Battle Escalates On E. Bridgeport

Ken Rawson admits he’s a bad neighbor.

He blasts Metallica for hours with his doors and windows open.

His house is a mess, his yard is trashed, and he trades insults with the neighbors.

A 72-year-old woman down the street said he told her she’d be leaving the neighborhood in a body bag.

“I don’t feel safe,” said neighbor Arlene Goodman, who has lived on the East Bridgeport block for 30 years. “I’m afraid he’s going to flip out and do something. I can’t enjoy my retirement years.

But Rawson, 32, said the other neighbors on the street are making him bad.

“Since the day I moved in they’ve had a bad attitude about me,” said Rawson. “No one has ever come over to talk to me and find out what’s going on.”

He said he made the body bag comment to the woman’s son and nephew when they were threatening him in his yard.

“I don’t run around threatening little old ladies,” he said.

Rawson said he’s tired of being the victim of false accusations and under constant surveillance by the neighbors.

“They even harassed me the morning of my mom’s funeral,” he said.

Rawson said the neighbors watch him and his house. He said they call the police if he steps outside.

“I hate being stared at relentlessly,” he said.

The neighbors have made harassment complaints against him that have landed him in jail overnight.

Before the problems with his neighbors, Rawson said the only other time he was in court was on a second degree burglary charge “for getting into some cars” after high school.

Besides moving, he said there’s no way to solve the battle with his neighbors.

“I’m not willing to back off,” he said.

Rawson has lived in the neighborhood almost six years. The trouble escalated 18 months ago when his girlfriend moved out with the man across the street. The man’s wife still lives across the street.

She said Rawson yells obscenities at her and threatens her children.

“He threatened to burn down my house. He threatened to kill my 7-year-old,” said Hazel Horn. Rawson says he’s misunderstood.

“I’m frustrated, I’m angry,” said Rawson. “I’ve had a hard time, and I’m going through a lot of frustration, anger and depression.”

But now the situation has gone too far, he said.

“The cops are here every day. The neighbors have filed all sorts of false police reports. They’ll go to any lengths to get me out of this house.

“I think the Blockwatch here has gone crazy,” Rawson said. “They stare through my windows day in and day out.”

In return, Rawson glued mirror strips to his front windows so the neighbors “can stare back at themselves.”

He painted a bulls-eye on the side of his house to give them a target, he said.

Rawson, who owns his home, has been unemployed for about a year.

“I would love to go to work. I would like to move, but I don’t have the financial ability to move. I’m trapped here,” he said.

Horn said Rawson was always “bizarre” but became worse when his girlfriend left and even angrier after his mom died last November.

“We’re going to have a neighborhood meeting to see what we can do about it. We’re hoping something get’s done soon,” said Horn.

Duane Willmschen, the area’s neighborhood resource officer, is familiar with the battle, but said there’s not much he can do.

“If people can sit down and communicate with each other, sometimes it helps,” he said. Some of the neighbors want to form a Safe Streets Now group to oust Rawson from the block.

Other neighborhoods have used the program to get rid of nuisances.

Willmschen said it’s more difficult to remove a homeowner than a renter. Landlords are more likely to evict when there is a problem tenant.

The situation worries him.

“Anytime you have people who aren’t getting along there is a potential for danger,” said the officer.

Neighbors suspect Rawson uses and sells drugs. He denies it. He said it’s another example of how “things have been twisted and manipulated to the max” to make him look bad.

“They’ve accused me of doing heroin. That’s ridiculous. There’s no foundation for that,” he said. “I’m certainly not a drug dealer.”

Gerry Kotz, who filed a harassment claim against Rawson in August, said Rawson gives every appearance of being a drug dealer. She keeps track of license plates, car models and descriptions of people who come and go from his house.

She wants Rawson gone.

“I have other things I’d like to do besides watch him,” she said. “It’s like evil exudes from that place.”

Rawson said he just wants the neighbors to leave him alone. He said he has no idea how to end the war.

“All I know is that this is one sick situation,” Rawson said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo