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TwitThisPrisoners in Their Home
Once they were released, however, the conflicts escalated. According to the Trouts, Ozuna phoned police with an endless string of complaints: The Trouts played music too loud; their children walked in her yard; they left a light on in the garage. She called animal control, the Trouts say, to come destroy a mad dog she claimed had tried to attack her. The dog turned out to be the Trouts' docile Dalmatian, which was firmly secured in their backyard.Someone called the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) to investigate allegations that the Trouts' children were being neglected and abused.
"They claimed my kids went around begging for food and that I would leave them alone all weekend," recalls Lesli. The SRS keeps the source of complaints confidential, but the Trouts knew whom to suspect. Each time, the allegations proved false.
It took nearly five months, but in December 2001, the district attorney charged Donna and Carmen Ozuna for the Fourth of July incident.
In addition to witnesses who were at the party, people from the neighborhood where Ozuna had lived prior to moving to Edwardsville testified at the April 20 02 trial. They told the court that they, too, had endured verbal threats and baseless complaints lodged with police, animal control and code-enforcement authorities.
Two former neighbors even testified that Carmen had pulled a gun on the mother of schoolchildren who cut through her yard.
The jury deliberated for less than eight hours before reaching their verdict. Not guilty.
The neighbors on 94th Street were stunned. For the Trouts, the acquittal was the last straw. "I knew this would give her more reason to be a bully," Jesse says. They moved out of town.
Once they were gone, a conflict began with the Eickhoffs. Soon they we re on the receiving end of police visits. SRS caseworkers began knocking on their door, saying someone had reported them for beating and starving their children.
"Caseworkers went through my cabinets to see if we had food," recalls Stephanie. "Our kids had to strip and be checked for bruises. The SRS interviewed them, asking terrible questions. I was angry and humiliated."
Alvin Doty, the local police officer who took charge of the case, says of all the false charges and allegations, "It was mental warfare, and the reports were generated simply for retaliation."
For her part, Ozuna claimed she was the target of harassment.
In March 2002, when Stephanie decided to run for mayor, Ozuna put up a "Vote Eickhoff Mayor" poster in her yard. Next to it she placed two handwritten signs. One read "Now, It's My Turn." The other "U R NEXT."
Like the Trouts, the Eickhoffs and their three kids -- Arthur, 6, Lillian, 8, and Ashley, 14 -- began to feel they were prisoners in their own home. The children were no longer allowed to pl ay in the yard or the pool -- or even go out on the school grounds during recess. Stephanie slept downstairs to keep an eye on the house across the street where Donna and her new husband, Ralph, lived.
When Stephanie Eickhoff won her race for mayor, an FBI agent turned up at her home on inauguration day. According to Stephanie, the FBI had received a civil-rights complaint alleging that the Eickhoffs were racists, intent on running Ozuna out of the neighborhood because she was Hispanic. The charge seems strange given the fact that the community is racially mixed .
After getting her side of the story, the FBI apparently dropped the case. Stephanie never heard about it again.
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