By Jessica Selby

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COVENTRY — A couple of well-known Coventry residents seem to be involved in a feud that is keeping the local police busy.

Michael Baird and Nicholas Gorham, both residents of Western Coventry, have been embroiled in an ongoing dispute since the start of the year.

The feud has extended beyond the two men and involved their wives, Roseanna Gorham and Tracey Baird, and the Coventry Police Department.

In the most recent incident, on Nov. 6, police were dispatched to Flat River Road to speak with Nicholas Gorham and then told to respond to Plainfield Pike to speak with Michael Baird about the same matter. 

According to the police report, Gorham told police that just before 6 p.m. on Thursday he had pulled into his driveway and was exiting his vehicle when another car, identified as a black GMC Yukon that he believed to belong to Baird, drove by blowing its horn. According to the police report, Gorham told the officer he has a Superior Court-issued temporary restraining order against Baird for just such matters. He said the judge who issued the temporary restraining order also ordered Baird to stop blowing his horn as he drove by the Gorham residence, the report indicates. 

Gorham told police he decided to re-enter his vehicle to verify that it was, in fact, Baird who was driving the Yukon that honked the horn, according to the report. Gorham said was not able to get directly behind the vehicle in question and was only able to read “MP” from the license plate before losing sight of it.

Gorham said he drove by Baird’s house on Plainfield Pike to see if the Yukon was there, according to the report, and, when it was not, he drove down the road and turned around in a driveway two houses down. He said he then proceeded down Gibson Hill Road, which runs adjacent to Baird’s property, past Baird’s alternate driveway where he saw Baird’s vehicle with the license plate “MPB 1” parked with the lights on, the report states. He continued past the driveway, used a neighbor’s driveway to turn around and then proceeded out, Gorham said.

As he drove toward the end of Gibson Hill Road, Gorham said in the police report, Baird pulled out of his driveway and onto the main road, blocking Gorham’s vehicle with his own. Gorham said he could see Baird in his vehicle on the telephone and Baird would not move his vehicle allowing Gorham to pass. After a few moments, Gorham said, Baird pulled his vehicle off to the side of the road allowing Gorham to pass, according to the report.

Baird offered a different account of the scenario. According to the police report, he told officers he was driving home from work and passed Gorham’s house, “as he does every day because that is the way he goes home,” but he did not blow his horn. He turned onto Gibson Hill and pulled into his alternate driveway where he noticed a vehicle with its headlights on traveling out of the driveway, Baird said in the report.

He blocked the driveway with his own vehicle and phoned police, Baird said.  While speaking with police he was able to identify the person in the vehicle as Gorham, according to the police report.  The police officer on dispatch advised Baird to allow Gorham to pass, according to the report; Baird said he would comply and officers were later dispatched to take written witness statements from both parties.

No charges were brought against either party in this incident, according to the police. It was, however, only the most recent in a string of incidents that spans much of 2008.

On Feb. 16, Baird reportedly filed a complaint against Gorham for trespassing.  Baird said men he hired to work on his property, located at Gibson Hill at Plainfield Pike, saw a man, later identified as Nicholas Gorham, trespassing on the property and taking pictures, according to the report.

The police spoke with both Baird and Gorham about the incident, according to the report. Gorham denied being on the property and was advised not to go on the property and issued a trespass warning. 
According to the report, Baird said he was going to apply for a restraining order against Gorham.

In April, there was another incident, this time involving Baird, Gorham and their wives.

According to a police report from April 9, 2008, the Bairds told police “Roseanna Gorham pulled up to their home on Plainfield Pike, stepped out of her vehicle and began yelling at” both Michael and Tracey Baird. The Bairds asked Gorham to leave their property and she wouldn’t until she was told the police had been called, the report states. 

When the police arrived on scene, the Bairds said they would like to have another trespass warning issued, according to the report.

Police spoke with Roseanna Gorham about the incident and her response, according to the report, was that she went to the Bairds house to speak with Tracey Baird.  Roseanna Gorham told police Michael Baird “hits his horn” when he drives by her house at 5:30 in the morning and sometimes at night when he goes by her house, the report indicates. 

