New York Couple Arrested For Complaining About Neighbors Too Much
A couple from New York were arrested following an ongoing dispute with their neighbor who claimed to the police that he was being followed around and harassed by them.
Paul Sohacki and Katherine Gannon, who live on 12 glorious acres of land in Otsego County, New York, say their neighbor, Gene Ellis, who lives on more than 50 acres, attempted to steal their land, all because Ellis’ driveway encroached on their land.
As Gannon told ABC News, he never asked permission. He said, ‘You’re not going to prevent us from driving on this driveway. He was redefining the border closer and closer to our house. We had to get the land surveyed and see who owned what.”
After the New York couple sued Ellis, the neighbors settled and Ellis agreed to move his driveway off of their property. But Sohacki and Cannon said they set up CCTV in order to keep an eye on Ellis.
According to them, they had to film Ellis to document what they say was trespassing and menacing behavior and soon enough there were cameras everywhere. “It was a reality show,” Sohacki said.
But when the couple took the incriminating video footage to the County District Attorney, John Muehl, pressuring him to take action against Ellis, they got a huge shock when they were told that they were the ones in the wrong, in the eyes of the law.
As Muehl told ABC, “It showed them actually committing a crime against him. All of these videos [were] the best evidence against themselves. They were eventually arrested when we actually had some independent evidence of a witness, who was able to confirm that the Sohackis were following Mr. Ellis around and taking pictures of him,” Muehl said.
Muehl continued, “I believe they are obsessed with Gene Ellis,” but Gannon insisted, “[I’m] not obsessed, but it did take a lot of time. Because of the situation, we had to spend a lot of time documenting. It actually is very rational behavior if you were in the situation that we were in. It was the logical, smart thing to do to protect our family.”
