Desert Jet and County of Riverside locked in eviction battle

A local aviation company, Desert Jet is locked in an eviction battle with the County of Riverside. The suit was voluntarily dropped in court Wednesday by attorneys with the County.

Denise Wilson, the president of Desert Jet, said she was battling the suit since she first received a notice in April. She said the dispute all stemmed over new development at the Jacqueline Cochran Airport in Thermal.

Wilson said she signed a 35 year lease back in 2015 with the condition that she brought improvements to the land. She developed a plan to have a new hangar and building, but construction ran into delays. It was the delays that caused the County to want to evict Desert Jet from the airport.

However, Wilson said the delays were caused by the County themselves.

“Basically anything from delay of approvals to third party lawsuits that they have with utility companies that prevented me to proceed,” she said.

Even when she tried to get extensions to those delays, Wilson said the County wasn’t responsive.

“When I needed an extension to be able to finish my project, they absolutely declined to give it to me,” she said.

The county dropping the case was not a surprise to Wilson’s attorney.

“I don’t want to delve into procedural mistakes that were made,” Ryan Waggoner said. “But they were made and that resulted in the voluntary dismissal of the county’s case today, but even on the merits, it’s government ineptitude at it’s finest.”

Wilson said she would not be surprised if the County were to refile another eviction suit.

Ray Smith, public information officer for the County of Riverside, said in response to the dropped case: “I don’t know that this step is going to end the litigation, but I’m afraid I can’t comment beyond that.”