Larry Drown and his co-defendants appeared in Vermont Environmental Court last week in a hearing to determine the fine which should be imposed for violating Northfield’s zoning laws on property at 11 Wall Street.

Mr. Drown attempted to subpoena three members of the Selectboard to testify at the hearing but the court denied his request and quashed the subpoenas.

Most of Mr. Drown’s problems stem directly from his failure to obtain legal counsel and his insistence that he represent himself.

Mr. Drown was not able to call witnesses on his behalf in the case because he failed to identify witnesses to the Town of Northfield pursuant to repeated discovery requests.

Judge Thomas S. Durkin, the environmental court judge in the case ruled that Mr. Drown was in contempt of court for failure to respond to the town’s discovery requests and because of that contemptuous behavior, he was prohibited from calling witnesses or offering into evidence any documents to support his position.

Mr. Drown told the court that he only wanted to subpoena certain members of the selectboard in the event he needed them as rebuttal witnesses to counter testimony he expected from the town’s witnesses.

The court told Mr. Drown that he had an obligation to disclose to the town all witnesses that he intended to call if they ask for the names and that trial by ambush is no longer allowed in Vermont.

Mr. Drown countered that “justice is not done” when he can’t call witnesses, to which the court replied that he should have let the town know what witnesses he intended to call.

Justice was done in the end from the town’s point of view when Mr. Drown was fined $21,000 for zoning violations and $35 a day for each and every day until the site is cleaned up and a subdivision permit is obtained. The town obtained a lien against the property for the amount of the fine.

The case against one of the co-defendants, Jason Law, was dismissed while penalties were also assessed against other co-defendants, Jacob Dorman and Kenneth Strong to a far lesser degree.

Because Mr. Drown has been acting as his own attorney, he apparently did not know that all that he needed to do was to give the town a list of any and all witnesses that he might conceivably call. That would have sufficed. However, he failed to do that and was sanctioned as a result.

The environmental court suit involves property that is commonly known as the “saw mill site” which was owned by J.L. Dupere and Max Berno and was a saw mill from 1933 until it burned in 1984.

Larry Drown purchased the property in 2005 and was described as a 1.4 acre site without any buildings.

Shortly after he purchased the property, he filed an application to build a 60 x 100 foot commercial building which was approved and the building was constructed.

Then, in 2007, he filed a second application to build a 14 x 70 foot mobile home and filed a sketch showing that the land had been subdivided into two lots. The application was denied.

The Town of Northfield filed a suit against Mr. Drown and other owners of the property for zoning violations when the town discovered that the building was not being used for the purpose for which he had obtainted a permit.

Then, he claimed that he had subdivided the property and sold portions of the property to the other defendants in the case. However, no record of any subdivision could be found so, in actuality, the lot remained one parcel.

The Environmental Court issued summary judgment against Mr. Drown and his codefendants back in April of last year when it determined that there were no issues of triable facts which were in dispute.

The hearing last week was to decide the penalty and the court did just that.

Last fall, Mr. Drown tore the building down which had been on the property but never fully cleaned up the property.

Last year, he was fined $6,250.00 in fines for Act 250 violations.

Mr. Drown said that he was not given notification of needing to file for Act 250 and stated that he has been targeted where others are not.

Mr. Drown stated, “You can put me out front in all of this but, you are not going to take me down, I am not an easy target.”

However, the zoning violations continue as long as the property is not cleaned off and the $35 a day fine will climb fast.

According to photographs introduced into court by the town at the hearing, the property still contains a myriad of abandoned trucks, a bus, a tow truck and other stuff that tends to show that the violations have not ceased.