Disabled Long Island man given summons for laughing
Robert Schiavelli was dealing with a bully in a way any mom — including his own, who he lives with in Rockville Centre — would be proud of: by laughing him off.
But apparently the bully won this one, as Schiavelli, 41, ended up with two summonses for disturbing the peace, CBS reported.
“I really don’t think laughing constitutes disturbing the peace,” said Schiavelli’s mother, Suzanne.
Schiavelli told CBS his next-door neighbor, Daniel O’Hanian, often taunts his because of his disability. Schiavelli reportedly suffered from seizures as a child and has neurological impairments.
“[O'Hanian] started mocking me — ‘retard’ this; mocking dance around,” Schiavelli described. Schiavelli laughing out an upstairs window, where he said O’Hanian had been staring at him.
Schiavelli was a special education student with a high school diploma who reportedly “loves looking out the window.”
Police then came to Schiavelli’s house on two consecutive days, Feb. 12 and 13, after O’Hanian reportedly complained that he could hear Schiavelli’s laugh across the driveway.
At his arraignment on Tuesday, a judge declined to dismiss the charges against Schiavelli, and he now faces up to 30 days in jail and $500 in fines, CBS reported.
His attorney Andrew Campanelli called the summonses “laughable” and told CBS he is filing a motion to have them dismissed on the grounds that Rockville Centre’s disturbing-the-peace ordinance is “unconstitutionally vague.”
O’Hanian’s wife reported defended the summonses and said that police investigations into the matter found cause for the tickets.
Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat
