Mar 27, 2009 04:30 AM
PETER SMALL
COURTS BUREAU

Ralph Scala was the neighbour from hell.

For years, the 37-year-old man terrorized nearby residents and businesses, slashing tires, breaking windows and in one case, had a rag soaked with accelerant pushed through a door.

Usually, he would hire local youths to do the deeds after he came into conflict with neighbours in the Dundas St. W. and Quebec Ave. area, escalating the slightest misunderstanding into a major dispute.

Yesterday, the former food delivery man pleaded guilty to 49 charges, including mischief, criminal harassment and threatening

"An entire community was terrorized," Crown prosecutor Jody Milstein told provincial court Justice Kathleen Caldwell.

Victims included an 86-year-old woman and a 3-year-old girl.

The level of concern about Scala was so great that neighbours gathered 119 signatures on a petition for "immediate action to help save the neighbourhood," the prosecutor said.

Finally, after a lengthy police investigation, father and son were arrested last July.

Dressed in an orange jail-issued jumpsuit, his dark hair combed back, Scala calmly listened as the prosecutor detailed a litany of his crimes.

He nodded politely when asked if he agreed.

Scala had rocks thrown through the windows and door of Free Times Donuts on Dundas St. W. after its owner asked him never to return.

"Hey, you bitch, your place will shut down," he told her.

A resident on Quebec Ave., where Scala and his parents lived, was harassed over many months and repeatedly had her car keyed and tires slashed.

In March 2008, Scala threatened a former friend, saying, "You better watch your back." The man's car tires were slashed several times.

James Yeoman reported Scala's harassment of his family started in 2003 when Scala's pit bull attacked his dog. As Yeoman tried to pull Scala's dog away, Scala attacked, beating the smaller man in front of his wife and then 3-year-old daughter, the prosecutor said.

Scala would later stand under Yeoman's daughter's bedroom window and brag about the beating.

Last April, Scala yelled to him as he drove by, "So that's the car you drive," then took down the licence plate number. The family car was then repeatedly keyed and slashed.

Scala was fired from the Lotus Inn restaurant after being charged with threatening two employees and damaging two vehicles. Last April, the eatery's front windows were smashed on three occasions. A rag soaked with an accelerant was also stuffed in the front door.

One night last July, a youth hired by Scala used a slingshot to fire a rock through the window of an 86-year-old woman's house on Quebec Ave. Scala twice flooded her lawn with a garden hose.

"This particular vulnerable elderly victim was quite fearful," Milstein said.

She alleged Scala trained his dog to be aggressive, leaving him unmuzzled and off the leash to frighten passersby.

Defence lawyer Gordon Goldman said there is no evidence the dog hurt anyone.

Scala's father, Felice Scala, 62, who is alleged to have partnered with his son in some of the mayhem, watched in court. On bail, he faces a separate trial on four charges.

Four victims and local Councillor Bill Saundercook (Parkdale-High Park) also attended the Old City Hall courtroom.

Makes California's Three Strikes Law look reasonable.

omg wow

And an update as of yesterday...

Neighbourhood bully out of jail
Ralph Scala must stay away from 26 people, as well as community he terrorized for years

Mar 28, 2009 04:30 AM
PETER SMALL
COURTS BUREAU

Some are taking antidepressants. Others developed heart problems. One was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ralph Scala's neighbours described yesterday how his unrelenting campaign of harassment and intimidation turned their once tranquil Junction neighbourhood into a living hell.

"I have endured anxiety, countless sleepless nights and extreme trauma as I continually worried about my family's safety," said Maria Bolotta, whose widowed 87-year-old mother lives in a semi-detached house on Quebec Ave., adjoining the one occupied by Scala's family.

"In the middle of the night I would get calls from my mother crying that she was startled from her sleep by loud bangs behind her bed," said Bolotta as she read her victim impact statement

"I had to go and calm her down when she found her property littered with dog refuse, dead squirrels, cats, mice and even a skunk deliberately left behind to frighten her," Bolotta told Scala's sentencing hearing.

"It became impossible for me to spend quality time with her or to enjoy her property with her because of the horrible skeletons, fake camera, pitchforks, and tombs bearing her name that we had to face when we went outside."

Bolotta's daughter bore the brunt of Scala's hatred, she said. She suffers from anxiety and phobias – and has dropped out of university – after being involved in two court cases against Scala and his father.

After Scala, 36, and Felice Scala, 62, were arrested last July the neighbourhood had a street party to celebrate, she said.

It was the end of years of slashed tires, broken windows and threats, many carried out by local youths paid by Ralph Scala.

Felice Scala was arrested yesterday in the courthouse, where he was attending his son's hearing, and charged with criminal harassment and breaching his bail after he was seen riding a bus in his neighbourhood the day before. He is to have a bail hearing today.

His trial, on four charges related to his son's, starts in June.

Yesterday, Justice Kathleen Caldwell sentenced Ralph Scala to the eight months, 17 days he has served already, crediting him for time served at the rate of two for one.

He was to be released from the Don Jail last night, said his lawyer, Gordon Goldman.

The judge put Scala on probation for three years, ordering him to stay away from an area bounded by Bloor St., St. Clair Ave. W., Lansdowne Ave. and Jane St.

She ordered him to get counselling, pay restitution to the victims and perform 200 hours of community service.

Scala has to stay away from at least 26 people.

"You have terrorized your neighbours over many months, if not years," she said.

Scala made a muffled apology for his crimes, but Caldwell said she could not tell if it was genuine. She did, however, credit him for pleading guilty to 49 charges, including mischief, criminal harassment and threatening, some of which would have been hard for the Crown to prove.

Caldwell said that in her 20 years in the criminal justice system, she has seen many neighbour disputes. "But I have never seen one approaching this magnitude."

In Bolotta's victim-impact statement, she said she nearly suffered a serous injury cutting her mother's grass when she discovered 22 sharpened bicycle spokes embedded in the lawn.

"They were designed to be picked up by the lawn mower and to fly out and harm anyone who happened to be in their path."

Karen Hoffman told the court she was robbed of the joy of being a new mother by her neighbour's threatening behaviour. "On top of losing my appetite for months, I also lost sleep." The family's car tires were slashed five times in three months.

Ruth Yeoman told the judge she was afraid to walk anywhere in her Junction neighbourhood.

"I had the summer from hell. My doctor diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed medicine for sleep. I'm still taking it."

After the sentencing, Yeoman said she was glad the justice system took the crime seriously and that the judge warned Scala if he steps over the line just once he will "be treated like the criminal he is."

Bolotta said the result doesn't make up for the anxiety the victims suffered, but it was just.

She is still apprehensive, she added, about what will happen when Scala's probation order barring him from the neighbourhood expires in three years.

Have they posted a pic of him? We'll finally get to see what Ace looks like!

they are going to make a movie from this

the funny thing is how everyone just put up with it. I would have beat the idiot to a pulp in the street. I'd probably get arrested, but I bet he'd stop harassing me!

He picked on a 3 year old girl too?

JerseyKRS said:

frickin A!!!

my hubby would have beat that worthless piece of shi$ to a near coma. \

sick fuc$..i hope karma kicks his ass.