Anthony Saude

Chino – Residents of the 13300 block of San Marcos Place in Chino are pleading with the city council and police department for help with a neighbor who they claim has been disturbing the peace on their street for many years.

The situation has become so heated that the Chino Police Department recently installed a video camera overlooking the cul-de-sac to capture any criminal activity occurring there. The plan is to consult with the special prosecutor in an effort to identify other potential legal remedies.

Six residents attended the recent city council meeting to ask for help dealing with their neighbor, a 69-year-old female homeowner who lives on a cul-de-sac just east of Don Lugo High.

Neighbors claim the situation began about 17 years ago. It is alleged that the woman uses vulgar and foul language on the street, aimed particularly at children, the elderly, and women. Allegedly she has told neighbor children that their father is a rapist and their mother, a murderer.

By all the reports the neighbors are at the end of their rope and are concerned for everybody’s safety. They are afraid that if something isn’t done to stop this soon, presumably something horrible is going to happen.

Next door neighbor Frankie Lam was quoted as saying, when he leaves for work, the woman will often direct inappropriate gestures and use bad language towards him. He said that she told him he would get deported and raped in jail. He also said she plays music loudly, often in the wee hours of the morning.

Residents all have their own experience with the woman of yelling obscenities at neighbors, spraying water at people on the street and on residents’ vehicles. Two people have already moved from the neighborhood because of the disturbances.

Several residents showed up at a recent city council meeting and implied that the woman may suffer from mental illness and needs help.

Officers are working diligently to link the woman to some type of mental illness with the resources available through the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health.

Reports by the Police show that there have been approximately 200 calls to or from the residence that the police were obligated to investigate on some level since October 2014.Most of the calls have been related to loud noise or music, disturbing the peace, general nuisance activity, and most recently, court order violations.

The woman has been arrested eight times for misdemeanor violations, primarily for disturbing the peace. Neighbors have signed private person’s arrest forms for protection regarding misdemeanor crimes committed outside an officer’s presence.

The woman has been issued citations from the police department for disturbing the peace in the past.

They have encouraged resident’s to call 9-1-1 when the alleged disturbances take place, and to file the private person’s arrest forms. These forms are needed for the police to take any action in these types of cases. .

Officers recommended to several neighbors that they may want to seek restraining orders against the woman. Protection types of orders would prohibit her from having “negative contact” with them. The protective order would also allow police officers to possibly make an arrest and/or file a report with the District Attorney’s Office for a court order violation.