Posted on 03/27/2006 10:32:56 AM PST by Born Conservative
WILKES-BARRE (PA) – A city woman has been charged with taking jabs at her neighbors’ Polish and Slovakian heritage by writing derogatory messages on her shed and on a television set in her yard, police say.
Sandra Sipple, 38, of Kado Street in the Parsons section of Wilkes-Barre, has been charged with ethnic intimidation, a misdemeanor, and summary counts of harassment, disorderly conduct, and scattering rubbish. With maroon spray-paint, Sipple wrote the phrase “Proud to be Irish and not Polish and Slovak,” police said. A television set, propped up against a fence and facing Sipple’s neighbor’s home, said, “Trash made in Poland.” By Friday afternoon, the shed just read, “Proud to be Irish” and the rest was painted over, but the sign on the back of the TV was still there.
Sipple’s neighbors, Marie Gryczko and Mona Ulitchney, say Sipple frequently makes remarks to them regarding their heritage.
Gryczko says she’s Slovakian, and Ulitchney’s deceased husband was Polish and Slovakian.
Even though she’s not Polish, Gryczko said Sipple once called her “a stupid Polack.”
“And I told her, excuse me, I’m a Slovak,” Gryczko said with a laugh.
Sipple admits to taking shots at her neighbors, but denies targeting all Polish and Slovakian people. She said her husband and child are part Polish and said she made the remarks in retaliation of her neighbors calling her a “rotten Irishman.”
“So I thought I’d do some name calling back,” Sipple said. “I was taking a jab at my neighbor, not the collective race. I call it freedom of speech. … Some people have thinner skin than others.”
Gryczko and Ulitchney were shocked when they heard Sipple’s allegation, saying they have never made any comment to Sipple regarding her heritage. Ulitchney noted she’s half-Irish.
“We just want peace and quiet,” Gryczko said. “I’ve been here 36 years and I’ve never had a bad word with anyone.”
Ulitchney also said she just wants Sipple to drop everything.
“All we want her to do is leave us alone,” said Ulitchney, who has lived on Kado Street for 20 years and said Sipple moved there about five years ago. The women said they have battled with Sipple on issues including parking and trespassing. Sipple has pushed for trespassing charges to be filed against Gryczko for walking on her driveway, which is about three feet from Gryczko’s front door. The main point of contention is a fence between Sipple’s property and Gryczko’s. Sipple recently took a section of it down and says it’s hers. Sipple admitted to taking it down partly just to “aggravate” Gryczko, who is also a widow.
Gryczko says the fence is hers and insists Sipple did not have the authority to take it down. Gryczko’s attorney, William Vinsko, sent a letter to Sipple on Thursday saying she has five days to replace the fence before action is taken and ordered Sipple to stop harassing her neighbors. After a constable delivered the letter, Sipple said, she ripped it up and threw it on her neighbors’ lawns. Police say that’s why they charged Sipple with scattering rubbish.
On Friday morning, Sipple went to the police station with her husband, Leo Sipple, and 2-year-old son, demanding to know the name of the officer who cited her. She said the officer, Thomas Kupetz, was rude to her when he was at the property Thursday and said he called her a name.
But Gryczko and Ulitchney say the officers, including Kupetz, were “wonderful” and they said they couldn’t believe how patient they were with Sipple. They said no one called Sipple a name.
Kupetz noted in his affidavit that when he told Sipple she was going to be cited, she refused to provide identification and began arguing with Gryczko and Ulitchney.
At police headquarters on Friday, Sipple also was infuriated that a police press release on the incident identified her as a “person arrested.” She said she was never taken into custody.
Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Gerry Dessoye explained to a reporter that a person being cited counts as an arrest in the department even if the person was not placed in handcuffs.
Sipple demanded a retraction, said she wanted to file a complaint against Kupetz and also pushed for trespassing charges to be filed against Ulitchney for walking on her driveway.
She has a television set in her yard?
It's not just a television set. It's a television set made in Poland!
Today, every Scratonian stands a little bit taller.
SD
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