Article: The Destruction of a Disabled Man in Colorado

The HOA Vice President closed by telling me to leave him and everybody else in the neighborhood alone, and made it clear that -- while I had done everything in my power to keep this issue confined to only the people in a position to do anything about it -- it had become a neighborhood-wide issue, and that "the majority of the neighborhood" had turned on me.

I scheduled a Mediation date with the neighbors, despite never having had a chance to talk with the Mediator, directly.

When the Mediation date came, my wife and I were there. Nobody else was.

Apparently, the Mediator had canceled the Mediation, but never told me.

Seeing no further "friendly" options, and being too sick to consider moving, I consulted an attorney, and asked her to try to convince the neighbors to curb the dogs' barking.

The neighbors refused, eventually threatening to sue me for "harassment."

By this point, my health was a mess. I was virtually unable to get outside, and had been battling exhaustion for the better part of a year. Now, the dog owners were threatening to sue me. I was being treated with multiple antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, steroids, and monthly IV infusions of immune globulin.

Nothing was working. The medical bills were piling up. My health was just crumbling.

In the spring of 2010, more than a year into life with chronic barking, I was now battling insomnia, struggling for any sleep that I could get.

Unable to sleep in the custom contact lenses that I had to wear, I had to leave them out for days at a time, to allow me to nap when I could.

This led to a string of sight-threatening corneal problems that forced me to make a nearly impossible drive to Boston, to be treated for six weeks at a specialty eye center, there -- a period that I describe as "a lot like torture." Eight hours a day, five days a week, of enduring excruciating eye pain, in an effort to fit me with new lenses.

I asked my attorney what I should do.

She suggested that my wife and I file lawsuits against the neighbors for Private Nuisance, and against the HOA Vice President and the Homeowners' Association for Failure to Enforce Covenants, Breach of Duty of Care, Breach of Duty of Good Faith, and Breach of Contract.

As part of the lawsuit, I learned that the dog-owning neighbors, the HOA Vice President, and our neighborhood friends had banded together to stop me, spread false and vicious rumors about me, and do everything in their power to side with their friends, the dog owners.

They were totally unconcerned about the truth, the barking, or the harm it had caused me. They simply sided with their old friends, and against this new guy.

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