Md. residents seek answers to stop alleged harassment of unruly neighbor

NEW MARKET, Md. - At a standing room-only homeowner's association meeting Monday night, members of a Frederick County neighborhood say they have been terrorized and harassed by a fellow resident and have had enough.

Residents in this New Market neighborhood gathered to seek answers along with action after they say they have been experiencing more than a year's worth of a hate crime in their subdivision from their neighbor, Shaun Porter.

Neighbors say what has taken place during the last 14 months has gone over the edge.

Porter's next-door neighbor claims he spray-painted his truck with profanity along with his name.

The neighbor also says the harassment has been nonstop with the waving of Confederate flags for hours on end to the blaring of music out in the driveway into the early morning hours. There has also been the revving of a car engine late into the night.

"Up until this past weekend, in my opinion and the opinion of the state's attorney, he never broke the law," Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins told the homeowner association members. "I know you're frustrated. I know the association is frustrated, but the fact that we couldn't come in and make an arrest is simply he didn't break the law. I think personally he's crossed the line."

Neighbors say Porter, who is renting at his current home, has agreed with his homeowner to move out within 30 days. But after what this neighborhood has been through, no one appears to have any trust in anything he says.

"This board could have done something about it," said Porter's next-door neighbor. "Now that we are where we are, I promise you if he gets the amount of unwanted attention that he's going to get, that 30 days will be 30 minutes. I'll come out there and help him move. He'll be gone in a heartbeat."

Porter's neighbors say he even chased down one of the school buses in the neighborhood just a few months ago. They say they are sick and tired of living in fear.

"I was too scared to walk up to that man's door because I was afraid what was going to happen," said one neighborhood resident. "And we've all been living in fear of this. I'm scared for my life. I had to tell my 3-year-old that has gone to bed what's that noise outside there. Is it that crazy man again out there?

"I am sick that I live in a community like this and that it has allowed this to go on."

Slowly, they are starting to see resolution coming out of this. On Monday, a judge granted a peace order and a no trespass order against Porter. This means if he crosses over to his neighbor's property or has any sort of contact with him, deputies will be called and he will be arrested.

Porter has had two other peace orders signed against him -- one in 2003 and another one in 2005.