JOSHUA OSDEN
WESTFIELD – A defiant Crown Street resident who told a police officer that he’d love to take his issue to court got his wish Thursday afternoon when police responded to his home for a fifth noise complaint and arrested him.
Officer Sean Smith had responded to 10 Crown St., the home of Joshua Osden, 35, for a 9:33 p.m. noise complaint July 24 and reported he heard loud music when he was still on Notre Dame Street, more than 100 yards from the multi-apartment house.
Smith saw that stereo speakers had been set up in a window of the house and Osden was seen on the porch but went inside when he saw the police cruiser. Smith said that he though the music would stop but it continued and Osden did not return to the porch until he knocked and did not turn off the music until Smith directly told him to.
The officer reports that the man insisted that the city’s noise ordinance does not take effect until 10 p.m. so he could play his music as loudly as he wanted until then.
Mushrooms poke through the grass on the tree belt across from 10 Crown Street, the site of repeated recent noise complaints. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Smith, who reports that Osden appears to be feuding with his neighbors and using the music to annoy them, advised him that the disturbing the peace statute is always in effect and issued a criminal complaint.
On Wednesday, Officer Efrain Luna responded to another noise complaint from the house and stereo speakers were again found set up in a front window. When Luna told Osden to turn off the music Osden replied “No.”
When Luna asked Osden for identification and again asked him to turn the music down he went inside to get his license but did not change the blaring music before he returned to the porch.
He did not turn off the music until Luna called for another officer and implied he would be arrested.
“I have the right to play my music as loud as I want,” Osden told Luna. “There is a state ordinance that allows me to play it until 3 a.m.”
Luna reports that when he told Osdent that the noise level was unacceptable the man replied, “I don’t care. I will turn it up as soon as you leave.”
Told that he was at risk of arrest, Osden replied that he is knowledgeable about the issue because his uncle is a lawyer and he would love to take it to court.
Osden was already in line to be summoned to court to answer the criminal complaint filed in the previous incident but his options became more immediate the next day when he was arrested for again disturbing the peace of his densely populated neighborhood with blaring music.
Officers Kyle Racicot and Seth Florek responded Thursday to a 4:35 p.m. noise complaint and again found speakers in a front window and Osden on the porch.
The man told the officers that he didn’t want to turn down his music because he thought it sounded fine.
He was arrested for disturbing the peace and arraigned before Judge Philip A. Contant in Westfield District Court Friday.
Osden was released on his personal recognizance pending a Sept. 23 hearing.
