Junction neighbourhood bully gets more jail time for harassment
Posted January 30, 2013 3:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Toronto man who terrorized his Junction neighbours for more than a decade has pleaded guilty to new harassment charges.
Ralph Scala, 40, admitted to 22 of 78 new charges, including threats, property damage and breaches of court orders.
The judge sentenced him Wednesday to 60 days in jail, minus the 12 he spent in pretrial custody, and three years of probation. He is barred from going near Quebec Avenue or any of the neighbours he bullied for years.
“The law can’t force a person to love thy neighbour,” John Ritchie said. “But the law can stop the conduct and this behaviour.”
In 2009, Scala pleaded guilty to 49 charges including criminal harassment and mischief after he keyed his neighbours cars, slashed their tires, flooded an 86-year-old woman’s lawn and physically attacked a resident in front of the man’s wife and toddler.
His 66-year-old father, Felice, pleaded guilty to one count of breaching a peace bond and got three years’ probation, according to a report in the Toronto Star.
The Scalas have moved to Michael Power Place, near Kipling Avenue and Bloor Street West, and have put their house on Quebec up for sale.
“I don’t know if he’s learned fully what he’s supposed to learn here today, but I know he doesn’t want to be in jail,” Scala’s lawyer Gordon Goldman said.
“I don’t think [the neighbours] have anything to worry about.”
Felice Scala was acquitted of breaching six bail charges in an Old City Hall court last week.
