The Court may finally force my neighbor to eat his own shit.

The BBQ Pit
81

I hope everything turns out well for you, lieu. I won’t indulge in a dissection of the incident because 1. it wouldn’t help a damned thing and 2. nobody’s had more sleepless nights than you to re-live and worry over it.

I think you can find real hope in the reaction of the various prosecutors, etc. though. My Ex was caught in somewhat similiar situation, with someone who was so frankly unbalanced and aggressive the sytem finally refused to play along. She was notorious for filing frivolous “get-back” suits and false charges, then would go scream at folks at the courthouse. She put a lot of people through pure hell.

I will say this: the prosecutors and judges made a point to be fair and impartial. Even raving nutcases have rights. But the Ex’s lawyer chortled every time the nutcase ripped into court personnel because procedural matters she didn’t like just “proved” they were against her too. She was her own worst enemy, in all senses, but especially for credibilty.

Your neighbor is a loon, somebody so blinded by his own hate he can’t see past it. No matter how things go on Monday (and I’m guessing charges will be dropped), please consider getting a trespass order against him for your home at the very least. You don’t even have to give a reason. You don’t want him on your property. That’s enough. Period. He steps one foot onto your place, call the cops.

I haven’t the faintest idea what it takes to get a restraining order (if that’s the right term) but given the verbal threats against your wife and child, it might be worth investigating. Physical safety comes first. This guy’s seriously unbalanced. But everytime he pulls something, you and/or your neighbors need to drop a dime to the cops. Documentation is your friend. Bullies don’t give up, but they can be forced back into their cages.

Good luck to and your family. If it helps, I’ll be thinking of you on Monday.

Veb

82

Zoe wrote:

I agree with the second part of your statement and I wasn’t nearly clear enough about the limits of what my statement would be. I would be assuming that there are no major advantage of size or ability and NOT include domestic violence. So, two women, o.k., man & woman, most times, no, but given equal size & ability, maybe. I’m really just trying to say that when two people have a disagreement and it comes to blows, unless one of the parties attacks the other out of the blue, should be a no-fault proposition and not hit the court system.

83

I can empathise so, sooo much with your plight. When I lived in Germany, I had the misfortune to live right next door to a complete f***ing asshole called Herr Schnattinger, whom I quickly named (for reasons that will become obvious) Herr Scheissinger; this, translated into English, would be Mr Shittinger.

I once, inadvertently, parked slightly in front of a Feuerausfahrt; since my German wasn’t too hot at the time, having just arrived in Germany, I didn’t know that this meant “Fire exit.” Returning to my car, what I did notice was that someone had parked across the back of my car, thereby preventing me from leaving. This was Herr Scheissinger’s “punishment” to me for blocking a fire exit (yeah! block me in for blocking a fire exit! Go figure!).

I soon discovered that it was Scheissinger’s car because he himself sprang out from behind the bushes where he had been lying in wait for me! I suddenly found myself confronted by a rabid man ranting in broad, almost incomprehensible Bavarian, and banging his fist on my car. All attempts at reasonable discussion having been exhausted, I finally managed to drive away, having just enough space to manoever - not without having yelled “Wichser!” (it hadn’t taken me long to learn the German word for “wanker”!), and I reinforced signs of my displeasure with a rigidly raised middle digit.

I thought nothing more of the incident until I got a letter summoning me to the local police station. Yep, Herr Scheissinger had reported me to the local police for what, in Germany, is a criminal offence! Interestingly, the police themselves were sick to death of Scheissinger and were very helpful with their line of enquiry:

Police: You didn’t know that it’s a criminal offence to use such a gesture, did you?

Me: No, officer. Of course not, officer.

Police: Would you like to prosecute Herr Schnattinger in return?

Me: If, and only if, he is stupid enough to continue prosecuting me. In which case, I will mention his abusive behavior and the fact that he prevented me from leaving a fire exit.

The case was dropped. That was when the nails started appearing in the tires of my car. The police were sympathetic, but basically said that unless they caught him nail in hand, there was nothing they could do.

My final memory of living in Germany? Packing up my car for the drive to Paris, where I was moving to, and finding a car parked across the back of mine, preventing me from leaving. And it was around midnight (yes, I was that desperate to leave).

Scheissinger’s car? No. A police car. ‘Is this your car, sir?’ ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Do you live here?’ ‘We will accompany you up to your flat and watch you put the key in the door to prove it.’ No shit! And they did! I have no doubt whatsoever that it was fuckface Scheissinger who, even in the middle of the night, had been spying on me… no doubt waiting for me to leave so that he could stick another nail in my tire. I hope the fucker goes to hell and dies a slow, lingering death - preferably through having nails stuck up his ass.

84

I agree that bullies don’t give up. However I’ve never seen one forced back into their cage successfully and kept there. They don’t move away and they don’t ever stop until jailed and they are wiley enough that it’s often years before they are “caught”.

If safety and peace is your hope, do yourself a favor and sell your nice home and move away from the insanity.

We did and it’s made a huge difference in our son and our quality of life. We still don’t have great nest door neighors with “backdoor” friendships, but we have many great friends very nearby, we run into people we love and care about just on a little walk of the dog around the neighborhood. It’s a lemonaid stand kind of neighborhood, where when the kid or hubby stops and buys a lemonaid the kids give them another to bring home to me.

