Man's Bully Sign is Punishment for Harassing Neighbor: 'This Isn't Fair,' Says Edmond Aviv (VIDEO)
A man's "bully" sign is his punishment for harassing his neighbors for over 15 years, an Ohio judge ruled, and Sunday Edmond Aviv complied. The South Euclid man sat at a busy intersection with the sign while drivers honked at him and stared, but he felt his sentence was unfair.
Edmond Aviv, 62, was told by Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers that he would have to stand at the street corner for five hours with a sign reading: "I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in."
"The judge destroyed me," Aviv, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, told the Northeast Ohio Media Group. "This isn't fair at all."
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In addition to the sign-holding, Aviv was also sentenced to 15 days in jail.
The issues between the 62-year-old South Euclid resident and his neighbors, the Prughs, goes back 15 years. Sandra Prugh's husband has dementia, her two adopted children have developmental disabilities. That hasn't stopped Aviv from spitting on her, throwing dog feces on their cars and home and calling her ethnic slurs.
"I am very concerned for the safety of our family," Sandra Prugh wrote in a letter to the court, according to the Associated Press.
"You wonder every time you walk outside, you turn to your left to see if your neighbor is there spitting, yelling, screaming at you and you don't know why," her son Mike Prugh said.
Most recently, Aviv set up a device that leaked kerosene and used a fan to blow the smell over to the Prughs' yard because he didn't like the smell of his neighbors' dryer when they did laundry.
Judge Williams-Byers hopes that the most recent sentence for Aviv, which includes anger management classes, counseling, and a written letter of apology, will stop the feud and bad behavior.
"I would hope that what's been achieved here is finally the modicum of justice that they had been hoping for for quite some time," she told WKYC-TV.
Mike Prugh just hopes to "live in peace."
