HARPER WOODS MAN CHARGED WITH PARKING ON HIS OWN DRIVEWAY
Harper Woods, Michigan- A lifelong citizen of this tiny suburb of 10,000 woke up Wednesday to find a notice in his mail box. It was a warrant for his arrest issued by Judge Roger J. La Rose. the city's district court judge. The crime? Parking his own Dodge minivan on his own driveway. The warrant listed it as a "junk vehicle" in spite of the fact that the owner, Scott Campbell, already produced copies of his valid license plate, registration and insurance, something the local police department could have found out just by running his plate. "I was told by the city attorney that this was settled, though they should have simply run the plate to begin with".
This isn't the first time this has happened, but it is the first time the city attorney has carried things to the point of issuing a bench warrant. Campbell stated that the cause of all this is his next door neighbor, who has threatened to have the judge unseated if Campbell isn't evicted from his home of 15 years and the house torn down.
The same neighbor, Carl Moore, repeatedly threatened to have the city building inspector Gerrard Owczarzak fired from his job if he didn't follow Moore's orders. "When I bought the house, the woman next door told me that all these houses were too close together and every other one should be torn down.
They drove the old woman who lived here for 35 years into a nursing home. Five families on the other side of them have moved in and out again over the past few years. Neighbors have told me they will hide in their houses just to avoid talking to Carl. I went out of my way to be nice to them, but there's no pleasing them."
Campbell will be araigned Monday morning at District Court 32-A, where his mother used to work. "She worked for the city over 20 years and has lived here over 60 years. She can't believe this is happening".
Harper Woods is the city that threw a 70 year old woman in jail for her garden, in spite of the fact that she cut it back to meet the building inspector's demands. Campbell first came to to the city council's attention when he suggested several years ago that the residents be allowed to vote on keeping the name "Harper Woods" or changing it to "Grosse Pointe Heights", a name suggested by the 1950 steering commitee before a name was chosen.
"Those people looked and acted like I had threatened to kill them. I was shocked at their anger. It was weird. I got threatening phone calls after that in the middle of the night. A number of people told me they like the idea including a couple of city officials, but this city is dangerous enough without getting the mayor and the entire city council going after you."
