SALEM — A former Warren Street man on probation for harassing his next-door neighbors violated a no-contact order when he walked into and shoved one of them while walking on Washington Street in June, a judge has found.
Now Peter Postell, 48, will spend another six months in jail, Salem District Court Judge Richard Mori ordered Wednesday.
Postell was two weeks away from completing his probation in the harassment case when, on June 18, he encountered Nick Lewis, who was standing on the sidewalk talking with the Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell.
Lewis and his wife, Kelly, have been the targets of ongoing harassment by Postell, Postell's friend Charlene Laurion and a friend of Laurion's named John Adelman.
Laurion is currently on probation for a separate criminal harassment charge; Adelman is awaiting trial in the same harassment incident.
A condition of Postell's probation was that he have no contact with the Lewises.
Lewis testified at a probation violation hearing that he avoided making eye contact with Postell when he noticed him coming down the street that night.
But Postell suddenly "came up and shoved into me," Lewis said.
Postell's attorney tried to suggest that the allegation was suspiciously timed, given that Postell was expected to return to Laurion's home, which is next door to the Lewis home, at the conclusion of his probation.
The judge disagreed, imposing a six-month stint in jail.
The Lewises and two other couples who have owned the home have all reported harassment by Postell and Laurion. In letters to the court, they described seemingly random hostility from the pair.
One couple described how they felt forced to sell the home after a series of incidents, including one in which Laurion threatened their newborn, then yelled an obscenity for six hours straight one Sunday morning just as their child was learning to talk.
Another couple that had owned the home said they once found Postell hiding in their backyard; Postell told them to "shut up" because he was "hiding from the cops."
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