Follow Up: Rockville Lake Home Still Stands Despite Judge’s Order

ROCKVILLE - We are continuing with our follow-up series "Whatever Happened With That?" with an update on the story about that Rockville area lake home a judge ordered to be torn down.

In the story we first told you about back in September, Stearns County Judge Vicki Landwehr ruled a new lake home on Grand Lake had to be torn down, after a neighbor, Tom and Holley Ruether, filed a lawsuit against the owners because of the size and scope of the project. The judge gave the owners Kathleen Mimbach and Matt Mimbach 30 days to comply, however, several months later the house is still standing.

The Mimbach's lawyer Thomas Jovanovich says they filed a post-trial motion on November 30th with one option of amending the judge's ruling.

It would be changing the order to tear the house down to some other remedy, such as move the deck back a few inches to meet the lakeshore setback.

Another option the Mimbach's are asking the judge to consider is a new trial.

Meanwhile, Ruether's lawyer Harry Burns says they filed motions of their own, including being reimbursed for the cost of the lawsuit. And, he says he believes the judge's original ruling should stand.

It's an illegal structure in many many ways.  They knew it and they tried to get it done.  It seems to us that their approach was it's better to beg for forgiveness later than to ask for permission.

Burns also says, even though the city of Rockville has been removed from the lawsuit, Rockville could have prevented the whole situation.

The whole lawsuit is because of the city of Rockville, what the did and didn't do. And, it's really unfortunate that my clients have been forced to hire lawyers, spend their time and money and efforts and go through all of this when it really should have been done by the city of Rockville.

The Stearns County judge has up to 90 days to rule on both sides motions, which means we should know more before the end of February. But, Burns says the whole legal process could drag out in court for a year or more.

Coming-up Tuesday in our follow-up series "Whatever Happened With That?" we'll check back in with ROCORI high school and see how things are going after that flag protest they had earlier this year.