News

Twenty onlookers watch girls fight at Alpine Woods

By Bill Moss, Published: June 12, 2015

The Henderson County Sheriff's Department has identified 40 Alpine Woods Resort residents or visitors who would be evicted or barred from the property under the terms of a settlement of the local government bodies brought against the troubled trailer park.

We're up to at least 40 or 41 people identified between the sheriff's office and probation and parole as having an address of Alpine Woods or as a repeat or known offender" at the site, said sheriff's department Maj. Frank Stout.

The city of Hendersonville, Henderson County and the district attorney's office filed a lawsuit last month asking a budget to declare Alpine Woods a public nuisance. If the request had been granted, the local government bodies wanted a judge to appoint a special master to temporarily take control of the property and use rent proceeds to fund repairs. Then on Monday the plaintiffs abruptly dropped the lawsuit, winning an agreement from park owner Warren Newell to evict and enforce a ban on known "breachers of the peace" that the sheriff would identify. Under the agreement that the plaintiffs and Newell signed, the landlord must evict those known criminals within 30 days, bar them from the property and distribute a list of the barred persons to tenants, who  face eviction themselves if they allowed the "barred persons" to visit.

The settlement did not appear to bring about an immediate relief from disturbances.

"We're still adhering to the consent decree," Stout said. "We are still responding to calls over there. There's still an element of trouble there that we have to respond to," including a call Thursday night that required several sheriff's deputies. "The call came in as two girls fighting and they had about 20 people in a circle where the fight was occurring. We had to make sure the scene was secure before emergency personnel could get in there and check on their injuries."

In the end, on one was transported to the hospital, he said. But the emergency call and law enforcement response illustrated what sheriff's officers, the county emergency medical service and fire departments say is a common problem. The agencies all submitted affadavits in support of the city-county lawsuit saying 911 calls are common and fire and EMS units need a sheriff's backup when they respond to the trailer park off Howard Gap Road.

"We'll be monitoring calls over the next month to see if Mr. Newell bars or evicts people on the list," Stout said.