Jury sides with Hughson couple in fight over $23,000 TID bill

It’s hard to sleep when you’re 75, your family depends on you and the government demands that you hand over your retirement to pay for another’s crime.

“All my life, I tried to be a good person, like my father and my grandparents would teach me,” said Felipe Ruelas. “I worked so hard and I never asked the government for food stamps, health, welfare – nothing. And I never did something wrong.”

Jurors recently agreed, ending his 16-month legal battle with the Turlock Irrigation District. Rather than requiring that he pay TID nearly $70,000, jurors declared the district liable for financial elder abuse and directed TID to pay Ruelas $23,231.

“Justice was served,” said his son Miguel. “My father had no fault.”

TID spokesman Calvin Curtin said district leaders have not decided whether to appeal.

Ruelas’ dilemma became public in early January, when The Modesto Bee reported on TID’s demand that he pay $23,000 after discovering that Ruelas’ tenant had turned a south Modesto home Ruelas owns into a pot house. The tenant apparantly spliced a power line to divert electricity illegally for use in growing the marijuana plants.

Ruelas’ mistake was leaving his own name on TID’s record as the electricity customer. But he knew there was no way the tenant, who had rented the home seven weeks earlier, could burn through that much electricity in that time.

A collections representative “told me power had been stolen a long time. I said, ‘No way,’ ” Ruelas recounted. “He said, ‘You’re lying to me.’ But I don’t lie to nobody.”

It got ugly, he said, when the district demanded that he pay within 48 hours – or TID would turn off the power to his home in Hughson, which he shares with his wife, some extended family, 50 goats and 100 chickens.

“I’ve been paying my bills on time,” Ruelas said.

The pressure drove him to buy time with a $3,000 partial payment. Then he lawyered up, sued TID and was sued right back, and this time the district wanted $69,000, citing state law allowing utilities to recover triple damages, plus attorney’s fees.

Ruelas recalled weighing the odds with his Modesto attorney, George Rodarakis. “He said, ‘I believe in you and will fight for you,’ so I said, ‘Let’s take our chances’ ” at trial, Ruelas said.

First, Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Timothy Salter threw out TID’s claim. The district had estimated damages based on 15 months of Ruelas as the customer of record, but could not prove that the electricity had been stolen over that amount of time, Rodarakis said. He called to the witness stand neighbors who testified that a previous renter often played pool in the garage with the door wide open for all to see, but that the doors closed and curtains went up in the final seven weeks when the home was occupied by the apparant pot farmer.

The case came down to TID’s tactics: threatening an elderly, blue-collar couple with a language barrier, Rodarakis said.

“We definitely don’t like bullies,” said Ricky Hardin, a sort of stepson that Ruelas rescued from the streets of south Modesto years ago, giving him a job, a home and an example of clean living. “He saved my life,” Hardin said.

Ruelas’ son Miguel suffered from a lung condition years ago, requiring a medical flight to a hospital, resulting in a $10,000 medical bill. His father paid it off little by little with hard work, the son said.

Ruelas said he entered the United States in 1963, without permission, riding a Greyhound bus. He obtained legal residency three years later, married in 1969 and picked grapes and pruned berries with his wife for years before learning the butcher trade. By 1985, he had his own meat store in south Modesto, and he retired a few years ago.

“All my life, I never done any dirty money,” he said.

At trial, jurors seemed to appreciate his story, Miguel Ruelas said. TID’s refusal to restore power at the rental over 24 months cost Ruelas $850 a month, or about $20,000 total, Rodarakis figured. Jurors weren’t questioned about their $23,231 award, but it mirrors TID’s original demand as well as the lost rental income plus Ruelas’ $3,000 partial payment.

Felipe Ruelas III, the plaintiff’s grandson, said, “There was happiness, but more relief than anything.”

“Now I’m sleeping good,” Felipe Ruelas said. “Me and my family, we’re feeling pretty good.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Jury sides with Hughson couple in fight over $23,000 TID bill."