Everything New

EVERYTHING NEW… Squid is celebrating the new year quietly, with Squid’s trusty bulldog companion Rosco P. Coltrane on the couch, a bowl of shrimp-flavored popcorn and a glass of Prosecco. Attending crowded parties with Covid on the rise is not Squid’s idea of fun – like a bad penny, the virus keeps showing up.

Speaking of which, Squid discovered an early pandemic-era dustup in Carmel is still plaguing the city, three-and-a-half years later. It stems from local stained glass artist Theresa Buccola taking offense at an emergency order to close Carmel Beach over Fourth of July weekend in 2020. Buccola, insisting she had a “God-given right to walk in nature,” defied the order, then was arrested and taken to Monterey County Jail. She was charged with “entering a closed disaster area” and possession of tear gas, stemming from the arresting officer confiscating the bear mace she was carrying while exercising her God-given right on one of the safest beaches on the planet.

Buccola’s case kept pinging in Monterey County Superior Court until this past July, when the District Attorney moved to dismiss, citing “furtherance of justice.” Squid guesses the time and money wasn’t worth it when there are more serious crimes to chase.

Case not closed, however, because Buccola has become a one-woman warrior against Carmel, regularly posting to social media her grievances against the city for supposedly restricting people’s freedoms. In 2022 Buccola filed a federal lawsuit against Carmel, insisting her Fourth Amendment rights were violated. She’s asking for $52 million plus punitive damages, a public apology and a promise that the “tyrannical behavior by public servants in ‘closing’ Carmel Beach will never again befall plaintiff’s neighbors and the peaceful People of Monterey County.”

In May, Buccola filed a “writ of prohibition” against a few Monterey County Superior Court judges and the City of Carmel; it was denied by Judge Carrie Panetta. In court papers, Buccola referred to the Superior Court as the “inferior tribunal,” and insisted everyone – from the officers who arrested her to the judges she’s appeared in front of since 2020 – did not have jurisdiction. She cites the Founding Fathers and quotes the Bible, arguing God’s law is above all else.

In one scene Buccola relayed in a Dec. 8 filing, Buccola said she was arrested for failing to appear in court in 2021. Going full-on colonial-style, she demanded the officer “take her to a magistrate,” but the officer drove right on by the exit to the Monterey courthouse and took her straight to jail in Salinas.

Squid’s colleague asked Buccola why after so many years she’s still pressing her case. “Somebody has to hold them accountable to the rule of law,” she says. A jury trial is scheduled for July 10, 2024.

It’s so hard to ring in the new when the old insists on sticking around.