's documents.

It was agreed that the 1997 version of the deed restrictions should be the criteria for the new homeowners group.

In polling the audience, which had been asked to bring copies of home owner documents, Board found only one complete copy of the document. Most people in the group reported only having 33 pages.

At times it was difficult for Board to direct the meeting due to interjected comments from Carlson to questions raised by members of the audience. People took their turns discussing their issues without incident.

When Board said there is supposed to be a place to read covenants and homeowner association records, the crowd voiced approval of the idea. He resolved to try to get developer Johnny Zacco to arrange for homeowner documents to be available in the clubhouse.

During more deed restriction discussion, the meeting was interrupted when Carlton discovered a familiar face in the crowd; Cherrywood field superintendent Rob Hunt was sitting in the back of the hall. He was asked to leave and declined before being forced from the room by residents.

Hunt returned with Sheriff's deputies a short time later to identify persons he said choked and assaulted him. After investigating the incident, charges were brought against two men. (See related story)

While deputies questioned witnesses outside the hall, Board resumed the meeting.

Objectionable contents of the document were mentioned such as, limiting four residents per house, stipulations about cleaning the outside of houses once a year (or owners can be charged for having it done), and no hedges in the front yard.

Board mentioned that he got a letter (one of the 200 recently mailed) objecting to a fence that was approved by Johnny Zacco. "They can do anything they want," he complained.

The meeting came to an end with Board asking for residents to leave their names and phone numbers on lists, on a table near the stage, if they were interested in forming a new homeowners association. He also asked for residents who would be available to help with a committee to help organize and form the new group.

With only a handful of residents lingering in the hall, there were about a dozen names on the member list and half a dozen names on the committee list. 

Physical violence or threats of it should never enter civic affairs, and our laws rightly do not tolerate it, but when frustrations become so intense, we should look at the causes.

For most Americans, their homes are their biggest investments, and when they feel they are not dealt with fairly, emotions can run high.

It was, in fact, Cherrywood residents who formed the core of CHIP (Concerned Citizens in Partnership) a group that formed a few years ago to try to get the state legislature to pay attention to what it felt was a statewide problem illustrated by their complaints.

That problem involves the lack of state oversight and regulation over financial reporting in some deed restricted developments, and the lack of state requirements of disclosure before buyers sign on the dotted line.

Granted, the buyer should always beware and always exercise due diligence when spending as much money as it costs to buy a home, but the fact is that the equation is not balanced here, evidenced by the amount of angry buyers.

There are a lot of developers who do it right, and Marion County can produce an endless stream of happy retirees who bought here. But that's not always the case.

There are some who are not so happy and they feel the system is rigged for some developers to take advantage of them.

The lousy irony here is that Marion County was willing to step up and oversee the situation with ordinances, but the state statutes that create or allow the problems override county ordinances.

It's no secret that the state legislature is much influenced by the powerful development and building lobby, and so far the elected representatives of the state have declined to do anything.

The bottom line is that the legislators won't do anything until public pressure becomes so intense it will be easier for them to address the problems than defend the status quo to keep the development and construction lobby happy.

In the meantime, concerned citizens should get involved and become political activists if they want to see the situation change - but they should always do so peacefully.

The legislators can take their share of the blame for the ongoing situation, however, and the voters should not forget it.