$22.9-Million Offer for Jail Land Rejected

Rejecting a judge’s $22.9-million settlement ultimatum, developer Roque de la Fuente II opted Monday to fight for all $55.6 million a jury said San Diego County owes him for seizing land to build the East Mesa jail.

De la Fuente had been given a Monday deadline by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller of accepting the $22.9 million or going back to court for a second trial on the land’s value, legally seized by the county in 1987 under its eminent domain powers.

Instead of taking the judge up on either of the two options, De La Fuente chose a third--to take the case up on appeal. In legal papers filed Monday, De la Fuente’s attorneys said Miller had exceeded his authority by trying to force the ultimatum on the developer.

The appeal is certain to prolong a legal battle critical to the county’s finances and to its longstanding jail crowding problem.

County officials have stressed that the financially beleaguered county can ill afford to pay a $55.6-million verdict. The judgment, delivered Sept. 28, is believed to be one of the largest jury verdicts in the county’s history.

At a hearing next Monday, Miller is due to take up a request by De la Fuente’s attorneys for even more money. The winning lawyers are seeking $15.4 million in fees on top of the $55.6-million verdict.

Even without figuring in the lawyers’ take, county officials have said, there isn’t enough cash in the county budget to open the East Mesa jail, now under construction near the U.S-Mexico border, about 7 miles east of Interstate 805.

The first phase of the facility, a 754-bed jail, is scheduled to be finished this spring, but there isn’t enough money to staff and operate it, officials have said. The six jails the county already operates hold hundreds more inmates than the state recommends.

De la Fuente could not be reached Monday for comment. One of his attorneys, Michael Thorsnes, declined to comment.

After negotiating unsuccessfully with De la Fuente for two years, the county legally seized the 525 acres in 1987.

Under the eminent domain rules of the federal Constitution, a government body--federal, state or local--may take over private property for virtually any public purpose as long as it pays fair market value for the property.

Before the trial, De la Fuente had offered to settle the case for $10.24 million. The county wouldn’t budge from $7.5 million.

At the trial, the jury had only to decide the “highest and best” use of the land--defined as one that produces the most economic benefit--and, then, the value of that land for that use. It decided the site was ideally suited for a jail and put the fair market value at $55.6 million.

The county had argued in court that the land was best suited for residential development. At a Dec. 17 hearing, Miller said that was unrealistic, noting that De la Fuente’s lawyers had pointed out throughout the trial that the land was just east of a state prison and that home buyers were unlikely to find the view of the prison attractive.

On Dec. 28, though, Miller said the $55.6-million verdict was “excessive” and offered a new trial or the $22.9-million settlement. He based that figure on a review of several commercial and industrial properties introduced by appraisers who testified at the trial.