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JEANETTE, PA---Is meow a fighting word and grounds for harassment?
A Pennsylvania judge will issue a decision in 90 days.
Yet another freedom of speech case has surfaced, in what appears to be an overly sensitive woman abusing the law and the court system.
It appears that every town has them, those people who believe they have the right to say what they please but that others don't.
A 14-year-old has been charged with misdemeanor harassment because his neighbor says that she meows at him and that annoys her.
The teen, Michael Loughner, is accused of meowing at his neighbor, Alexandria Carasia, 78, when he sees her.
Carasia, who appears to be a crotchety woman, first complained that the Loughner family's cat was using her flower garden as a litter box so they got rid of it. Now she complains that whenever the teen sees her, he meows at her.
She says it constitutes harassment. He says he's only meowed at her twice.
The teen says that on July 23, when Carasia walked by their house, he held his dog so that it wouldn't leave their yard and go after the woman. He says she was staring at him all the way past so he put his head down and meowed. The boy's mother says that Carasia immediately taunted, "Do you want me to call the cops again" to which the mother replied, "Go ahead, he hasn't done anything wrong".
She called "the cops" and the boy was charged with misdemeanor harassment and faces jail time if convicted.
His mother says that her son has never said anything to the woman, just twice made a meowing sound, one when they saw her walking in town and once with the dog.
The boy's attorney said that the complaint shouldn't have been entertained by the police and that it's a waste of the court's time.
The judge says he's going to see how the neighbors get along over the next 90 days before he issues a ruling. 8-23-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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