Neighbor harasses my children

[MSDT]

We've lived next to a family of real a.h.'s for 5 years. After trying to get along, then ignoring them, the man was emboldened, and has since verbally harassed, threatened both my wife and young children, (of course when I am not at home)....here are direct quotes:

to wife: "you f-ing c--t!"

to kids " I'm going to f- you up"
to kids : "I'm going to start f-ing with you"

to me: "I'm going to put a bullet through your forehead"

He has threatened to harm our animals, and in fact took my daughter's rabbit to the pound, claiming it to be a stray. We got the records which prove him to be a liar as to when he took the rabbit in.

He has threatened other neighbors' animals, and one dog was found poisoned and died.

this has been going on more markedly since october 2003. We have decided to answer back in the form of calling the police every time this occurs, with useless results (LAPD-the worst).

We also have tried twice to get a restraining order on this man, hiring a lawyer. The judge called our neighbor a liar to his face in court, but still would not grant a restraining order.

my question: Isn't there any penalty at all for threatening or verbally abusing, (causing great alarm) to minor children?

is this a criminal or a civil issue?

what can I do?

thank you for any help...feel free to email me directly.

 

[NYClex]

from what you write I gather that you are in California.

Now I cannot say if you have a case or not without knowing the exact details of what is going on, but here is the law:

a) Criminal law

There is a penal code provision that might be applicable in your case:

Section 422:

Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which
will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with
the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or
by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a
threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,
which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made,
is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes
that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own
safety or for his or her immediate family's safety, shall be punished
by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by
imprisonment in the state prison.
For the purposes of this section, "immediate family" means any
spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related
by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other
person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the
prior six months, regularly resided in the household.
"Electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to,
telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax
machines, or pagers. "Electronic communication" has the same meaning
as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of
the United States Code.

Now as you can imagine it is not easy to prove this, and therefore cops and prosecutors don't like this, but if you gather good evidence, and insist on pressing charges, you can get a prosecutor to do something. As you can see, not every kind of threat qualifies, but what I would do is record just everything this guy does and says, the best actually would be to really "record" it, buy a camera and a microphone and record what is going on on your land. Call the cops every time something is going on and record the exact times and circumstances, even if the cops won't do anything at that time, it will establish a pattern.

If he destroys, defaces or damages any of your property he can be charged with malicious mischief. The same goes if he should attempt to poison any of your pets or in any other way harm them.

Then there of course are the charges of assault and battery which would be applicable if he attempts to harm any or you or actually touches you.

b) civil

There are also possibilities of a civil action against him:

Again there are assault and battery, those are crimes according to the penal code, and also torts, that are civil wrongs, though in both cases the definitions are slightly different. If he attempts or succeeds in touching any of you harmfully or offensively or threatens you with an immediate harmful or offensive contact you can sue him for assault or battery. Again proof is the thing here.

There is trespass to land. If ever so much as touches your property or even only throws a stone onto it he has committed trespass and can be sued. That's where a camera recording everything going on on your land comes in handy. By the way, that goes also for land that you leased, you don't have to own it.

Then there is the possibility to sue him for intentional infliction of emotional distress. This is an action that is not easy to pursue since it requires among other things "outrageous behavior" that would "shock a community", but there is surely a possibility to prove this if he continues acting aggressively against your children. Once children are involved and are frightened or terrorized I guess judges and juries become pretty sympathetic to such a suit. Again proof is everything. In some jurisdictions some physical manifestation of the emotional distress is required, so when you or your kids cannot sleep because of his threats go and see a doctor and have things recorded.

Your best way to proceed is getting other neighbors on your side and try to act together. If you are more than one you will probably have more chances to be taken serious by cops and judges. Everyone who is affected by this should go together to your police precinct and demand to speak to the boss there and demand action. Get together and consider legal action against him.

The one thing you should never do: be drawn into a physical altercation with him or enter his land.

 

[MSDT]

NYClex-

yes, we're in Ca.

I wish I could buy you a round of drinks. The penal code quote is what I've been searching for. Not being 'sue happy' people, we're
naive of the tools available to us.

We have had a 24/7 surveillance system going since February of this year. Unfortunately, with 4 cameras, it can't pick up sound because all 4 cams have a mic.

What type of lawyer handles this kind of case? (P.I., Family..?????)

thanks again, friend.

 

[NYClex]

You are welcome

I guess you might want to shop around for a lawyer, either a "general practicioner" who handles all kind of stuff, or may be even a guy who specializes in landlord/tenant and related real estate cases. Though the civil actions I mentioned above are classical torts, or "injuries", most personal injury lawyers rather focus on things like traffic accidents, etc. Well, just shop around a while.

 

[Ann_]

Hi, I also have a neighbor from hell, what a horrible situation we are in. One thing that I have learned with dealing with my neighbors is that the law really is not on our side, it seems to protect the low life scum bags like our neighbors that bully and harrass people. In my neighborhood other neighbors just turn their heads afraid of retaliation. In my case our scum bag neighbors have children and we dont so they send their kids to harass us and then put on the sympothy show that they are just sweet kids. The whole situation is the most depressing thing that we have been through, you feel so helpless when dealing with psycho people, I really feel for you! I also am in CA, we should start a support group or something and try to pass laws that make people like our neighbors move! Good luck with what you pursue I would like to tell you that it will get better but in our case it hasnt.