Hearing on the motions was heard before Judge Sexton.  Before the hearing I was presented with a copy of a Motion For Restraining Order dated 6/20/97 filed by my husband against me. I had never known about this petition and couldn’t think of what would have instigated it.  I was not informed then that the Motion had been denied because the Judge had written that Don was not in any immediate danger.

 

With the shock of my husband’s disappearance, the betrayal of my friend of 16 years, Anne McQueen, and the presentation of a document signed by my husband saying I had threatened to kill him, I did not feel prepared to launch into battle and conceded to the Agreed Upon Order of Conservatorship signed 9/16/97 by Judge Sexton.

 

I agreed to the appointment of myself and a disinterested third party, Douglas B. Stalley.  I felt Anne was misleading the kids and if I gave them a chance to see everything that was going on and all of the files and documents they would calm down.  I also needed time to find out what my husband’s request for an Injunction was all about.

 

2020 Note from the future:  Looking back on this I find it outrageous that Anne McQueen says that in mid June 1997 (or later) Don hands her an envelope and says, “If anything ever happens to me, be sure to get this to the police!” But when he disappears 2 months later she forgets all about it.  First, I can’t believe that she wouldn’t have peeked at the contents, if he’d said that and second, there is no way when you are being grilled by the cops about your missing friend and boss that you fail to remember the envelope exists.  No.  Instead, it’s the day of the hearing where the judge is going to decide who gets to run the real estate business that Don and I built, that she suddenly remembers and springs it on me right before the hearing.  She didn’t spring it on the police.  She springs it on me and the court.  I’m sure she knew it was just Don trying to figure out a way to keep me from hauling off his precious scrap, but now that it could be used as a weapon against me that might give her full control of our bank accounts and properties, it was her ace in the hole. 

 

I think the undated letter to Mildred must have been written just before this hearing.  I was offering to give Don’s daughters their Trust properties and all of his other assorted entities that I’d not worked with him on, which came to about 1.6 million and would agree to let them take the lion’s share of the life insurance policy.  This was roughly 20% of the estate.  As for everything outside of my GALTA trust, I offered to split it with them as long as they let me run the business without the expense of the conservatorship.  I figured I could keep turning the properties over so that when Don came back or the time was up, I wouldn’t care how much they were getting without working for it.  I needed that to happen so that I could make sure the business didn’t fail and to keep the cats fed.  I was trying to get Mildred to propose this settlement to them the day before the hearing on 9/9/1997 but with Anne springing the Restraining Order application on me, and maybe even on them, they probably didn’t trust me.  We would all have been much better off if they had.