Deal Could Keep Woman Out Of Jail She’s Betting Judge Will Agree Shelter Will Quiet Noise Complaints

A judicial compromise may keep Joyce Tasker out of jail while she waits to find out whether she will be allowed to use the costly new dog shelter she has built in a residential area.

Tasker is taking a giant gamble that Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson eventually will agree that her new amphitheater-style dog kennel is “the Faberge Egg of animal shelters.”

She said she used $7,000 in donations and $43,000 from her disability retirement to build a parklike complex of sound-dampening berms and baffled fencing between her home - which she calls Dogpatch - and a new sound-trapping pole building.

There’s a bench with dogs carved on each end, a statue of a dog and colorful banners flying from tall poles. Construction is under way on a lighted rock garden with an elaborate system of waterfalls and pools.

Tasker said she will reluctantly go along with Kristianson’s offer this week to let her keep six dogs instead of just two as he specified in a March 1996 ruling. The ruling resulted from an anti-nuisance lawsuit filed by Tasker’s next-door neighbors, Raymond and Betty Hickey, and Dan and Sarah Schwartz.

The neighbors said the two dozen or more dogs Tasker kept in and around her house kept them from sleeping or enjoying normal use of their property. Those normal uses frequently include shooting guns, Tasker countered.

Kristianson sided with the plaintiffs, noting their homes are only 100 to 125 feet from Tasker’s in a four-unit subdivision 12 miles southwest of Colville. The case is a textbook example of what can happen in counties like Stevens, where land-use planning is widely despised. County officials allowed suburban development in a rural area and then failed to protect suburban expectations with zoning.

Tasker invoked the usually highly regarded doctrine that people have a right to do whatever they wish with their property. Without zoning, a dog pound is perfectly legal among shoulder-to-shoulder houses - unless neighbors can prove a nuisance.

Kristianson’s initial order hasn’t been enforced because an appeal by Tasker was pending. She dropped the appeal earlier this year when a state Court of Appeals commissioner told Kristianson he must give Tasker a chance to correct the nuisance.

To Tasker’s regret, that opened the door to enforcement of the order until a new trial is conducted this fall, probably in September. He could have jailed her for contempt if she had refused to obey.

When Kristianson agreed to raise the dog limit to six, Tasker canceled a hearing Tuesday on a new emergency appeal.

“If I took it to the appellate court, it’s a crapshoot,” Tasker said.

Chris Montgomery, attorney for the Hickeys and the Schwartzes, said the compromise was “over my objection. The judge has continually backed up on this.”

Montgomery complained that Tasker failed to comply with even the new six-dog limit by Tuesday’s 11 a.m. deadline. Tasker said Monday that she intended to meet the limit by boarding out six of the dozen dogs she considers her personal pets. She said she would get rid of four other dogs that had just been abandoned in her yard without permission.

Eventually, Tasker said, she is confident her new sound-dampening shelter will cause Kristianson to rescind his restrictions on Dogpatch. Kristianson said she may bring in as many as 40 dogs for professional sound-testing July 2-3 to determine whether her new facility adequately throttles barking.

The Hickeys and Schwartzes will be allowed to do their own sound tests or challenge the validity of Tasker’s.

Montgomery said his clients have noticed no improvement, but other neighbors who previously couldn’t hear the barking can now.

, DataTimes