Posted Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 -- 10:01 pm
By: Zac Schultz

Madison: It's not uncommon for neighbors to have disputes over things like parking on the streets, pets. garbage or loud noises.

But one east side man is accused of creating an environment of terror through a long series of petty acts.

"I was hysterical. I was crying, I was shaking and I felt unsafe," says Brooke Hudson.

"Very fearful, intimidated," says Donna Meinholz.

"Very scared, very intimidated, nervous, fearful," says Jennifer May.

"Uncomfortable, intimidated," says Barbara Whitehorse.

On October 1st, a parade of witnesses took the stand in Dane County Court and talked about how their neighbor, Brian Lawler, made them feel.

"Harassed," says Margaret Crowell.

"I'm terrified," says Pamela James. "I don't go outside anymore. I'm usually outside in the summer, I didn't barely go outside this year."

"It's just a very frightening scenario to think that people have to live this way," says Derek Hudson.

They all live in an otherwise quiet neighborhood on Madison's east side.
Brian Lawler and his family live at 4045 Steinies Drive. They moved in 8 years ago, and that's when neighbors say the harassment started.

Margaret Crowell lives next door. She says Brian, his wife and his kids have thrown bags of dog feces on her roof, smashed her downspout and thrown trash in her yard. "There were windshield wipers, old skateboard, all kinds of pop bottles, styrofoam."

Donna Meinholz has had similar problems. "I had trash in my yard. Pop cans, bottles," and nails in her driveway. "Nails, screws, there were pieces of glass in there. We've had a number of flat tires."

Same thing for Derek Hudson. "I have found-personally-nails throughout my long driveway. My wife also has and showed them to me."

The neighbors say Lawler likes to use his work van to intimidate them.

"He'd block your driveway as you're pulling out of your driveway," says Pamela James. "Honks constantly, morning, noon or night."

"(He) stopped in front of my driveway," says Margaret Crowell.

"He would go by, he would honk his horn, rev his engine, slow down, stare at me," says Donna Meinholz.

"He would wave, honk the horn," says Barbara Whitehorse. "Then he would go down Stoughton Road behind our house and lay on the horn the whole time behind our house."

"He does a lot of driving around the block," says Jennifer May. "Honking, driving around multiple times while I'm outside."

The neighbor's complaints get more serious. So serious, Lawler has been charged with 10 counts of felony stalking.

But by now you're asking, what's Brian Lawler's problem?

"At the bottom this is really a dispute between neighbors that has gotten out of hand," says Christopher Kelly, Brian Lawler's attorney. He says this is all overblown, and the neighbors were actually harassing his client. "Neighbors have directed the same conduct at Mr. Lawler that they're accusing Mr. Lawler of directing at them."

According to the criminal complaint, each neighbor said the harassment started after an initial conflict.

For Jennifer May, it was in 2003, when she says the Lawler's dog defecated in her yard and nobody picked it up. She went to Lawler's door. "I told him that his dog had defecated in our front yard and I wanted him to go pick it up."

Soon, she said Lawler and his wife were driving by honking, videotaping her and her son. "It was a scary situation. I didn't know what he was going to do."

Dane County Assistant District Attorney Bob Kaiser says Lawler's harassment became a game. "Whatever the initial conflict was, for this defendant it then became a game. It became a game of saying things like-well you can't prove that I made that phone call. Or you can't prove that I did this or that."

Neighbors testifed that Lawler goes beyond annoyances and threatens them.

"He would just stare me down, flip me off a few times," says Brooke Hudson.

"(He was) flicking the finger," says Barbara Whitehorse.

"He was flipping me off with his hand up beside his head," says Derek Hudson.

"He'd drive by and go oink, oink, bang, bang. I got a gun," says Pamela James. "His hand was like a gun."

Derek says Lawler also made a gun like motion with his hand. "He yelled bang, basically directed at me and my dogs, and was staring me down."

"He had gone by and said oink, oink one time, and also bang one time," says Donna Meinholz.

Pamela James and Derek each said Lawler pulled a gun case out of his car and stared at them.

"He carried it on his side, and when he walked into the house, he pointed the tip toward me," says Pamela.

"(He) went to his house after a couple minutes of pacing in his driveway with (the gun case), staring me down, very intimidating," says Derek.

Brooke and Derek Hudson felt most intimidated when Brian Lawler or a family member would videotape them. "I noticed two cameras in his bay window pointed at my house," says Brooke. "I saw the cameras and felt threatened."

"At some point in time while we had people over various people in Mr. Lawler's family were videotaping us," says Derek.

According to the criminal complaint, it was quite common for Lawler's kids and wife to harass the neighbors as well.

"I drive into work and they're at the bus stop, flipping me off," says Pamela James.

"The oldest daughter, I believe, came out and said how dare you talk to my dad like that. No one talks to my father like that," says Jennifer May.

Judge Patrick Fiedler ruled at a bond hearing that Lawler could be prosecuted for the acts of his children. "The impression I was left with is that if it was not done directly by the defendant it was done at the behest of the defendant."

Brooke actually needed medication. "I got put on anti-anxiety pills."