What I’m trying to say is that I know moving is a hassle, especially when you’ve put a lot of work into making your house your home. But sometimes, it’s still the right thing to do to protect your family physically and emotionally.

85

Security cameras are your friends. A set with night vision is very nice.
A little tape recorder in your pocket for when he decides to rant and hurl insults and threats at you is helpful, make it a habit to carry one.
Ask your other neighbors to keep an eye out in case he does something you and the cameras don’t see.
Find out if anthing on his property violates building codes.
It may be prudent to hire a private detective to check out this guy so you know exactly what you are dealing with and if he has any priors.
Get in touch with people who have successfully defeated such bullies.

86

lieu

The guy sounds like a writer…My brother and sister in law who have built their high end dream home in anticipation of their last stand as they both near retirement have a similar problem…although not as extreem. Their evil neighbor problem culminated in having a survey to establish the exact lay of their adjorning property lines, and an ensuing 8 foot fence. Why the guy’s such a dick is beyond all…He’ an artist…he builds anatomically exact and scale prehistoric animal models for natural museums worldwide in his workshop behind his house…He would have so much to bring to conversation in the neighborhood coctail get togethers, and would easily become the hero of the neigborhood children, but he’d rather cause grief and live in cantankerous isolation.
I’m sure Lieu…that this guy sufferers life, and that punch in the nose hurt you more than him, and left no lasting emotional hurt to the man that you should concern yourself with…its just what he would expect from the world

87

If you live in a 200-300 thousand dollar home, you could probably have him killed for under two mortgage payments. It’s worth considering.

88

Just great. Let’s incite a contract murder. Even though I know it was probably a jest, I don’t think we need this kind of shit here do we?

89

Xploder, I think that was a Cousin Vinnie joke.

90

Jeff so? In this situation, why even bring something like that up?

91

I most certainly concur, Xploder, especially sans some indication that it was a joke as in [cousin vinnie reference on], since it’s a written medium.

92
  1. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
  2. Shut up.
  3. Make sure you have witness affadavits, or witnesses ready to go at your trial.
  4. Document EVERYTHING with a witness, photos, video, whatever.
  5. Go talk to your lawyer again. I find it hard to believe that any lawyer would tell you not to worry about going to trial until the charges are actually dropped. But, it sounds like they might be.

Practical considerations: you now may have an angry lunatic living next to you. I can’t tell you what to do. I’d consider moving.

93

The police would have been no help at all. They probably wouldn’t even have talked to psychoboy. People make verbal threats all the time. Unless lieu lives in Mayberry, and Sheriff Andy was just itchin’ for something to do that day besides ferry Aunt bee to her sewing circle, I highly doubt that the police would have been worth a damn. The guy didn’t say enough to get their attention, but he said plenty to get get lieu’s.

That said, and as much as I understand lieu’s actions… I never,ever woulda escalated it with such a whackjob.

True story that taught me everything I ever wanted or needed to know about people you do not know pissing you off, or people you already know are crazy pissing you off: I was 19, my boyfriend and I were pulling into a mini mall in Hollywood, the guy in front of us was being an idiot in the parking lot, my boyfriend taps the horn. Older guy, young kid in the passenger seat. Stops, reaches over to the glove box to get something, gets out of his car and walks over to my boyfriend’s side of the car. He’s waving a gun in my boyfriend’s face and asking him if he wants to honk the horn again. My boyfriend, being the smart cookie that he is, says “No sir, no problem sir.” and the guy goes back to his car.

Narrow escape.

People are insane, violent and dangerous. It is almost never a good idea to give in to your own anger and escalate with them. Try meditation instead.

Peace.

stoid

94

You may have a problem selling your house. You will have to disclose the nutjob living next door or you will risk getting sued by the new owner. This guy is literally devalueing your house.

Haj

95

You’ll have to ask Badtz that. Looked like a joke to me.

96

Did you take down this guy’s licence plate and report him to the cops? People like this will continue to do such things as long as they continue to get away with it.

97

Lieu, you’re lucky you don’t [appear] to live in the UK, you’d be in jail for punching that guy regardless of what he did/said to you or your family … there was a case in the UK a few years back where a woman poured boiling water on a man she literally caught raping her daughter, he got off, she went to prison.
“They”'re a bit “funny” about people protecting themselves and their families in Britain …

Don’t know about Ireland, haven’t come across any cases as such

98

Lieu,

With only your perspective, I can’t say whether I agree with your actions or not. I probably would, but whatever.

Personally, I do think that the stupidest thing you did was admit to assault and battery in the back of a police car before you talked to a lawyer. Without you talking to the officers about it, he can’t even prove that you were in his driveway, much less that you were the one who broke his nose. If you end up in any state but a complete aquital, this is the reason why.

-lv

99

Lobelia:

“there was a case in the UK a few years back where a woman poured boiling water on a man she literally caught raping her daughter, he got off, she went to prison.”

WHAT!? I just don’t understand things like that.

100

Well, i Googled[sup]TM[/sup] this story, using a variety of combinations of terms, phrases, etc., and found nothing.

I’m not saying that Lobelia’s telling porkies, but i wouldn’t mind seeing a citation for this, if she has one.