Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT
Getting sued in December 2024 took some of the luster off the holidays for Matt Maguire and Larry Modell.
Upon being subpoenaed, recalled Modell, “I had to tell my wife that our home and retirement savings were at risk, which was not a lot of fun.”
Maguire and Modell are longtime advocates for public access to Lafferty Ranch Open Space, a rugged, 270-acre preserve high up on Sonoma Mountain, several miles east of Petaluma, which has owned the park since 1959 and declared in a 1996 ordinance that it “shall be made available for passive use by the public.”
Efforts to make that happen, however, have been strenuously contested by a group of neighboring landowners on Sonoma Mountain Road. On Dec. 23, 2024, six of those landowners sued the city of Petaluma — and Maguire and Modell — alleging, among other causes of action, “public nuisance,” “private nuisance,” “trespass” and “infliction of emotional distress.”
Days after the suit was filed, Petaluma indemnified Modell and Maguire. “They brought us under their excellent legal representation,” said Modell, “so much of the worry went away at that point.”