 |
| Ken Laubenstein is photographed on his Muskogee County property, where he takes nature photos. He sued after a cell tower was built nearby. Phoenix file photo |
by D.E. Smoot, Phoenix Staff Writer, muskogeephoenix.com, 13 October 2015
A state appellate court upheld a local judge's ruling that a telecommunications tower erected near the property of a Muskogee County man constitutes a private nuisance that must be abated by removal.
A lawyer representing the defendants named in the lawsuit filed by Ken Laubenstein and Billie Wallace said it is too early to know how his clients plan to proceed. They could ask the Oklahoma Civil Court of Appeals to reconsider its opinion, which was released Friday, or petition the Oklahoma Supreme Court for further review.
"I really can't tell you what the plan is," Thomas Marcum, who represents BoDe Tower, said Monday afternoon. "I just received the opinion ... so I really can't tell you what the plan is."
The lawsuit was filed in 2010 after a 250-foot cell tower was built near Laubenstein's property — a nearly 170-acre "wildlife sanctuary" that is listed on the Oklahoma Natural Areas Registry — and tried in 2013 by Muskogee County Associate District Judge Norman D. Thygesen. After the trial, which lasted five days during the course of about eight months, Thygesen found the structure erected by BoDe Tower to be "a private nuisance" that must "be abated" and "removed."
Read more »