Lawsuit filed over CdA beach incident

A local process server doesn’t want a Sanders Beach homeowner getting away with trapping him in a yard, forcing him to call 911.

Coeur d’Alene private investigator and process server Steve Reed filed a civil lawsuit Thursday against Jerry and Patricia Frank for alleged false imprisonment. He is asking for more than $10,000 in damages.

Reed claims that the Franks closed their automatic security gate trapping Reed and his car in their driveway while he tried to deliver court papers Aug. 2.

“I’ve been at this 18 years, and he did that intentionally,” Reed said Thursday. “If I didn’t have a cell phone I don’t know what I would have done.”

The lawsuit states that the Franks “became irate, agitated, hostile and closed their security gates,” causing Reed to “suffer aggravation, great humiliation and emotional distress.”

Reed hopes that the Kootenai County prosecutor’s office will pursue criminal charges.

At the time, Frank argued that he didn’t lock anyone in his yard and that the security system locked down when it “knew there was an intruder.”

On Thursday he declined to comment. “I really don’t have anything to say,” Frank said.

Reed said he drove his white Chevrolet Malibu into Frank’s back driveway about 8 p.m. He got out and knocked on the back door. Reed said Frank opened the door a couple of inches and then slammed it shut when Reed said he was there to serve court papers.

Reed said he put the papers on the porch and was returning to his car when the iron security gate began to close. Reed said Frank then came out of the house and refused to open the gate. Reed dialed 911.

The police report states that the officer had to ask Frank several times to open the gate and that a female yelled obscenities out the front door.

Reed was hired by the city of Coeur d’Alene to serve Frank court papers. The city is going to court to force Frank, who lives on East Lakeshore Avenue, to remove a makeshift barricade restricting access to the popular stretch of Sanders Beach. The barricade violates the city’s shoreline ordinance, which prohibits structures south of East Lakeshore Drive between 12th and 15th streets.

Frank has refused to remove the bicycle rack and section of chain-link fencing stretching from the seawall in front of his home toward the water’s edge. He argues that the beach is part of his private property.

For years, Lakeshore homeowners and swimmers and sunbathers have battled about whether this stretch of Sanders Beach is public property.

This isn’t the first time Frank has had problems regarding his waterfront property.

In August 2003, a Coeur d’Alene woman filed a battery report against Frank for allegedly grabbing her 8-year-old daughter’s arm and pulling her off the beach.

The charges were dropped when Frank agreed to write a letter of apology to the girl stating that “old people like me” should know better.