Mention former Calistoga mayor Peter Kagel in this town and you’re liable to get a laugh and a story about the time he was caught doing something embarrassing.
In his just-released book, “Advice, Trials and Tribulations of a Country Lawyer: Calistoga, California 1973-1983,” Kagel may get the last laugh by telling his side of the story.
It’s a funny read, only 152 pages, but full of entertaining anecdotes about his legal and political struggles in Calistoga.
I was a Napa Valley pup when Kagel was in his heyday as a young lawyer, just getting his feet wet in small-town politics. At the Napa Register, where I began working as a reporter in 1978, we only got snippets of news from Calistoga, but City Hall provided most of the hilarity.
According to author Kagel, he felt compelled to run for political office after he was unceremoniously dumped from the Calistoga Planning Commission. And, he writes, he also had to run for mayor. And then, he had no choice but to fight the City Council majority, which he says included fellow lawyer Homer Jones, who Kagel writes “was continually acting as the sixth councilman.”
Throughout the book, Jones is depicted as the antagonist to Kagel. Although Jones has long since passed away, his legacy as one of Calistoga’s more memorable characters is kept alive by Kagel’s book. At one point, without providing evidence, Kagel suggests Jones might have been the notorious “Zodiac” killer.
Other antagonists depicted in the book include then–Weekly Calistogan owner, publisher and editor Marjorie Brandon; a knife-wielding assailant; an unidentified deputy District Attorney and a gaggle of ethically challenged lawyers he calls “brothers.”
Author Kagel recounts the time one of his political enemies turned him in to the local media for urinating in an alley late at night. Although he seemed to have overcome that embarrassment, his book sheds new light on perhaps his greatest embarrassment — the time he abandoned his girlfriend to prevent further violence by a knife-wielding attacker.
Kagel’s side of the story is worth reading: While fending off the attacker, his girlfriend came to his defense, jumping on the assailant. When the attacker turned his attention to the lady, Kagel deduced that the only way to lure the 300-pound man away from the woman was to run into the street. The ploy worked, as the attacker followed Kagel onto Lincoln Avenue. Kagel ran to the police station to report the crime and have the attacker arrested. The attacker was eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The book offers a glimpse at the Napa County justice system back in the day, including some assessments of the personalities and quirks of local judges and other officers of the court.
Interspersed between the humorous accounts of life in a rural community are chapters giving practical legal advice: How to choose a lawyer, what to expect in an injury case, how to prepare for a divorce, and the importance of getting agreements in writing.
I think Kagel, 69, wrote this book simply to get his side of the story in writing. His story is interesting because it offers a fresh perspective to those earlier days when Calistoga politics was a spectator sport.
Over time, Kagel must have come to terms with his public performance in Calistoga, and wanted to leave something for historians to consider when recounting those halcyon days.
The book is currently available for electronic reading on Kindle, Nook and iPad. Physical books are currently only available at Amazon.com until the distribution channels come online, which should be sometime this month. When they do, the book should be available in your favorite local bookstore.
