My question involves real estate located in the State of: Louisiana

Hi there, great forum. I have a question involving a dispute with my neighbor in a rural area with properties of 5-15 acres. Let's call him "Jonathan." A few years ago he placed a barbed wire fence that encroached in a triangular shape from 8 to 45 feet onto my property. He did the same to our other neighbor, let's call him "Mike."

After conducting several surveys and asking Jonathan to take the fence down, he was silent on the issue and Mike was compelled to take down the fencing on their property. At that point Mike lay down the removed fencing onto Jonathan's property and Jonathan subsequently rebuilt the fence on the correct property line.

With the help of our neighbors we peacefully negotiated a quit claim which Jonathan signed, documenting the problem. It allowed us to demand the fence be taken down at any time and passed quit claim rights to successive property owners.

Last year I assumed sole ownership of our property from my family and decided to take the fence down. Jonathan had additionally built a large levee for a pond, at least half of which resides on my property. I did not inform him of my decision. Seeing myself in his shoes, I would have been too embarrassed to let something like that stand and realized I was dealing with a very unreasonable person.

I decided to dispose of the fence, due to previous interactions with Jonathan who had been the source of several other disagreements and disputes in our area. I realized that he would not be negotiable, and according to my research, the fencing was legally my property, so I disposed of it after taking it down.

Jonathan e-mailed me demanding repayment or the fencing. I didn't refuse but, sure we could work something out, asked him to meet with me so we could negotiate calmly. One of my offers was to pay for the fence in full if he agreed to not put another fence back up. He refused and repeated his demand via e-mail.

Recently the sheriff's office contacted me and said that Jonathan had asked to press charges for felony theft against me. If this is denied he will press civil charges.

As far as I can tell this is an open-and-shut case in my favor. Additionally I was willing to allow his pond's levee to remain on my property before this, but if he wishes to cause me further stress and expense by pursuing a frivolous lawsuit, it appears to be in my right to ask him to move the pond's levee as well.

What do you all think? Thanks for your review.