YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (CN) – For nearly 10 years, one resident claims employees and officials of a small Eastern Ohio town have been honking while driving past his home, in what he calls a campaign to harass him for bidding on a property owned by the former fire chief’s family. 
 
 Despite proof of the harassment, police have refused to investigate his complaints or punish anyone for the honking, according to a complaint filed Thursday by Garrick Krlich in Youngstown federal court. 
 
 Krlich claims Hubbard, Ohio Police Chief James R. Taafe, the city of Hubbard and Trumball County “intentionally ‘turned a blind eye’ to the rights and plight of plaintiff and his wife, but numerous city and county officials, executives and employees have been recorded actively, directly and intentionally participating in this campaign, sometimes while in city and/or county vehicles.” 
 
 Krich contends the harassment began in 2007, when he tried to purchase a property adjacent to his own. 
 
 The property was up for auction following the death of the then-fire chief’s aunt. After Krlich placed the highest bid, former Fire Chief John Clemente Jr. allegedly “told plaintiff to rescind his bid or they’d be ‘bitter enemies for life,’ because the house had been in his family since 1922.” 
 
 Although Krlich refused to rescind his winning bid, “title to the property did not pass to him as it should have,” according to the complaint, and he was harassed anyway. 
 
 “Members of the Clemente family and their friends and coworkers (including many of John Clemente Jr.’s coworkers in the Hubbard Fire Department) began a campaign to harass, intimidate and terrorize plaintiff and his wife by honking their horns whenever they drove past plaintiff’s residence, which continues to this day,” the lawsuit states. (Parentheses in original.) 
 
 In the complaint, Krlich claims he has called the police and 911 about the honking, and has gone so far as obtaining civil protection orders against some of the harassers, but nothing has been done. 
 
 He says he installed video and audio recording equipment to capture “countless incidents of horn blowing by passing motorists, including, inter alia, the Hubbard Police Chief’s son and brother, City of Hubbard councilmen, members of Hubbard Police Department (while driving police cruisers), City of Hubbard firemen (while driving City fire trucks),” as well as numerous city and county officials, school buses and others connected to the local governments. (Parentheses in original.) 
 
 Despite this proof, the police department has failed and refused to do anything, Krlich alleges. He claims the police department refuses to take many of his reports, and 911 has hung up on him. 
 
 “The Hubbard Police Department and Trumball 9-1-1 Center require plaintiff, and only plaintiff, to follow a specific ‘protocol’ prior to contacting the Hubbard Police Department or 9-1-1 Center, or they will not respond to, or accept, a noise or harassment complaint from him,” the lawsuit states. 
 
 A city attorney for Hubbard did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment. 
 
 Krlich is suing Hubbard, Police Chief Taafe and Trumball County for an alleged violation of the Equal Protection Clause. He is seeking compensatory damages for his video recording equipment and legal fees as well as punitive damages, in a total amount exceeding $75,000. 
 
 He is represented by Caryn Groedel in Cleveland. 
 
 Like this: Like Loading... ||||| Why Has This Man Been Honked at Over 5,000 Times? 
 
 By ANDREW PAPARELLA, ERIC M. STRAUSS and ALEXA VALIENTE 
 
 Here's the Situation: 
 
 Long-time Hubbard, Ohio, residents Rick and Cindy Krlich told ABC News' "20/20? that everyone in their town has turned against them. 
 
 Over the past seven years, they said, horns have been honked 5,000 times by people driving past their house. 
 
 "In the beginning, it was 100 times a day," Rick Krlich said. Lately, the couple said, it has settled down to once or twice a day. 
 
 What Started It All: 
 
 In a 2007 real estate deal, Rick Krlich got into a dispute with John Clemente over the house next door. 
 
 It's a long complicated story, but essentially, Rick Krlich sued in an attempt to buy the house when it was in probate court, even though it had been in the Clemente family for several generations. 
 
 Rick Krlich succeeded only in annoying John Clemente, who at the time was the town fire chief. His lawsuit failed, and the Clementes moved into the house. 
 
 Rick Krlich's Side of the Story: 
 
 According to Rick Krlich, John Clemente and his family retaliated by organizing a vast conspiracy of horn honking that has continued throughout the years since. 
 
 The Krlich home now has surveillance cameras to record when and who honks their horns while driving past the house. From a fireman in a fire engine to a police officer from a nearby town, the Krlich's have recorded many honkers throughout the years. 
 
 Rick is now suing no fewer than 40 alleged horn blowers, including the Clementes. 
 
 John Clemente's Side of the Story: 
 
 John and Marlene Clemente deny they instigated the honking. 
 
 According to John Clemente, his son's girlfriend and some of her friends would blow the horn, but he said that was just their way of saying goodbye. 
 
 And while a fire truck and other Hubbard residents have been caught on video honking the horn outside of the Krlich house, John Clemente said that Rick Krlich brought it on himself. 
 
 "Why wouldn't you be against him … and what he is doing to everybody?" John Clemente told "20/20." "Do you realize he has got 700 cases going to court?" 
 
 "If you beep your horn one time, he'll take you to court," Marlene Clemente told "20/20." "Just a regular beep or just to beep at the neighbors across the street, he'll take you to court." 
 
 A Solution? 
 
 In an attempt to bring together a town blown apart by a destructive horn-honking habit, "20/20? invited the Clementes, the Krlich's and the town of Hubbard to a Peace and Reconciliation Barbecue. 
 
