The Templeton Area Advisory Group (TAAG) is navigating a period of upheaval. Its chair resigned, board members voted to remove the vice chair, and they also appointed a new leader, who is facing dozens of charges stemming from a long-running neighborhood dispute.
Freshly appointed TAAG Chair David Leader faces 24 misdemeanor charges from the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, including alleged violations of court orders, vandalism, and petty theft.
“It’s just absolutely gotten crazy,” Leader told New Times. “So, a lot of the allegations that have been made, like trespassing, and honking my horn in the middle of the night, and stopping in the middle of the street in front of their house, etc.—and trespassing—they’re simply not true.”
According to court filings, the criminal case centers on a dispute among neighbors who live on a road maintained by the Orchard Road Association that serves multiple properties. A recorded easement allows shared use of the road, but prosecutors allege that a disagreement over the easement escalated into repeated acts of intimidation and harassment.
As the dispute intensified, civil restraining orders and criminal protective orders were issued against Leader beginning in late 2024.
In a Jan. 8 filing opposing Leader’s request for pretrial diversion, prosecutors argued that he is “completely unsuitable” for diversion due to what they described as a “continuous propensity to violate this court’s orders.”
The filing alleges that Leader intentionally violated a temporary restraining order and a later criminal protective order 21 times after it was issued on Dec. 26, 2024.
Prosecutors cited incidents including remaining within 100 feet of protected parties at a restaurant, driving past protected parties’ homes late at night, honking and revving his vehicle, firing a gun, shining lights toward homes and security cameras, and appearing near protected parties during court proceedings.
“This defendant will simply not stop and control his rage and deranged need for revenge against his neighbors,” prosecutors wrote, adding that he is now subject to an $85,000 bail which they described as “unheard of in a misdemeanor case.”
Prosecutors argued that offering this diversion “would simply empower and embolden him to continue with his violations.”
Court filings also describe incidents that occurred before any temporary restraining orders were issued. In one incident cited by prosecutors, Leader is accused of using a company vehicle to “intentionally harass neighbors” in April 2023. According to the filing, Leader allegedly drove his employer’s truck toward a neighbor operating a tractor on the private road while honking, backed up, and then drove toward the neighbor before he “slammed on his breaks and stopped just shy of … [the] tractor.”
The incident, along with other alleged acts of harassment, led another neighbor to send a letter to Leader’s employer complaining about his use of a company vehicle for intimidation, the court filing said. According to the document, Leader later told a sheriff’s deputy that the letter resulted in him being fired from his job.
The District Attorney’s Office told New Times that it hasn’t evaluated whether a conviction would restrict Leader’s ability to serve on an advisory board, community services district board, or city council.
Leader was unanimously nominated and appointed by the TAAG board in January after former Chair Jeniffer Jones resigned and Vice Chair Murray Powell was removed. Leader was serving as the board’s secretary at the time of his appointment.
TAAG is an advisory body that represents Templeton residents on land-use and planning matters before San Luis Obispo County.
“It’s, in my opinion, very sad that neighbors just can’t let the courtroom decide on the facts,” Leader told New Times. “And rather than, rather than, you know, maligning their neighbors and making false statements and creating all this drama, it’s just so unnecessary.”
Leader’s jury trial is scheduled to begin March 2. ∆
This article appears in Feb 5-12, 2026.
He has been harassing and intimidating residents on Orchard for 3 years now. He is like jeckle and Hyde turning on people when you don’t do exactly what he wants. It’s become frightening to be in close proximity to him. Neighbors have had to place cameras and fences to protect themselves from his nightly harassment rides. Leader paints himself the victim but he refuses to “ stop the harassment until things are done my way.” Neighbors have tried to reason with leader repeatedly to no avail. It’s sad that things have escalated to this.