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June 10, 2004
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June 10, 2004 |
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Business owner charged with threatening councilor Village Council member George Pitstick asked Yellow Springs police on Monday to file charges of aggravated menacing against business owner John Spariosu for allegedly threatening Pitstick with bodily harm last week. According to police records, Pitstick claims that he was in his North Winter Street driveway working on his van around 7:45 p.m. last Friday when Spariosu, who owns Village Cyclery, came to his residence and said, “That was a bunch of [expletive] you pulled last winter.” Spariosu allegedly followed this statement with other “offensive name calling,” including threatening expletives and profane name calling, a report on the incident states. According to Pitstick, Spariosu also approached him and said, “How about if I put you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.” When Pitstick asked him to leave, Spariosu complied. Pitstick told police this is the second or third time within a year that Spariosu has been to his home and behaved in a similar manner. He also reported that he believes Spariosu is angry about a decision Council made earlier this year to allow Caboose Bike & Skate, a potential competitor of Village Cyclery, to maintain its business in the right of way of the bikepath. Caboose Bike & Skate has a 10-year lease with the Village to operate out of the two yellow cabooses in the Corry Street parking lot. Council’s action reversed a decision it made last summer to prohibit the Caboose from selling bicycles, skates and other bikepath-related items. Council had said that it was limiting the scope of the business to match the Village’s original intent to install an amenity next to the bikepath that only rented skates and bikes. The Village later determined that it could not legally amend the lease. More than a year ago, the owners of Village Cyclery, Spariosu and Marcia Sauer, questioned the legality of the Village’s lease with Caboose Bike & Skate. Pitstick declined to comment for this article, saying only that he suspected the reason Spariosu had singled him out from the rest of Council was because he passes by his house every day on his way into town. Spariosu also declined to comment. He was scheduled to appear in Xenia Municipal Court on Wednesday, June 9. Police have asked the court on Pitstick’s behalf to issue a protection order, which could prohibit Spariosu from contacting or coming within 500 yards of Pitstick. Police Chief Carl Bush said on Tuesday that the department felt the charge of aggravated menacing best fit the explicit threat of physical harm that was perpetrated. Though Pitstick is a public official, Bush said, he chose to press charges as a citizen because the allegations did not “fit” the crime of threatening a public official. Spariosu has spoken to other Council members outside of Council chambers about the Caboose business, Bush said, but no other Council member has complained of threats.
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