 Watch ABC News' "20/20? on Friday, May 2 at 10 p.m. ET to see what happened. ||||| By Jordan Cohen 
 
 news@vindy.com 
 
 HUBBARD 
 
 It was billed as a “Barbecue for Peace and Reconciliation,” an effort by ABC newsmagazine “20/20” to bring dialogue to an issue that has riled a section of Hubbard for more than six years. 
 
 Based on comments during the get-together attended by about 35 people at Chestnut Ridge Park on Saturday, peace and reconciliation seem anything but likely at the moment. 
 
 The issue involves what property owner Garrick Krlich describes as incessant horn-honking in front of his Liberty Street home at all hours of the night. Krlich alleges that the disturbances stem from a dispute he had with John Clemente, the retired Eagle Joint District fire chief, beginning in 2007 over the purchase of another home, also located on Liberty Street. A court eventually upheld Clemente’s purchase of that home. 
 
 Since that time, Krlich has requested 22 protection orders and filed more than 40 lawsuits against various residents, charging harassment because of the horn-honking, which he attributes to Clemente and his supporters. Krlich’s wife, Lucinda, contacted “20/20,” and the newsmagazine has been working on a story about the dispute, which is tentatively scheduled for broadcast Friday. 
 
 Clemente and his attorney, James Wise of Poland, offered a different view of events. 
 
 “There was no bid on that house,” Clemente told The Vindicator. “My family has owned it since 1922 and the court ruled in our favor.” 
 
 Clemente said he and his aunt owned the home, and he bought out her interest in the property. 
 
 His attorney denied that Clemente was behind the ongoing disturbances. 
 
 “We have no idea how the horn-honking began,” Wise said. 
 
 “The system has failed this couple,” said Krlich’s attorney Robert Henkin. “He was begging for it to stop and it hasn’t.” 
 
 ABC also brought along a mediator, Billie Colombaro, a former Louisiana appeals court judge, who said she met with both sides for several hours. Despite the network’s efforts at dialogue, Colombaro said she does not believe the time is right for mediation. 
 
 “My assessment is they’re not ready to productively engage in the process,” she said. 
 
 The network tried to lighten the tone of the barbeque by offering free hamburgers and hot dogs, and live musical performances. 
 
 “It wasn’t our job to try to resolve this,” said Paula Faris, ABC reporter. “We’re just hoping to open up lines of communication and give the city a voice.” Faris asked for volunteers to speak briefly about their concerns but with a few caveats. 
 
 “We ask you to be respectful, with no name-calling and no cussing,” Faris said. “You’re on national television representing Hubbard, Ohio.” 
 
 Speakers adhered to her requests, but that didn’t change what appeared to be significant bitterness on both sides. One example: Donna Morgan, a neighbor of Krlich, who carried a poster with a picture of her dog and a caption “Wanted: For Harassment.” Morgan told the group that Krlich called the police after she walked the dog by his fence. Another speaker, Kelsey Stafford, Mercer, admitted her fianc e, whom she declined to identify, honked the horn 10 times by the house. She said he is a defendant in one of Krlich’s lawsuits. 
 
 “He was 19 then, he’s 25 now and he’s trying to give you peace, but you’re suing him,” she said in remarks directed at Krlich. 
 
 Others rallied to Krlich’s defense. “These are great people,” said Tess Knisely of Hubbard Township. “I don’t like what’s going on and what’s happening to them,” said Gloria Mathews of West Middlesex. 
 
 “This is just insanity,” Krlich said afterwards. “It’s not just horn-blowing, it’s stalking.” 
 
 Neither Krlich nor Clemente addressed the public. Their attorneys spoke on their behalf. 
 
 Both legal representatives said afterwards they are still interested in mediation, despite former Judge Colombaro’s assessment. 
 
 “Mediation involves compromise,” Wise said, but neither he nor Henkin indicated where there could be some progress toward the barbecue’s goal of peace and reconciliation —an opinion apparently shared by Colombaro. 
 
 “I haven’t seen any movement,” she said after the barbeque concluded.
– Friends driving by your house and honking a friendly hello: cool. City and county officials and employees honking for almost 10 years as they drive by to get back at you for placing a bid on a house: not so cool. Per Courthouse News Service, that's the claim of Ohio resident Garrick Krlich's lawsuit filed Thursday against the city of Hubbard, Trumbull County, and Hubbard's police chief, all of whom Krlich says "intentionally turned a blind eye" to an orchestrated campaign to "harass, intimidate, terrorize, and retaliate against him," mainly via the car-honking. Why Krlich says he's the object of retaliation: In 2007, he tried to buy at an auction a neighboring property that for nearly a century had been in the family of the town's fire chief at the time. Krlich says when he put in the highest offer, then-Fire Chief John Clemente Jr. told him he'd better take it back or risk being "bitter enemies." Krlich kept his bid in, though for unspecified reasons, the property "did not pass to him as it should have"—and, he says, the harassment started anyway. Described on the Krlich.com website (subtitled "Small Town Terrorism") as "undeserved, uninterrupted, unyielding spite," the subsequent actions Krlich says have been directed toward him—the relentless honking, an unsympathetic police department, a 911 service that hangs up on him—have been carried out by various Hubbard firefighters driving city trucks, members of Police Chief James Taafe's family, city councilmen, and others, per the suit. In a 2014 20/20 interview, Krlich says the honking peaked at 100 times a day (it's since died down to just a couple per day); Clemente and his wife noted in the same interview that Krlich was simply litigious. "If you beep your horn one time, he'll take you to court," Marlene Clemente said.