Neighbor harassing single mother
I have lived next door to JC for 14 years. While there have been brief spans where I tried to be a friendly neighbor to JC-- chatting over the fence, sharing food, doing favors for each other, etc. I always paid for letting my boundaries slacken around him. The last six years have been a living hell.
Our houses are about 10 feet apart, his front deck is adjacent to my bedroom window, there is a 4 foot chain link fence separating our properties in the front, nothing separates them in the back where we both have back doors to the alley.
Court records show multiple neighbors who have had to get protection orders, been physically attacked, and had their property damaged. I also know that several people did not report his abuses to the police because they knew JC’s history and knew that nothing came of complaints.
Since I moved in I know:
- 2012 - he physically attacked JB, a relative of a former resident
- 2012 - he physically attacked MM, a painter working on my house
- 2014 - he physically attacked LA, the local homeless handyman
- 2014 - he physically attacked neighbor DB (now deceased) an elderly man with Alzheimer's (claiming DB was a peeping tom)
- July 2013 - He physically attacked neighbor KR (claiming he was protecting KR’s wife), threw rocks at BR and KR’s house
- August 2013 - he harassed BR and KR regularly, yelling at them, peaking through fences at them, and threatening their 13 year old grandson - TPO granted (30 day, extension denied)
- December 2013 - September 2014 he continued to harass BR and KR, throwing more rocks and threatening their daughter and her son
- October 2014 - TPO granted for BR and KR
- November 2014 - EPO granted - 1 year
- March 2015 - JC began harassing BR and KR by calling police on them repeatedly, accusing them of throwing rocks and causing disturbances
- April 2015 - BR and KR get modified TPO to stop JC from using the police and other third parties to harass them.
- August 2015 - JC broke all the windows out of KR’s truck, the EPO was still in effect, JC spent 7 days in jail and was released
- June 2020 - JC tore down KR’s fence, police were called, no charges filed
- November 2021 - JC harassed KR twice when he saw him away from the home, TPO granted
My personal history with JC is:
- 2012 - he threatened a male guest in my home
- 2013 - JC disclosed to me that he has paranoid schizophrenia and was in treatment.
- 2015 - he said he called CPS on me for allowing a male guest in my home
- I did not interact with him or had very limited interaction with him from 2015 through 2019. He did regularly try to initiate contact, but I ignored as this was the period that he was harassing BR and KR, then doing outpatient therapy, and getting sober.
- Beginning early 2020 I began to try to be friendly with him again as he was doing so much work getting sober and seemed stable
- In April of 2020 he got drunk, stood on his front porch in the middle of the night waking me from sleep and drunkenly professed his love for me (well, he professed his love for a name similar to mine, but not mine) and said he was going to kill me. I did not respond that night. The next day I texted him that I could not be his friend if he is drinking, that he scared me and my child. I suggested he speak with his sponsor and suggested he reach out to a male friend he had mentioned helped in the past.
- For the next three weeks JC would try to force eye contact if he saw me in the yard, would try to talk to me while I was in my yard at night, and stopped my friends as they were coming to my home to try to get information about me from them. I sent him a text on May 18th telling him I would have to involve the police if he did not stop.
- The evening of May 18th Sparks Police showed up at my door asking for the name he had used saying someone called in concerned that I was being held captive in my home by a man who was not letting me speak to JC. The officers told JC to leave me alone and suggested I get a TPO, which I did the next day.
- JC violated that TPO within hours of being served and it was extended to 6 months. I did not pursue another extension.
- Beginning in December of 2020 JC began again trying to force contact:
- I caught him several times leaning over the fence to peek around my yard
- He tried to talk to me while I was out walking my dog with my child
- He drove by angrily screaming that he "gave me nothing but love" while I was in my yard with a friend
- He came up behind me while I was entering my house from the alley door, trying to explain that it was all a misunderstanding
- He tried to talk to me while I was working in my garden
- He often played loud music late at night, waking me from sleep
- Each of these times I cut him off and told him to leave me alone. I did not engage in conversation with him.
- April 6, 2026 - My child was pepper sprayed while in our yard
- April 10, 2026 - JC sprayed an entire can of pepper spray into our home in the middle of the night.
None of the incidents from December 2020 until April 2026 were when he was having a schizophrenic break, this is not a matter of neighbors having a spat, nor is this a matter of a man battling mental illness, this is a man who absolutely refuses to hear my "no." He believes that he is entitled to my time and attention and he will not stop until he has them.
It is very important that all involved in this case understand that the violence that he commits during periods of mental health instability are escalations of his constant stalking and harassment. His psychosis amplifies, it does not create, his dangerous attitude concerning women and children.
I am a disabled mother of a disabled child. My autistic child’s primary source of regulation and calm is their therapeutic swing in our front yard. They were quietly swinging on 4/6/26 when they were pepper sprayed. No one should have to flush pepper spray from the eyes of a sobbing, terrified child. While it was a very distressing mystery at the time, a few nights later on 4/10/26 we were ripped from sleep, in pain and unable to breathe, because JC filled our home with pepper spray. This was caught on my home security camera. Based on my video evidence of the 4/10/26 incident, it is reasonable to believe that he also pepper sprayed my child on 4/6/26. When JC was released on bail, my child told me that they no longer feel safe on their swing at night for fear of what JC might do. He has taken away an autistic child's primary source of regulation and calm.
I am an abolitionist at heart. I do not believe that JC is best served in jail. What JC needs is intensive mental health treatment and community support. What I and my child need is protection from JC and system support. I have tried everything in my power to help JC in his struggles while also keeping my family safe. It goes against my strongly held values to pursue incarceration, however I know that I will have no peace in my own home and my child will be in danger as long as he lives next door. Every time we are forced to encounter him we fear for our safety. After 6 years of constant harassment and after he harmed my child, I am desperate to have him not right next door, at least for a little while, so we can breathe and live in peace.
Mandating medication and outpatient check ins may serve JC and may limit escalations brought on by schizophrenic breaks, but that does not protect me or my child from the constant harassment we have been suffering through, nor will it allow us to be safe in our own home or protect us from the constant stress of his presence so close to where we should be safest.
*** end of statement **
JC was charged only with disturbing the peace for the pepper spray. No victim advocates reached out to me. I supplied the above statement to the police, the Washoe County Victims Advocate, and the DA on this case. None of them ever reached out to me.
JC was served with a TPO when he was in jail. That TPO was granted a 1 year extension over a month ago but the Sheriff's Office has not bothered to serve him with it. He had a court date yesterday and was not served there.
At yesterday’s court date all charges were dismissed.
I am posting this mostly to vent and scream into the void. But also, if anyone knows what I can do, let me know. I am certainly not going to bother with the police and courts anymore.