Granny gets arrested for keeping football

All Edna Jester wanted was to keep the neighbor kid's football out of her yard.

Now, it's almost taken over her life.

The 89-year-old grandmother has fielded dozens of calls from TV stations, newspapers and lawyers eager to learn more about why she refused to return a football that landed in her yard last week while kids tossed it around in the street.

Dr. Phil invited her on his show, her lawyer is considering a lawsuit, and "Inside Edition" visited Monday to shoot video of her with the offending pigskin in hand.

Jester, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, said all the attention is taking a toll.

"I'm not worried about the football," she said Tuesday. "I'm worried about my health."

Jester seems as amazed as everyone else that a simple neighborhood spat over kids tromping through a yard could get so out of hand, culminating last Thursday with her arrest by Blue Ash police after she refused to return the football or accept a written citation.

The dispute is, after all, so common in neighborhoods across the country that it's become an all-American cliché: The cantankerous neighbor versus the rowdy kids.

"This case cries out for Andy Griffith," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, whose office is not involved in the case. "Andy would say, 'Now you give them their ball back, and you stay out of her yard. And don't make me come back here.'"

But this isn't Mayberry. The animosity between Jester and the neighborhood kids continued to grow until finally boiling over last week.

"This isn't someone who is mean-spirited. She's just trying to enjoy her property, which is certainly her right," said Jennifer Kinsley, Jester's attorney. "She felt this was the only thing she could do to keep these people from going on her property."

Kinsley said Jester is in poor health and was bothered by frequent intrusions onto her property by neighborhood children.

Paul Tanis, whose son owns the football, said the incident was blown out of proportion and his son just wants the $15 football back.

If they can't work things out, both sides may have a legal case.

Under Ohio law, a football or any other item cannot be seized by a property owner just because it lands on his or her property.

"If your dog runs on to her yard, it doesn't become her dog," Deters said.

At the same time, the law also protects property owners by defining trespassers as those who "knowingly enter or remain on the premises of another."

Jester is due in court Nov. 12 to face petty theft charges.

She faces up to six months in jail, but police have said jail time or a fine is unlikely considering her age and lack of a criminal record.

Jester said she's tired and hopes the whole thing is over soon.

She did say, however, that she'd be willing to talk to Dr. Phil if she feels up to it.

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081022/NEWS01/810220412

At least there's somebody in the Cincinnati area that knows how to hold onto a football!

Jugomugo wrote:I'd just stab it, and give it back.

Markwes wrote:All parties involved here definitely have earned the "Just shut up!" award. You've got to be kidding.

BLUE ASH, Ohio — A prosecutor has dropped a charge of petty theft against an 89-year-old suburban Cincinnati woman accused of refusing to return a neighbor kid's football that landed in her yard.

Blue Ash Prosecutor Mark Arnzen said Wednesday that there was insufficient culpability to prosecute Edna Jester of Blue Ash, who was arrested last week.

Police say a child's father complained that Jester kept the football. Police Capt. James Schaffer says there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.

Since her arrest, Jester has handled a barrage of media calls and an invitation to appear on "Dr. Phil."

Jester says she might consider that, if she's feeling up to it.

The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Aggie Transplant wrote:it's not the Granny and the parents that need to shut up, it's the prosecutor actually filing on this sh!t.

BLUE ASH, Ohio — An 89-year-old Cincinnati area woman famously arrested for holding on to a neighbor kid's football is now suing the boy's parents.

The lawsuit filed by Edna Jester's attorney in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court claims she has suffered emotional distress because the next-door family's footballs and other playthings keep landing in her yard.

Jester refused to give back a football in October, was taken to the police station in suburban Blue Ash and charged with petty theft. The prosecutor later dropped the case.

The lawsuit against parents Paul and Kelly Tanis seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Kelly Tanis calls the suit "very silly" but says she and her husband also worry because they have five children and can't afford a lawyer.

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:This case just keeps getting crazier...Granny is now suing! (Big shocker)

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/gen/ap/OH_ODD_Football_Charge.html

BLUE ASH, Ohio — An 89-year-old Cincinnati area woman famously arrested for holding on to a neighbor kid's football is now suing the boy's parents.

The lawsuit filed by Edna Jester's attorney in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court claims she has suffered emotional distress because the next-door family's footballs and other playthings keep landing in her yard.

Jester refused to give back a football in October, was taken to the police station in suburban Blue Ash and charged with petty theft. The prosecutor later dropped the case.

The lawsuit against parents Paul and Kelly Tanis seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Kelly Tanis calls the suit "very silly" but says she and her husband also worry because they have five children and can't afford a lawyer.