Neighbors at odds over barking dog

Robbinsville – Neighbors on Atoah Street – at odds over a barking dog – have brought the Graham County Sheriff’s Office into the dispute, with homeowners exchanging accusations and the sheriff accused of abusive behavior.

Ill will started shortly after Mike and Katlyn Eddings bought a house on Atoah Street in Robbinsville late last year. Soon thereafter, a car alarm at their residence went off in the early evening and David Hall, a neighbor across the street, came over to their house to complain about it.

Katlyn Eddings said she and her husband were inside the house looking for the car keys when Hall knocked on their door and yelled at them about the car alarm. They told Hall he was trespassing and to get off their property.

Hall recalls the incident differently. The car alarm went off after dark and persisted, so he went across the street to make sure his new neighbors were aware. When he knocked on their door, they said he was trespassing and had to get off their property.

Time went by and the Eddings’ dog, a Great Pyrenees – or rather its barking – became the issue.

Investigation

Here’s what itsdogornothing.com says about Great Pyrenees:

“There are several reasons that the Great Pyrenees is surrendered to rescue, but the most common reasons include size, their tendency to roam, and to top off the list – Great Pyrenees bark. A lot. … You cannot train a Great Pyrenees not to bark. … Great Pyrenees bark at anything they feel could possibly be a threat. Furthermore, they don’t stop barking shortly after the sound occurs or when the person is beyond the yard. Great Pyrenees bark and bark until they are absolutely, positively sure that their message was heard and understood.”

Hall said he called the Sheriff’s Office about an ongoing barking issue, but deputies initially declined to issue a citation.

The Sheriff’s Office told Hall it doesn’t enforce town ordinances because the District Attorney’s Office – already stretched thin by more serious crimes – doesn’t prosecute them.

Hall went to his state legislator and did his own research. Finding that the DA has to uphold town ordinances (a barking dog violation is a Class 3 misdemeanor and could result in an arrest, but rarely does), Hall went back to the Sheriff’s Office and insisted they do their jobs.

Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp said he was in the neighborhood and decided to hear for himself. He said he parked about a block away and heard the Eddings’ dog bark for 10 straight minutes. He went to the house and found that the parents weren’t there, but one of the children was.

Crisp said he told (the Eddings described it as “ordered”) the teenager to tie the dog up behind the house and the child complied. But when the Eddings returned and found the dog tied out back, they tied him to the front yard once again and the barking resumed.

Hall called Sheriff Jerry Crisp directly. Crisp told The Graham Star that he could hear the dog barking over his phone as he talked to Hall, then heard a male screaming that he “knows his rights,” after which Hall started receiving a series of anonymous hangup calls as he watched Mike Eddings repeatedly make calls from his cell phone.

Sheriff Crisp hung up, called Assistant District Attorney Jim Moore, and described the situation.

Recalling the conversation, Crisp said Moore told him, “Charge him. I’ll prosecute him.”

Citations

At one point, the Eddings put a “boom box” on their front porch and started playing music loudly. Crisp said his deputy could hear the music from three blocks away.

The next day, the Eddings received a citation for violating the town’s dog ordinance – Ordinance No. 2006-001 Section 4: “No owner shall fail to exercise proper care and control of his animals so as to prevent the following actions: excessive, continuous or untimely barking or howling, molesting of passersby, chasing of vehicles, attacking domestic animals, trespassing upon private property or damaging property of any nature.”

A day or two later, the Eddings stopped by the Sheriff’s Office. Mike Eddings said it was to complain about the ticket and to file a complaint of their own, for harassment, against David Hall.

The Eddings said they were taken aback by their treatment by the sheriff.

“We didn’t know David Hall was ‘buddy-buddy’ with the sheriff,” Katlyn Eddings told The Graham Star. (Crisp and Hall grew up in the Mill Creek area of Graham County. Although they know each other, Hall is about 15 years Crisp’s senior. Crisp said he knows Hall, but does not consider their relationship to be “buddy-buddy.”)

She said Crisp asked them why they wouldn’t bring the dog in at night and thought they should be more considerate of Hall’s wife, who is very sick.

“I said my mother has health issues and I don’t get the whole neighborhood involved,” Katlyn Eddings recalled, adding, “We don’t care.”

She said Sheriff Crisp grew enraged, jumped out of his chair, responded to Mike Eddings asking for something to be repeated by saying “Boy you better get your hearing checked,” and ordered them out of his office.

Like Hall in his encounters on Atoah Street, Crisp has a different recollection of that meeting.

He said he “sat here that day a good 20 minutes and tried to talk to them.”

Finally, he asked the Eddings why they couldn’t be more considerate of Hall’s ailing wife.

“What if it was your wife or your husband?” Crisp recalled saying.

Crisp described what came next: “He pops off, ‘I don’t give a **** how sick she is. That sounds like a personal problem.’

“I got mad,” Crisp continued. “I got up from behind the desk and told them they better leave now, or I would arrest them for trespassing. She said, ‘I can’t believe a sheriff would lose his temper during an election.’”

In interviews with the Eddings this week, they wonder why they are being singled out over a barking dog since other neighbors have dogs that bark.

Crisp, on the other hand, said David Hall hasn’t been the only neighbor to complain about the Eddings’ barking dog and that “two or three neighbors” have called to complain, as well.

“Sometimes when you have a case this extreme, you have to do something about it,” Crisp said.

For their part, the Eddings can’t believe they are being treated this way.

“Nobody should fear going to the Sheriff’s Office,” Mike Eddings said. “They’re not going to bully me out of my house. … At 35, I shouldn’t be losing sleep and having nightmares over what the sheriff does.”

The Eddings have a May 9 court date over their barking dog citation. Mike Eddings said they have hired an attorney to represent them and are looking for an attorney to help them sue their neighbor.