Posted on 02/05/2005 10:24:01 AM PST by Pikamax
After a crumby ending, donated dough rolls in for 2 cookie deliverers By Electa Draper Denver Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 06, 2005 -
Durango - The Cookie Defense Fund has swelled to thousands of dollars.
Hundreds of Denver Post readers e-mailed and called to express "shock" and "outrage" that two 18-year-old Durango girls were sued for something they did last summer: drop off a plate of cookies and a paper heart on a neighbor's porch.
Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Zellitti lost in Small Claims Court in La Plata County on Thursday. Their impulse to bake cookies and treat neighbors by knocking, dropping off and running away went awry. One of nine neighbors who received a plate of cookies said the pounding on her door about 10:30 p.m. July 31 frightened her into an anxiety attack. A Durango judge awarded about $900 to the 49-year-old woman to cover some medical bills incurred when she ended up at the emergency room the next day.
If the people who called and wrote make good on their pledges, that $900 will be recovered many times over. Several people offered to personally cover the whole amount themselves.
The attention has been overwhelming.
"We just put them on the plane. Lindsey, Taylor and Jill (Taylor's mother) are headed to New York to do 'Good Morning America,"' Martha Zellitti, Lindsey's mom, said Friday night.
"They just thought it might be their one shot to tell the country they're still not afraid to do good deeds," Martha Zellitti said. "They'll just try to be more considerate in the future about the time."
WANT MORE?
Thank you for visiting DenverPost.com, The Denver Post's online 24-hour news source. Click here for more great DenverPost.com stories and features.
The families are also mulling over an offer from Jay Leno to do "The Tonight Show." It's not looking good for Leno, though, because Lindsey's mom wants her to get back to college in Kansas, where she is a freshman studying animal nutrition. Taylor is still in high school.
"We're just not the movie- star types," Martha Zellitti said.
But the story, which appeared Friday in The Denver Post, was linked to the Drudge Report and eBay. The tale was recounted on MSNBC ("Sugar and spice is not always nice," journalist Dan Abrams said) and other media.
The Otis Spunkmeyer cookie- making company is offering to hold an event in Durango to set things right.
"Cookies are the ultimate comfort food," Otis Spunkmeyer spokeswoman Liz Rayo said. "We don't want anyone sued over cookies. Cookies are good. This is an emotional issue for us."
They're not the only ones.
In e-mail after e-mail to The Post, from Hawaii to New York, and from Canada to Puerto Rico, people invoked with dismay the adage "No good deed goes unpunished."
Many observed that the unfortunate misunderstanding gave new meaning to the term "Cookie Monster."
One reader called the plaintiff in the case "a macaroon." Another called her a "cookie batterer."
The plaintiff could not be reached for comment Friday.
Martha Zellitti said the girls' families are not upset with the neighbor, or with the judge, who received many calls from people questioning his decision. Zellitti said the neighbor volunteers at the local food bank and does good deeds herself.
"And the judge made the best decision he could with the information he had," Zellitti said. "We just weren't prepared."
The judge awarded only $1 for damages, even though he could have given the plaintiff lost wages and the cost of new motion- sensor lights for her porch and more. She had itemized about $3,000 in all.
But political conservatives who read the story were convinced the judge must be a liberal activist intent on being politically correct. On the other hand, liberals said the judge and neighbor must be conservatives, who tend to see "terrorists behind every bush and on every porch," even in a quiet rural neighborhood just south of Durango.
The girls' defenders ran the gamut from executives and reverends to felons.
One e-mailer offered to set the girls up in their own cookie business.
There were other factions. A small but intense group were incensed that anyone would consider 10:30 p.m. "too late." It's really early, they said.
One church group wrote that members were very concerned because one of its favorite programs is for youths to ring doorbells, drop off treats and run. Another church group in South Carolina said it had young men in its congregation who would like to correspond with the Durango bakers.
"Lindsey's boyfriend wouldn't like that," Martha Zellitti said.
They did not identify themselves clearly and that is confirmed by the deputies not being able to make heads or tails of what was going on, too.
