The following was sent to Adam Moore, executive director of the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation:

As you and I both know, despite your claim that Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation told a land court judge that the Ramsey couple’s online comments were what “scuttled settlement talk,” you have been on the record for a long time as refusing any negotiated settlement in this matter. You have told me on the phone that you will not negotiate, claiming the property as yours, period. Marcia Cini’s efforts, of the Cini-Miller law firm, to mediate this issue were entirely rejected by you, quite some time ago, as has every earlier effort on the willing part of the Ramseys to settle this case in a fair and dignified manner, long before Sheriff’s Meadow’s conduct in this matter became public — and before you decided to sue. It is precisely these arrogant but inexplicable refusals from you, all along, that incite the community’s loss of respect for this public land conservation organization. Although you may not like what the public is saying online about Sheriff’s Meadow’s diminished reputation, and it is the right of every U.S. citizen to freedom of speech, it is simply untrue that online comments are in any way connected to or responsible for your longtime, adamant refusal to settle this boundary dispute. Telling tales out of school, to the press, no less, further degrades the public trust in you.

From Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation’s pledge to the public as written in an earlier SMF annual report: “Property Boundaries — Using aerial photos overlain with assessors lot lines, we now check the boundaries of each of our properties for potential problems. When needed, we visit the site with the global positioning system (GPS) and use any visible boundary markers to determine the extent, if any, of a boundary infraction.”

Untrue! Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation’s disgraceful lack of due diligence to follow through on their pledge to the public’s trust is a terrible way to conduct yourselves. You have many cloudy boundary titles on Sheriff’s Meadow properties. Further, the Ramsey property does have physical boundary markers at the site as well as the assessors lot lines on file at town hall.

I speak for many in the community when I urge you to drop this lawsuit, or at the very least, mediate an agreement as the land court judge and the community demand. It would be the honorable thing to do.

Jackie Mendez-Diez
Chilmark