A pair of islanders were accused Monday of allegedly “persistently” harassing their neighbor, including throwing dog feces and shooting a pellet gun several times, causing the woman to “live in fear,” the prosecutor said.
John McEneaney, 57, is charged with felony criminal mischief and harassment, and Mindy Canarick, 53, a criminal tampering prosecutor, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced at a Monday news conference. All three prosecutors are criminals.
The case received widespread attention in July after Jennifer McLeggan, who is Black, from Valley Stream, New York, hung a letter several feet long at her front door and laid out her accusations against her white neighbors.
McLeggan, a nurse, claimed the harassment race was motivated, but Singas said her office could not confirm this claim.
“While we have not proven to support a charge of hate crime, this kind of persistent harassment is unacceptable,” the district attorney said, according to a video of her comments on YouTube. “This attitude and behavior crosses the line between a bad neighbor and into the realm of crime.”
‘The sign on Jennifer McLeggan’s door broke my heart and called for a community to help her. It also moved my office to investigate this matter because no one needs to live in fear of harassment from their neighbors, “Singas said in a press release.
Singas said McLeggan, a single mother, moved into the house in 2017 while she was pregnant and “immediately began to be harassed, all by the suspects.”
McEneaney allegedly fired pellet guns several times across the victim’s lawn, from April 2017 to July 2020, hitting a street sign at least 20 times, the district attorney’s press release said. McLeggan feared she or her young daughter would be hit by a pellet, at least four were found on her lawn, the release said.
In addition, after returning home one day in 2019 from an overnight relocation of the nursing home, McLeggan apparently observed Canecick drip feces on her property.
Records show that McLeggan previously won a judgment in the small claims court against Canarick in 2019. A court official told NBC News in July that the judgment was in the amount of $ 5,036.24.
Phones reported to the same address as McEneaney and Canarick were not answered Tuesday and a voicemail left for McEneaney was not immediately returned.
McEneaney told reporters he was innocent when he left court Monday, claiming he and Canarick were victims, according to NBC New York.
McLeggan’s attorney, Heather Palmore, told The New York Daily News that “the neighbor’s aggression … took too long.”
“For years, she felt unsafe coming to a place she was safe to feel at home, coming home,” she said.
“No one should feel threatened in their own home, I hope she and her daughter can sleep better tonight,” Singas said.
Palmore told the Daily News that the charges were too long.
“It’s more representative of the general state of the bad relationship between the police and the Black community here on Long Island,” she said.
Janelle Griffith contributed.
