Trial Continues for Woman Accused of Walking Dog Half Naked

PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE – The upstairs neighbor of Susan Bell testified she was more than a little shocked when she looked out her window in February to allegedly see Bell walking her dog while naked from the waist down.

“She had on a pair of slippers, a gray T-shirt and nothing else,” said the victim.

Bell, 42, of 76 Manor Drive Apt. B in Portsmouth appeared in Portsmouth District Court on Tuesday for a trial on two Class A misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure/lewdness and harassment.

Police allege Bell exposed herself in public at 6:50 a.m. on Feb. 28 when she was spotted walking her dog around a common area of a Portsmouth Public Housing complex wearing nothing but a normal-length T-shirt.

Bell is also charged with harassment for allegedly repeatedly verbally abusing her upstairs neighbor by shouting derogatory comments at her between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3.

Bell’s upstairs neighbor testified on Tuesday that she was offended when she looked outside to find her neighbor half-naked and repeatedly bending over to cover up her dog’s waste on a lawn at the Manor Drive apartment complex.

The neighbor testified Bell had a T-shirt on and appeared to be trying to pull it down to cover herself, but noted the defendant remained exposed from the waist down.

The same neighbor is also the alleged victim in the harassment complaint.

The victim testified she and Bell didn’t have a good relationship from the start when Bell moved into the complex in the summer of 2008.

The neighbor cried on Tuesday when she told Judge Sawako Gardner that she repeatedly felt “degraded” when Bell would allegedly shout expletives and racial slurs at her.

The neighbor taped Bell’s alleged rants on more than on occasion which could be heard through the floor of her apartment.

She played one such tape during Tuesday’s proceedings.

The neighbor testified that she tried for months to get police and the housing authority to do something about Bell’s alleged behavior.

She provided documentation that she appeared before a housing authority board for a grievance hearing and didn’t make headway with the police until a particular officer responded to her apartment in February.

Bob Watkins, the attorney representing Bell, suggested the complaints are the result of a long-standing feud between the neighbors.

In cross examination he questioned the neighbor about why she waited so long to file complaints and asked her how she knows Bell’s comments — heard through the floor — were directed toward her.

Watkins asked the alleged victim how she can be sure Bell wasn’t speaking to someone else in her apartment or to someone on the phone.

The neighbor testified she was sure the comments were directed toward her.

Portsmouth Prosecutor Karl Durand asked Judge Gardner if he could amend the harassment complaint so that it could reflect a pattern of harassment between September 29 and Oct. 3, but the judge denied the request noting the complaint should have been amended earlier and not at the trial.

The complaint currently only lists the harassment as having taken place on Sept. 29.

Judge Gardner adjourned Tuesday’s trial to allow for the completion of an afternoon docket and said it would need to be continued to another date so it might be completed.

Watkins indicated his client may take the stand when the trial resumes.

Courtesy Fosters.com