BOULDER CREEK, Calif – A Civil Court case being heard in October has already garnered a history of activities not usually associated with a civil case. 44-year-old Nicole Ann Staiti was arrested for perjury under PC 118, after failing to serve a legal document to one of the parties in the civil case, which stems from a car accident that occurred in Santa Cruz County. 35-year-old Sean Ray Pfeffer, who is pleading his case in court, had also made harassing phone calls and placed harassing signs after being involved in a traffic collision with Steven Zeller and filing a lawsuit.
On May 15, during a trial held at the Superior Court of California, Civil Division, in which a Civil Case filed under Pfeffer v. Zeller, Case #1-14-SC-056489 was in jeopardy of being thrown out, but not before legal charges were brought against the plaintiff for harassing the named defendant. It was also during a court hearing that Nicole Staiti had made statements that she knew to be false.
It was found on May 16 that Pfeffer had created false documents in order to cover up the fact that he and Staiti had failed to serve the correct papers to the defendant in the case, a violation of PC 134, preparing false evidence.
Through July 30, 2013 – May 16, 2014, it was believed that the plaintiff used personal identifiable information against Zeller, who had hit Pfeffer in a traffic accident earlier in 2013. Zeller was said to have rear-ended Pfeffer in the collision. On numerous occasions Pfeffer had called and harassed Zeller. According to court documents, Pfeffer even went so far as to place metal signs and paper fliers giving notice to drivers to “Beware, Zeller is a danger to others”.
On May 5, 2014 court documents revealed that Nicole Staiti lied about serving court papers to Zeller. When Staiti had gone to Zeller’s home, she found that he was not there. So under the direction of Pfeffer, they went to his in-laws, where she briefly talked with his wife’s parents. They asked who she was, but without answering she just dropped the court papers on the ground saying “the person who just served you”. Realizing that the papers were in fact legal documents, the mother-in-law told the judge that Zeller was in fact out of state at the time and that the documents were not given to him directly.
It was also during this time that Pfeffer had made threatening phone calls to Zeller saying, “Hey, Zeller you got till midnight. Call Gieco, you [redacted] punk. I’ve tried to be patient with you. I’ve tried the legal way”.
In October of 2013 Pfeffer was contacted by the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department, who told him that the signs were illegal and that he needed to take them down and stop posting them. Pfeffer didn’t stop there. He went to Zeller’s workplace and demanded he meet with him. However, fearing for his safety, he chose not to meet with Pfeffer in the parking lot.
The next court date is being held in Dept 35 in the San Jose Hall of Justice at 9:00 AM on October 10, 2014.
