TEXAS CITY, Texas - A Texas City man wants his day in court after police cited him for disorderly conduct for the way he described the smelly nuggets that neighborhood cats left in his garden.
On Feb. 8, Joseph Loflin, 48, went into the street to casually confront his neighbors, who he said refused to keep their cats from using his garden as a litter box. Loflin said he never dreamed his neighbor and the man's 13-year-old daughter would be offended by him using the S-word to describe the excrement.
"Two neighbors' cats jump the fence, my dogs get into it and carry cat mess in their mouths," Loflin said.
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Loflin's dogs, like many others, are attracted to cat feces, he said, noting it's a health hazard because his dogs lick him in the face and sleep in his bed.
"I walked out to the street while they were playing basketball, and I wasn't mad or running," Loflin said. "I told them their cats were s------- in my backyard and my dogs were getting into it."
Loflin didn't take his wife's advice not to confront the neighbors, he said. He thought it would be better to try to tell his neighbors of the problem before going to the animal shelter to pick up a humane cat trap.
The neighbors didn't appreciate his profanity and told him they were calling the police, Loflin said.
"When I advised them I know the humane society has cages, that's when they flew off the handle," Loflin said. "They said, 'you're using profanity and as a matter of fact we're calling he cops.'"< /p>
Debbie Rainey, who delivers newspapers for The Daily News, said her husband and daughter weren't offended at first.
"He kept repeating the word in front of my child," Rainey said.
Michael Rainey said the Loflin conversation wasn't casual at all.
"He said, 'I'm tired of your cats s------- in my flower beds,'" Michael Rainey said. "That's when I replied for the first time, 'I would appreciate it if you didn't use that type of language in front of my 13-year-old daughter.'"
Mr. Rainey assured Loflin he would try to keep his cats out of his yard. The Raineys' cats have since gone missing, but Loflin denies having anything to do with their disappearance.
Rainey said he protested Loflin's continued use of the S-word and then decided to call the police.
Police arrived and Loflin, who works for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the officer what happened.
"I was a cop seven years, with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office and College of the Mainland, and I would have never written that stupid ticket," Loflin said.
There was no name-calling and Loflin wasn't trying to offend anyone, he said.
The neighbors have a long history. Loflin has called the police before when fireworks have been shot in the neighborhood. The Raineys claim he's called the police for many questionable reasons.
Loflin's citation for language is at least the third one issued in the county for cursing since August. On Aug. 4, a La Marque Assistant Fire Marshal cited Kathryn Fridge, who now lives in Texas City, after overhearing her drop the F-bomb in a casual conversation with her mother at the La Marque Wal-Mart.
Jay Brown, La Marque's city prosecutor, cited past case law as one of the reasons for dropping the charge March 19.
A New York man, however, pleaded guilty in Galveston to a disorderly conduct citation in March. The manager of a Galveston restaurant overheard the man use the F-word in berating his female companion over a late lunch. The manager of Salsa's Mexican and Seafood Restaurant complained to a police officer who was eating there at the time. The officer heard the language, too.
"A lot of people, ourselves included, are tired of that kind of language in public," Debbie Rainey said. "We're tired of hearing it. I have two teenagers, and I'm trying to stress to them that's not appropriate behavior."
The S-word is common language, especially among teenagers, Loflin said.
The fine for the disorderly conduct charge is $170, but Loflin will spend a little more than that fighting the citation. Loflin is scheduled to appear at Texas City Municipal Court on April 22. He's requested a jury trial.
