SMU finally paid condo owner Gary Vodicka an undisclosed sum to go away and make way for the George W. Bush presidential library. It is the last act in a legal battle that seems to have been rumbling on since forever. Back when I was covering the case for Park Cities People, I got to witness Vodicka call himself to the stand during a court appearance, and then feed questions to his assistant who asked them back so he could give his canned, expressive answers. It was probably more entertaining than anything I’ve seen in a television courtroom. At the time I wondered if Vodicka was pursuing SMU for the drama of it, his Warhol-ian 15-minutes. I also wondered if he was fighting SMU so hard just for the mischievous pleasure of being able to potentially stick big names on his witness stand: Ray Hunt, Gerald Turner, George W. Today his motives are much clearer. Like Mark Ingram, Vodicka saw a hole in the defense and ran at it. From the DMN:
“It was a fair settlement, and I can retire if I want to,” Vodicka said. “I could live off the interest for the rest of my life.”
Now I just wonder how the condo owners who played nice and sold out early feel today. What have we learned kiddos?
5 comments
That the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Or get mugged in an alley, shot in the back of the head, dumped in a car trunk, then finally buried next to Jimmy Hoffa.
But in this case it was the former.
Lesson one: lawyers suck.
I can say this because my best friend is a lawyer. Therefore, I am not an anti-dentite. Or whatever phrase you want to use for law talkin’ dudes.
Or we’ve learned that SMU and the Bush people are willing to pay hefty sums so their people won’t have to answer questions in open court.
Power to the people. Vodicka has the skills and educational background to fight to meaningful effect whereas the others did not. Sam Merten wrote some articles that were eye-opening, delineating the human costs in all this. SMU infiltrated the home owners group to bias the process. Putting that out there to say that we may voice our disgust with Vodicka and his possible motives but how do people feel about a university infiltrating a community group of condo owners to sway the process in their favor?
Will anybody be offended by those kinds of underhanded tactics? Will Vodicka use his money to rectify injustice or to buy a new condo in Dubai?
What did we learn?
We just learned that the City is going to have to pay a hell of a lot more for that strip of land next to the Convention Center hotel site.