The officer questioned both parties about their feud, according to the report. Baird said he has had trouble with Nicholas Gorham over a land issue. He told the officer he had purchased some land to create a tree farm and believes the problems between himself and his family and the Gorhams stems from that issue, according to the report.

Roseanna Gorham, according to the report, told the officer her husband and Baird have a difference of opinion regarding “political issues.”

Regarding the horn honking, Baird said he “toots his horn on occasion near the “Gorhams’ house because there are wild turkeys and deer that cross the road, but not because he was trying to upset her,” according to the report.

The officer advised the Gorhams that the Bairds do not want either of them on their property and that they should try to keep the peace and he issued another trespass warning, according to the report.  He advised the Bairds “not to beep their horns near or around the Gorham residence for any reason,” the report states.

On May 4, Baird called the police to report Roseanna Gorham was repeatedly driving past his property on Plainfield Pike and wanted to know if there was anything he could do to “end the tension,” according to police reports.

Police contacted Roseanna Gorham who told them she “visited a friend on Gibson Hill and her commute took her past the Bairds’ property.” The police report states Baird’s concerns seemed “unfounded” and there were “no known problems between the parties at that time.”

On Aug. 6, Nicholas Gorham called the police to report he “feels that Mike Baird is harassing him.”  According to the report, Gorham told police “an SUV sounded its horn as it passed his house and he wanted to press charges.” Gorham told police he ran to his own vehicle, chased after the suspect vehicle and noted it had a temporary plate starting with an “H,” the report indicates. Gorham said in the report he believed the vehicle to belong to Baird. When police investigated, according to the report, Baird’s driveway “was negative for any vehicles with a temporary registration starting with an ‘H.’”

On Aug. 13, Gorham called the Coventry Police Department to report another incident of harassment.  According to the police report, Gorham told police someone threw papers in his front yard and, although he could not identify a subject or a vehicle, he “assumed it was Michael Baird.”  Police spoke with Baird who denied any involvement in the incident, according to the report.

Nicholas Gorham did not return calls for comment on these incidents.

Baird said he hopes something is done because he and his wife “feel threatened.”

“What has happened up until now is one thing, but last night [referring to the Nov. 6 incident] when I came home from work, I went up to the back of my property to see if one of my pieces of equipment had been returned by one of my guys and I saw some random car coming out of my driveway that is 350 feet long and I saw the license plate number and knew right away who it was in my yard while my wife and kids are at home, so I called the police to report it,” Baird said. “I never got out, I never caused any problems, I stayed in my car and told the police what was happening. I told them that Nick Gorham was in my yard and that I had him blocked in.

“Obviously, he was not anticipating that I was going to be coming home when I did because he appeared startled when he saw me pull up,” Baird said. “The police officers indicated I should let him out, so I did, but I think something should be done, this is the third time he has been sighted at my house. The first, he trespassed onto my property — my guys saw him laying on his stomach behind some trees and rocks taking pictures — and then his wife pulled up to my house yelling at my wife saying that we were causing them grief. Well, they are causing us grief.

“The real truth of the matter is that they have a problem with the fact that my family doesn’t want to live in his little Westconnaug so we put signs up and campaigned against it and he was angry about that,” Baird said. “We moved to Coventry because that is where we wanted to live and I shouldn’t have to shut up about my wanting to preserve the town I live in.”

Baird said the only other issue he suspects Gorham may have with him is regarding a piece of land he purchased near his home on Plainfield Pike.

“I purchased 88 acres and I planned to put two houses on 63 acres of it and two houses on the other side of the property and hayfields in the rest of the property,” Baird said. “He, well I can’t say it was definitely him because the letters were not signed, but I suspect that it was Nick Gorham that put letters in all of my neighbors mailboxes saying that we were developing that land.

“He [Gorham] claims to be so in favor of agriculture and land preservation, then why doesn’t he realize that that is exactly what I am doing,” Baird said. “I purchased that land and am only putting four houses on it and the rest I am leaving as hay fields. I basically stopped someone else from putting 17 houses.

“I want to keep the area that I live in rural and that is why I bought it, I just want to secure a little place for my family, my kids to call home and I want it to be called Coventry, not Westconnaug,” Baird said.