Bridgers’ trial is delayed
The Shelbyville News
March 11, 2008
Staff Report
A civil case the Shelby County Plan Commission is pursuing against Craig Bridgers, the former owner of the Olde Geneva Dairy scrapbooking retreat has been continued again.
A final pretrial hearing is now set for April 23, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. in Shelby Superior Court No. 2, while a bench trial has been scheduled for May 15, 2008 at 1 p.m.
Bridgers is serving a one year prison term for tax evasion and has said he would represent himself in the upcoming civil trial.
“I know that my counsel has made attempts to contact him so that we can try to resolve the matter,” said Amy Dillon, executive director of the Shelby County Plan Commission. Brady Rife, a Shelbyville attorney, was hired as a special counsel in the case by the Plan Commission.
Two of Bridgers’ former attorneys – David Murphy and Katie Mofield of David Murphy & Associates in Greenfield – previously filed motions with Shelby Superior Court II Judge Russell Sanders to withdraw from the case, and Sanders granted their request.
Bridgers, 43, has been a focus of controversy among women scrapbookers from several states for the manner in which he was running the Olde Geneva Dairy, a former scrapbooking business at 2801 Vandalia Road. Before it was declared an illegal business because of zoning and health violations, hundreds of women – many of whom lived out of state – had come to the retreat to spend the weekend with friends and enjoy their popular hobby of scrapbooking.
In recent months, about 30 women have filed complaints against Bridgers with the office of Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, saying they were led to believe they were going to spend the night at a quaint former dairy, only to be directed to an unimpressive hotel setting when they arrived in Shelby County. One woman called Bridgers’ tactics a “bait and switch.”
A hardcopy of this article can be found at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
