Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN REED SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
DATELINE: DAVIS, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Two weeks ago, a community services officer was dispatched in the dead of night to a duplex in a mostly quiet suburban neighborhood. The crime: "audible snoring." The fine: $50, according to a citation issued at the behest of an annoyed neighbor.
No gentle hum, this woman's snoring, but an enthusiastic roar able to penetrate at least one mattress rigged against the common wall to serve as a baffle.
The accused, a 30-year-old mother of two, believes that an injustice has been done: "It's an uncontrollable bodily function. I didn't decide to go to bed and say, `Gee, I think I'll snore tonight.' "
But does she, perchance, create a racket as she slumbers? "I guess I do," said the woman, who asked that her name be withheld. "When I have a cold, I snore. But I don't have a chronic snoring problem."
Chris Doherty, the sleep-deprived neighbor who shares a common wall with the woman, said the rumble has kept him awake intermittently for several months, according to Davis Police Lt. Nick Concolino.
"He said the snoring would get very loud at 3 to 4 in the morning," Concolino said. "He has bought and used earplugs but could still hear it."
The two neighbors were asked by police to work it out, Concolino said; both agreed to place mattresses against the common wall to muffle the snore.
Apparently the noise was not so easily subdued, and Jan. 31 about 1 a.m., Doherty summoned police and urged them to issue a citation.
Concolino said the responding officer had little choice. Under the city's noise ordinance - aimed mainly at rowdy parties by students at the University of California at Davis - "it is unlawful to create any noise which causes discomfort or annoys a reasonable person of normal sensitivity."
The woman, who said she has had "no complaints" from her husband and two children, will tell a judge at her court hearing Wednesday that Doherty is not "a reasonable person of normal sensitivity." Meanwhile, she is not letting the matter rest there.
The woman has taken her grievance to local politicians. "I do consider it impossible to control due to the fact that I am sleeping at the time," she wrote in a letter to Mayor Lois Wolk and the Davis City Council.
by CNB