Experience with Sheriff's Office

I am writing this letter to explain my experience with the sheriff's department.

On Feb. 12, my husband and I were in the process of weeding and working in our yard. It was a quiet, sunny morning, when all of a sudden, we heard a male voice yelling, "Hey you."

My husband and I both ignored the yelling at first, then we heard the male voice again, but this time yelling louder, "Hey you." We did not think the male voice was addressing us because our home and property has a six foot block wall around it. The male voice yelled again, this time with more anger and volume. He said, "Hey you in the gravel."

My husband and I both looked toward where the voice was coming from and we saw the neighbor directly next door to us, his female companion and a male child standing on top of their camper overlooking our block wall toward us. Still, we said nothing and stood in our yard as they looked in our direction and at this point we both look at each other, puzzled.

We smiled at each other, shrugged our shoulders and continued minding our own business, which was yard work.

Suddenly, all three of them were yelling obscenities. He (neighbor) became very aggressive and his voice became much louder and angrier; in this instant, he stated that he was going to beat my husband to death with a bat, dismember parts of his body, rape and kill me, kill our dogs and burn down our house. We immediately put down our yard tools and called the Sheriff's department.

When we called, the dispatcher informed us that a deputy was in the vicinity and would have the deputy stop by. When the officer arrived we explained to him what we had experienced from the neighbor. He told us that he was in the neighborhood because there had been another call earlier from another neighbor complaining of his threats and harassment.

The deputy told us that there was nothing he could do; we then asked the deputy as to what we could do to protect ourselves. He suggested that we get a protection/restraining order against the neighbor.

As we talked more to the deputy, we explained to him that we have seen the neighbor, his female companion and the child (a boy of about 10) in military fatigues, carrying and shooting crossbows, along with a gun that looked like a rifle.

The deputy told us that he had spoken to the neighbor and the neighbor even told the deputy that he was going to burn the houses down in the neighborhood.

The deputy stated to us that the man is mentally ill and basically harmless, that he sees images of evil gods in the yards of the neighborhood. The deputy did tell us by getting a protection order against the neighbor, that would give the sheriff's department more power if this kind of situation should arise again.

Even though the deputy felt he was harmless because of his mental illness, we decided that we needed to apply for a protection order. We contacted the other neighbors that he has been harassing and decided we would all meet at the courthouse and apply for protection orders together, the widow lady, the disabled lady and the elderly lady.

The elderly lady, who lives across the way from this so-called harmless mentally ill neighbor, was out planting a tree in her yard while the neighbor at one point was sitting on top of his house roof scoping her out through his rifle scope. She was too afraid to apply for a protection order.

We applied for protection orders and were approved that day. We had a court date of March 12. We now felt a little protected and a little at ease, knowing the sheriff's department will be more involved by serving the papers to the neighbor and having more control and power to do something to protect us and our homes.

My husband talked to Sheriff DeMeo about the neighbor and Sheriff DeMeo told my husband and I quote, "I'm going to get personally involved in this incident and find out why there were no reports taken." I had called Sheriff DeMeo a couple of times on his cell phone and he couldn't be reached, so I left him a message to return my voice mail; no returned call from Sheriff DeMeo.

We all met March 12 for the extension of the protection order in front of the judge. The disabled lady was called first. Judge Brisbill told her that the sheriff's department didn't or couldn't serve the protection order papers and therefore could not extend the protection order. My husband and I were next and we were told the same. The judge suggested that we go to the sheriff's office to find out why the papers had not been served to the neighbor.

We were all very upset, knowing they had not served the papers, so we all proceeded to file into the sheriff's office.

One of the supervisors came to the door and asked if he could help us. We then explained the whole situation to him. He then went and found the officer that responded that day of Feb. 12. This is the same deputy that told us that without the protection order the sheriff's department had no power.

I asked the deputy why he hadn't served the papers. His response to us was that they had a big stack of them, about four thousand papers. I said to him you had a month to serve the papers, why didn't you serve the papers?

At this point, I felt helpless and no longer protected. The sheriff's department had let us down and they didn't care what happened to any of us or our homes.

My only response to the deputy now is what part of protect and serve do you not understand?

We all walked out. I guess that same day the deputy did go to the neighbor's house and did serve another protection order for another neighbor. The deputy stopped by my place of business to tell me he served another protection order. I said good, but mine is expired.

The deputy assured me that he had spoken to the neighbor about that day in February and the neighbor told the deputy that he was yelling at the evil gods in our yard; he also informed the deputy that they were on medication now.

The deputy handed me his card and told me if I have any more problems with the neighbor to call, because he now has a good rapport with the neighbor.

In conclusion, from this personal experience that my husband and I had with the sheriff's department, I fell we need better leadership. We need someone who is much more qualified than what we have now, someone who is more experienced.

I'm convinced that we definitely need change, someone who will commit themselves to the community to keep all of us safe. I'm voting for Wade Lieseke for sheriff because of his past commitment to the community. I believe he has all the qualifications and the experience to be the next sheriff of Nye County.

Marcia M. Enck