Testimony ends in dog park trial
By Danielle Toth
Westshore
Published July 28, 2010

Following 11 days of testimony in the Lakewood Dog Park barking case, all evidence has been received and all witnesses have testified.

The trial is now in a “heard and submitted” stage, said Mike O’Shea, Rocky River’s prosecutor and assistant law director. Judge Carolyn Friedland will now receive briefings from both Rocky River and Lakewood in the next 30 days and will make a decision afterward, he said.

“Each side reviews transcripts and evidence,” O’Shea said. “It’s like a long closing statement that takes a month, and it’s all on paper.”

Rocky River had several witnesses testify, including Rocky River Mayor Pam Bobst, Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald and residents of High Parkway, the Rocky River street directly up the hill from the Lakewood Dog Park.

  “We’ve had several residents testify about the dog park, including what the noise was like before 2003 and what it was like afterward,” O’Shea said. “These people have testified they’ve had to cancel parties and reorganize their private lives. We’ve played recordings to prove how bad it can be.”

O’Shea called FitzGerald to testify that prior to becoming mayor, when he was a member of Lakewood City Council, he voted against placing the park in an area of green space at Belle and St. Charles avenues in Lakewood. 

“He conceded that, in 2003, he voted against it because his own city employee played a tape recording of the Eastlake dog park’s barking problem,” O’Shea said. “The tape gave folks an idea of how bad the barking can be, and he said he wasn’t going to do that to people in Lakewood.”

FitzGerald could not be reached for comment.

Overall, O’Shea said he thought the trial went well.

“I don’t think the witnesses could have testified any better for us,” he said. “We just hope for a good, positive outcome for the folks on High Parkway who have dealt with this 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“If people want to gain an understanding of how bad it can be, go down and stand next to the dog park for an hour and imagine what it’s like just up the hill for these people. It has just been torture for them.”

Chad Bray, president of the Friends of the Lakewood Dog Park, a citizens group that maintains the park, said he thought the trial went well for the city of Lakewood.

“We didn’t see any surprises in either side’s testimony,” he said. “It went how we expected it to. I think we have a decent shot of winning.”

In the meantime, Bray said the Friends will continue to make the park the best place it can be.

“Everything’s going to be status quo until we hear anything from the courts,” he said. “We’ll continue plugging away and make it a great place to visit. There are so many people who use the park and love going down to the park. I think we have a lot of support for it. A lot of people would really like to see it stay open and are rooting for that outcome.”

Judge Friedland cannot tell Lakewood to do certain things when it comes to its park, O’Shea said. She can only shut the park down or not shut the park down. The trial was Rocky River’s only option after years of trying to resolve the issue, he said.

In 2004, Rocky River City Council passed a resolution asking Lakewood to enforce its dog-barking ordinance.

In 2007, Rocky River filed a lawsuit, but the suit was dismissed because the park is a government-owned facility and the courts found Lakewood had not been negligent in maintaining the park. Under Ohio law, Lakewood could not pay damages in a negligent suit, the court ruled. However, an appellate court reversed the dismissal in 2008.