Posted on 04/29/2009 5:52:32 AM PDT by stickandrudder
SAN DIEGO -- Spencer Trussle likes to play and ride his bike.
"I'm 4 years old," he said, "and I have a sister named Olivia, and I ride my bike all day long."
He lives in a piece of suburbia that seems picturesque: the Venzano development in San Marcos. His parents, Gary and Marla Trussle, moved the family here five months ago.
"I thought it would be good for the children," Marla Trussle explained.
But instead of being welcomed, the Trussle family has been under attack, they said, by neighbors. The accusations against them have been wild, including that 4-year-old Spencer "might come out with a firearm at anytime."
"I thought they had lost their minds," said Marla Trussle.
They are neighbors Sarah Fisher, Danielle Harway and Kelly Plaster. All three filed court papers asking that Spencer, his sister Olivia, and mom and dad be restricted to their own home and driveway.
"There was nothing I had done, my husband had done, my daughter had done, or I had done that warranted that response," said Trussle.
In court papers, Sarah Fisher wrote that, "Gary Trussle is a very violent, unstable and unpredictable man." Daniele Harway said, "He looked to be on drugs." And Kelly Plaster added, "I'm concerned that Gary or his son will gain access to Gary's firearms."
Gary Trussle responded, "There was no merit in any of their allegations."
He said the trouble can be linked to a diagnosis of autism when their son was 18 months old.
"It's like a part of me died that day," Spencer's mother said. The neighbors knew about Spencer's autism, that he might throw occasional tantrums, but he isn't violent.
The Trussles said there were no issues until Gary Trussle confronted another father on the cul de sac whose son was picking on Spencer.
It didn't go well.
Sarah Fisher reported the Trussles to Child Protective Services. She called Gary Trussle's employer, Continental Airlines, where he's a captain. She also made a call to 911, claiming he couldn't control his young children.
But the San Diego sheriff's deputy who responded declined to write a report. CPS dropped the case as unsubstantiated, and Continental Airlines stood by their longtime employee.
"I'm offended that someone would try to involve my employment, my profession in this matter," Gary said.
He has one firearm that's locked up. It was issued to him by the Department of Homeland Security for his job. He's a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines, who served his country for 25 years.
I-Team reporter Lauren Reynolds approached the three neighbors to get their side of the story. Plaster and Harway darted into a house. Sarah Fisher stayed to speak with Reynolds, but said, "No thank you" when asked if she wanted to comment.
"It's a sad story," said Dr. Kathie Sweeten, who runs the Center for Autism Research, Evaluation and Service. She said autism can be devastating both emotionally and financially.
"And when you're trying to live your everyday life and come across people who are not kind to you, it's hard," said Sweeten.
The neighbors' accusations and court filings could have ruined the Trussles, but a San Diego Superior Court Judge tossed them all out. In addition, the neighbors have been ordered to reimburse the Trussle's legal fees, which top $12,000.
read the story, followed the link and watched the video
that looks like a very nice place to raise a family, except you would have to live near Sarah Fisher, Danielle Harway and Kelly Plaster
When I was in high school in the 1960’s, we had a similar neighbor next door with numerous weird complaints to them and of course, most of them directed at me in one way or another. My folks cut down a lot of the irritation by simply building a wood fence on their side of the backyard so they were not tortured (LOL) by seeing us.
It came to a head though when on a weekend day, I way spraying insecticide on the front yard flower beds and bushes with one of the hose end sprayers. I walked around the corner of the house while spraying a tall hedge bush and the neighbor wife was behind it spying on me. Darn but she didn't get hosed down with Dursban or whatever I was using. Next thing I knew, I had assault charges filed against me then a court hearing in city court. In the show cause kind of preliminary hearing, the judge threw the case out of his court and told the neighbor if he ever saw her again, he would throw her in jail.
Good walls make good neighbors.
I wonder if that is even true with these loons.
If the family is in California, it could be a matter of a bunch of liberals expressing their hatred of guns, the military, and those who are not “perfect” (autism) at once.
Some people are just plain crazy.
Desperate housewives.....
Sounds like Sarah Fisher is the ring leader of this vindictive little group. Now she and her pair of girl friends are going to have to cough up $12,000.
