David Lidstone is behind bars after being accused of squatting for 27 years on private property in Canterbury.
David Lidstone. Jodie Gedeon photo via AP
By KATHY McCORMACK, Associated Press
CANTERBURY, N.H. (AP) — For almost three decades, 81-year-old David Lidstone has lived in the woods of New Hampshire along the Merrimack River in a small cabin adorned with solar panels. He has grown his own food, cut his own firewood, and tended to his pets and chickens.
But his off-the-grid existence has been challenged in court by a property owner who says he’s been squatting for all those years. And to make Lidstone’s matters worse, his cabin was burned to the ground Wednesday in a blaze that local authorities are investigating.
Lidstone, or “River Dave” as he’s known by boaters and kayakers, was jailed July 15 on a civil contempt sanction. He was told he’d be released if he agreed to leave the cabin, but he has stayed put.
In a court appearance Wednesday before news of the fire, Lidstone told a judge, “You came with your guns, you arrested me, brought me in here, you’ve got all my possessions. You keep ’em.
“I’ll sit here with your uniform on until I rot, sir.”
Lidstone is accused of squatting for 27 years on private property in Canterbury. The owner of the land had been seeking to tear down the cabin before the fire.
Jodie Gedeon, an avid kayaker who befriended Lidstone about 20 years ago, had been working with other supporters to help him, including organizing a petition drive and collecting money to cover property taxes.
“I’m devastated,” she said when she learned about the fire.
“He’s just a really, really, big caring guy, and just chooses to live off the grid,” she said in an interview last week. “It really is about humanity, it really is about compassion, empathy … he’s not hurting anybody.
In court, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman agreed that Lidstone wasn’t hurting anyone, but said the law was clearly on the landowner’s side.
“You’re doing your own thing in the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, so there’s a lot of sympathy to you for that,” he said. “But there’s a lot of weight on the other side of the balance sheet, and not just about what the (landowner) wants to do with the land, but the weight I feel to uphold the judgment of the court and the rule of law.”
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