As to sunset, I was curious with so many people asserting it was daylight well after 9pm so I finally looked it up (easy to do) and the sunset on that day was before 8:30. I wouldn't care except so many made the statement as if it were fact that I wondered.
I'm not saying there was no cause for concern, but in my opinion, even the most upset individual could have found a much easier and less vengeful way of dealing with this incident.
This really does remind me of liberals in many ways. "Who cares if everyone thinks I'm wrong, a court sided with me! Now why can't I win elections, why does everyone hate me? I'll see you all in court!" Sometimes "winning" is losing. Ask Pyrrhus.
"After all, if circumstances are all as reported, the trip to the hospital for "anxiety".."
I know what it is to have an anxiety attack, and others who have, and the one thing you don't do is wait to the next day to go to the hospital... That alone raised my suspicions of this woman's true motives for suing.
I wondered about that; why not go when you're throwing up?
Sure is.
Precisely!
See my #126 on this thread.
Well, let's see some documentation.
Either she is a total nut case or she is just a witch.
I was only speaking to the specific points you had mentioned. Please don't assign to me things I did not say. I did not say that therefore a lawsuit should have been filed.
I wasn't, no problem. I understand that some of my points can be discussed with different interpretations.
It's Ok cyncooper, the bad guy has been banned. =)
A lot of coloradans are alive to vouch for the practical aspects of the statute. It's also been claimed in several cases, and properly denied.
But we've strayed from your original challange to me, that I'm claiming Coloradans can kill anyone who comes to their door. Can you provide some documentation for that assertion? Coloradans are some of the friendliest folks in the country.
Just so the facts are documented when certain assertions are made.
And darkness slowly falls thereafter, taking up to an hour to get good and dark on a summer night. Just so the facts are documented when certain assertions are made. ;o)
Indeed, which brings us to 9:18 which is shortly after they say they started this errand and over a full hour before they arrive at the woman in question's house.
So, no matter how you slice it, it was full on dark.
You made a declarative statement that with the given statements she could have shot them legally.
And I say "statements" because this is a NEWS STORY and we all know the license they take with almost every incident.
And they aren't facts because they haven't been proven in court.
Somehow I don't think the "friendly" people of Colorado would consider a plate of cookies a reasonable threat.
And they
BTW, nine other neighbors did NOT go to the hospital. Were they not threatened?
And, in case you don't know it, it wasn't JUST about her hospital bill; she has for punitive damages.
Hi Howlin.
18-1-704.5 Use Of Deadly Physical Force Against An Intruder (“Make My Day law”)
1. The general assembly hereby recognizes that the citizens of Colorado have a right to expect absolute safety within their own homes.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 18-1-704, any occupant of a dwelling is justified in using any degree of physical force, including deadly physical force, against another person when that other person has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, and when the occupant has a reasonable belief that such other person has committed a crime in the dwelling in addition to the uninvited entry, or is committing or intends to commit a crime against a person or property in addition to the uninvited entry, and when the occupant reasonably believes that such other person might use any physical force, no matter how slight, against any occupant.
3. Any occupant of a dwelling using physical force, including deadly physical force, in accordance with the provisions or subsection (2) of this section shall be immune from criminal prosecution for the use of such force.
4. Any occupant of a dwelling using physical force, including deadly physical force, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall be immune from any civil liability for injuries or death resulting from the use of such force.
http://www.csoc.org/ccw_application_template.html
And EVERYONE in Colorado knows about the law. You don't just go into someone's house or beat on a door without having a good reason, especially at 10:30PM.
Everyone agrees that the lady in question was wrong in filing a legal challenge. However, as a resident of rural Colorado, I can tell you that I would never let my kids go bang on doors in the middle of the night. The Make My Day Law is taken very seriously.
Poor judgement on the parent's, the kids, and finally, the neighbor who was just vindictive and money-hungry.
Nobody's disputing poor judgment; I'm saying nine other families didn't go to the hospital or go to court.
Something is not right about that.
Well, Number 2 definitely does NOT apply, or the sheriff would not have determined that no crime was committed.
"..against another person when that other person has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling.."
I am not aware of all the details of this case but I am assuming from what I read that the two girls never entered the dwelling. Wouldn't they actually have had to enter the house to act on what this law states?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.