Lawler's bond conditions don't allow him to be on those streets or live at home anymore. His lawyer appealed, but the judge said the evidence was too strong. "What comes through loud and clear in the criminal complaint, is that the complaining witnesses felt harrassed, felt intimidated, felt threatened by the defendant's alleged past actions photographing them and videotaping them," says Judge Fiedler.

Since Lawler has been banned from the neighborhood- neighbors say life has improved.

Prosecutor Bob Kaiser says Brooke arguably feels the best. "She sought mental health emotional help, was prescribed medication, and since the defendant's been gone she has not had to take that medication."

You might wonder, if this has been going on for years, why did it take so long for Lawler to be charged?

Madison Police have known about the situation on Steinies Drive for years. They've responded to more than 60 complaints involving Brian Lawler and his family since 2000, including two disorderly conduct charges.

Finally, in June of this year MPD assigned an officer to investigate all the individual charges and shorly thereafter charges were filed. "The incidences... are an accumulation of years of conduct by this defendant which intimidated these people," says Kaiser.

In July, Pam James, Brooke Hudson and Barbara Whitehorse all received temporary restraining orders against Brian Lawler.

In issuing the restraining order, Judge William Foust said, "My reaction observing Mr. Lawler is that his testimony is self-serving."

Lawler grew up in Madison and graduated from East High School.

His adult criminal record starts shortly after his 18th birthday, when he called a local police sgt. and told him "he was going to get shot", after the officer had issued Lawler two traffic tickets.

Since then Madison Police have made 152 contacts with Brian Lawler.

That doesn't include the five years he lived in Sun Prairie, and the numerous police contacts over neighbor troubles there.

Brian Lawler's criminal history includes convictions for theft, bail jumping, damage to property, prostitution, reckless use of weapons and disorderly conduct for both punching his father-in-law and beating his wife.

His legal papertrail does give us some insight into Brian Lawler's personal demons.

A probation report from 1985 said Lawler "demonstrated no remorse" for his actions, and was "emotionally disturbed."

In 1991, Lawler's parole agent attempted to revoke his probation and send him back to jail for four months. The first line of Judith Aspinwall's report shows her exasperation, "I am at a loss as to how to continue supervising this defendant."

She continues, "This defendant causes problems continuously. Hardly a month has gone by that there hasn't been some police contact, yet he is manipulative enough not to be charged. This behavior seems to be a lifestyle game with him."

Aspinwall concludes by saying, "This man is very bright and articulate. I have no doubt he will have an excuse for each occurrence as he always has. He leaves victims everywhere he goes. In every instance people are too afraid or too intimidated to do anything but get a restraining order."

Lawler was ordered to see a psychiatrist. In June of 1991, Dr. John Marshall wrote Lawler tends to "minimize the seriousness of the situation and to suggest that he had been misunderstood or that it was someone else's fault."

Dr. Marshall described him as "highly articulate" and "charming."
He said the most appropriate diagnosis for Mr. Lawler is probably that of an anti-social personality, "His history of impulsive and reckless behaviors, as well as his lack of concern for others is consistent with an anti-social personality."

Dr. Marshall concluded by saying, "Mr. Lawler does not basically believe that he has a problem, rather most often it is that of those around him."

The judge gave Lawler 60 days in jail.

A couple years later, in 1994, Lawler was again facing a long sentence.

He had been convicted for beating his wife, and at the sentencing hearing he called on a number of friends and relatives to plead for leniency.

His old psychologist provided an apt description, saying Lawler, "talks as if he were King Kong, but, in reality, he's more like Mickey Mouse."

The judge said, "I think Brian is mentally ill," and sentenced him to 90 days in jail.

Shortly thereafter the Lawlers moved to Sun Prairie.

The Sun Prairie Police Department only keeps incident report records for 10 years, so police contact with the Lawlers starts in 1998.

In September of 1998 Brian Lawler received a disorderly conduct citation after he yelled at a 13 year old black girl. The girl was walking her bike by Lawler's house when he yelled, "What are you looking at n-----?"

A couple months later Brian Lawler police investigated a report that Lawler had gotten in a swearing match with a 13 year old black boy.
While calling dispatch, Lawler said, "I don't want to have to shoot somebody tonight," and "There's going to be a body in the ditch if this keeps up."

In 2000, the Lawlers moved to Steinies Drive.

Brian Lawler blames a lot of his problems on Attention Deficit Disorder.
He wrote a series of judges in 2004, asking to have his criminal history expunged. In the letter, Lawler says he was diagnosed with ADD in 1993, and has been treated with a generic form of Ritalin called Methylin.

According to Drugs.Com, methylin "may exacerbate symptoms of behavior disturbance and thought disorder in patients with a pre-existing psychotic disorder."

It also warns that "patients beginning treatment for ADHD should be monitored for the appearance of or worsening of aggressive behavior or hostility."

Ironically, while Brian Lawler was writing judges and calling himself a model citizen, he was also allegedly terrorizing his neighbors. "These people testified one after another time and again...about the intimidation-just living their own life in that neighborhood," says Kaiser.

On October 10th, Judge Patrick Fiedler was only speaking about the current stalking charges against Lawler, but he could have been speaking about Lawler's entire adult life. "You cannot look at this as a series of isolated, unrelated incidents because they are all in my opinion related."