Olive Dell fight in the limelight
Description
TLDR: Olive Dell Ranch, once known as one of Southern California’s friendliest nudist clubs, has become the center of a bitter fight over identity, ownership, and survival. A year after an alleged double murder rattled the community, residents say they’re battling harassment, power cuts, and the loss of their nudist way of life—while management insists tenants are freeloaders bent on sabotage. Behind the headlines and soundbites lies a tangled story of lawsuits, broken trust, and a community determined not to disappear.
One year after the devastating killings that first thrust Olive Dell Ranch into the headlines, the beleaguered nudist community is again under the glare of the media. Back-to-back reports from KTLA and KCAL put residents on camera describing clothing rules, shuttered amenities, and the struggle to keep their homes. LA Times, The Guardian, and a slew of other outlets soon followed, framing the dispute as a civil rights battle and amplifying the story to an international audience.
The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million in damages, with plaintiffs’ attorney Frances Campbell describing it as a fight against discrimination that disproportionately harms elderly, disabled, and veteran residents. At the heart of the dispute is Olive Dell’s identity itself: long known as a nudist club, the ranch was abruptly declared a clothing-mandatory RV park by management in November 2024, a change that residents say undercut the very community they moved there to join. Residents accuse management of harassment, unsafe conditions, and an effort to drive them out; owners counter with allegations that tenants have failed to pay rent or utilities, vandalized facilities, and harassed staff. The conflict has grown into a sprawling battle that has left the 73-year-old naturist club fractured, litigious, and struggling to survive.
The TV segments lasted only a few minutes, but behind those soundbites lies a far deeper story. Olive Dell, founded in 1952 and once celebrated as one of Southern California’s friendliest nudist clubs, has in recent years been reshaped by litigation, tragedy, and grief. What was a thriving naturist community in the Colton foothills is now locked in open conflict with its own management. That conflict has intensified sharply over the past three years—a trajectory Planet Nude was covering closely long before the Menard killings cast a global spotlight on the club.
What follows brings much of that investigative context to light, in a level of detail that short TV segments and high-level news pieces have not fully explored.
Back in the media
Olive Dell residents are no strangers to media attention. Last year’s murder investigation drew international coverage, and reports have continued as the case of accused killer Michael Royce Sparks lurches slowly through discovery. Earlier this year, headlines sensationalized testimony suggesting the crime stemmed from a petty dispute involving a hot dog. What sets the latest coverage apart is its focus not on the murder case, but on the community still living at the club.
On KTLA, resident Nancy Roeder said she and her neighbors were “just trying to survive.” Another resident, Samantha “Sunshine” Lorick, described illegal rent hikes, and recounted being fired as an employee for refusing to inflate bills. Nelson called the situation “constructive eviction,” accusing management of waiting residents out.
One night later on KCAL, Roeder’s words were even starker: “I’ve never seen such cruelty,” she said, describing the heat of 106 degrees after electric meters were removed and power cut. Another resident, Erik Perosky, told the station he and others had resorted to hauling propane just to have hot showers. KCAL emphasized how the new conditions compound the trauma of last year’s killings, with disabled veterans and seniors in particular struggling to cope.
Residents push back
The news reports have alluded repeatedly to a lawsuit without naming the specifics. The current center of the resident-management confrontation is Viosca et al. v. Olive Dell Management, LLC, a sweeping case filed in May that unites at least fifty-six residents and workers against Olive Dell’s management. Plaintiffs include Nancy Roeder, Penny Palmer, Samantha “Sunshine” Lorick, and Chevy Nelson—many of the same voices seen on television—as well as veterans, retirees, and families who have called Olive Dell home for years.
The lawsuit names Olive Dell Management, Mark Glasier, Tina Coffelt, Brian Cleland, and several related entities, along with property manager “Minnie” Darlene McCleary. The complaint alleges that management engaged in discriminatory practices, tampered with utilities and meters, and took or destroyed property without authorization. Residents also allege that longtime workers were unlawfully terminated, and that vulnerable tenants—many elderly or disabled—were financially exploited. The case docket also cites instances of discriminatory hostility, including an allegation that one of the owners referred to nudists as “nasty people.”
The case details echo what tenants have told reporters: cutting off hot water and ripping out the sauna, locking the pool gates, boarding up the laundry, seizing electric meters, and hiking bills to unsustainable levels. Court filings and photos submitted with the lawsuit show the pool turned green, tennis courts overrun with weeds and debris, and trash piling up in common areas. Plaintiffs say potable water service was eventually cut, raising health risks, and that electric meters were replaced with units that doubled or tripled monthly bills.
Tina Coffelt, who identifies herself as an owner and manager, rejects those claims, telling Planet Nude by email that “most of the residents have not paid their rent or utilities for more than six months” and that meter removals and shut-offs were no different than a utility cutting service for nonpayment. She accused tenants of vandalizing the laundry and pool, breaking into the office, and even assaulting the property manager. “There is no elder abuse,” Coffelt wrote. “Asking people to pay their bills is not abuse.”
Residents say they aren’t refusing to pay rent, but are left without clear direction on who to pay, since Olive Dell Management’s corporate standing has lapsed and ownership remains contested.
In the meantime, they say they’ve maintained roads, cleared brush, and even cleaned the pool themselves in an effort to keep the ranch livable.
Planet Nude invited Coffelt, Glasier, and McCle
United States