I’d love to know where the ACLU is on this one. Sounds like a classic case of attacking someone with a disability to me!
Things like this scare me. I’m about to move to Arizona from Tennessee - without my husband who will be out of the country for his job (for a year.) So, I will of course appear to be a single mother, I have guns, I have dogs (labs), drive a truck, and will be homeschooling my children. Almost makes me feel like a walking target for overly critical neighbors.
This seems to be a case of some old moonbats who didn't want their boats rocked, but they're going to have to pay for it!
That's as far as I need to read.
It would depend upon where you are moving to in my beloved Arizona. The majority of Phoenix is relatively conservative, though Tempe and Scottsdale lean left. I used to venture north to Carefree Highway to go shooting with friends.
Sedona and Flagstaff tend to the liberal side of the house.
Couldn’t agree more! Over 10 years ago, I caught a kid in my unattached garage at 3 AM; he didn’t go anywhere because I had a 12 Ga. Ithaca M-87 pump at his right temple but the other kid booked it down the alley.
When some of my younger neighbors (mostly renters) heard about the incident, they were alarmed that a) a homeowner actually tried and succeeded in stopping a crime in progress with a firearm and b) that yours truly was a gun owner (something I hadn’t advertised).
Two things happened after that incident. First, no graffiti has ever appeared on my garage door since the attempted break-in. Second, since the “secret” was out, I decided to come home from my hunts in full regalia - blaze orange when upland bird hunting and camo when turkey or deer hunting - carrying my cased firearms into the building. No one has given me any problems about it.
what? No pictures?
You eloquently reference my favorite Greek myth of the origins of the Trojan War. Discordia (Eris), the godess of strife, was hurt at not being invited to a party of the gods. Her cunning revenge was to toss in a golden apple inscribed with "kallistē" meaning "to the fairest".
Naturally a vanity fueled dispute broke out between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite about who should have the apple. They appealed to Zeus to decide the matter. He was not about to do anything so stupid and instead tossed the matter to the rather dim Paris to decide. Being a dude, Paris naturally chose Aphrodite who in return caused Helen fall in love with him.
Tragedy, chaos, and war all soon followed.
I love that the Greeks were wise enough to include among their pantheon of gods this agent of discord who was an equal in impact to with other forces of nature and humanity such as love, war, wisdom, air, fire, and sea.
Our area has been Red in elections since we moved here in 1982. But in the last two Presidentials the county went blue.
Oh, I'd almost forgotten: Once someone called the cops on me because I had a pistol in an IWB holster but didn't have it all covered up because I was on my own place. She'd known forever that I carried. She just wanted to yank my chain. Cops came, saw it was me, laughed, and left.
I'm rambling, sorry. I THINK my point is that what was normal here 15 years ago is no longer normal, because an influx of Yankees (mostly) is working to turn this from Virginia rural to Yankee suburban.
I remember one time, my neighbors and I were playing kickball in the empty lot across the street on a Saturday night. One girl, who’s probably about 12, twists her ankle, and goes back across the street to her house, where her mom gives he an ice pack and some Advil.
Sunday night, the cops and CPS come over to their house. Apparently, the fact that the mother did not take the girl to the doctor (on a Saturday night, when the doctor’s was closed, and the family would have had to make an ER) visit was ‘child neglect’. So, to remedy the situation, the police had to call up their doctor on call, and get him to come into his office on a Sunday night. The doctor was pretty pissed at the entire situation, said the girl had a ‘mild sprain’ and needed to stay off it for three days, gave her a pair of crutches (which became toys for all of us in a much shorter period than three days) and that was the end of it.
Pretty much everyone in the neighborhood agreed it was totally ridiculous, and when I accidentally burned my wrist while doing the ironing a few days later, I wore long sleeves for over a week in the middle of summer while it healed - LOL, quite ironic considering that probably looked more suspicious than just the burn would’ve.
It escapes me how the neighbors knew he had any firearms.
LOL - only half of my post have pictures. Must work to get that average up! Far less tedious for all than my pounding out 1,000 words each time. Hope you are not using dial-up.
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