Peabody firefighter charged with harassment

PEABODY – An ongoing feud between a Peabody firefighter and several of his neighbors has landed the 60-year-old jake in hot water this week after police placed him under arrest for what neighbors allege has been months of violent and threatening harassment.Peabody police arrested Ernest Perrone of 14 Elmwood Circle on a warrant Monday, charging the city resident with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of criminal harassment and two counts of threatening to commit a crime stemming from multiple incidents involving the firefighter and his neighbors.Perrone pleaded innocent to all charges Tuesday and was released on $2,500 bail.According to police and court documents, the incident began last summer when children in the neighborhood accidentally sprayed Perrone’s truck with a sprinkler, prompting an angry response that included threats to “blow their (expletive) heads off” if they did not clean and dry the vehicle.Neighbors also allege that following that incident, Perrone began taking pictures of the children playing in the yard and told parents they could find those pictures on child pornography Web sites when they questioned him about his intent.Peabody Police Captain Dennis Bonaiuto clarified Thursday that the pictures were not actually placed on any pornography sites and classified the comment as an idle threat and said Perrone is not being investigated for porn charges.”This appears to be an ongoing problem with harassment with the neighbors, someone apparently started a rumor that there was some child porn, but that is not the case,” said Bonaiuto. “He apparently took some pictures of the kids that were supposedly doing him wrong and told the parents they could find them on porn sites, but it sounds like he was just doing that to agitate them.”The harassment continued, according to police, for nearly a year with Perrone insulting two gay neighbors because of their sexual orientation and making sexually explicit gestures to women and children in the neighborhood, but the incident came to a head in April when the firefighter allegedly began threatening children with a chainsaw.According to police, neighbors called to report that Perrone had threatened children with a chainsaw on April 11, alleging that he raised the saw over his head and threatened to “cut” neighbors.Bonaiuto said this report was the end of the line for police, who obtained a warrant for his arrest shortly after.”I want to make it clear that he did not go after anyone with a chainsaw,” said Bonaiuto. “Apparently he was pacing back and forth with the saw trying to get their attention and when he did he was raising it up over his head and making threats of some kind.”Calls placed to Peabody Fire Chief Steven Pasdon were not returned Thursday.