By John Tozzi
Otto Mittler was walking his dog Max Feb. 15 around 5 p.m. when the dog relieved himself on a neighbor's flowers on the 47th Avenue block of 210th Street in Bayside, according to police. The neighbor, Joseph Marsala, also in his 80s, became enraged and turned a garden hose on the dog and Mittler, his son Mark Mittler said.The two got in a fight and Mittler, who had been in good health, according to his son, was shoved to the ground. Although police said he had no visible injury at the time, Mittler was taken by ambulance to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where he was found to have a broken hip. He had surgery for the injury last Thursday and Friday he died, his son said.Police took a report for harassment at the time of the incident, and it was upgraded to assault when police found out about his broken hip. As of Monday, police were waiting on a report from the medical examiner and a decision by the Queens district attorney's office on what charges, if any, to bring against Marsala. It was unclear whether Mittler's death was related to the dispute.The man who answered the phone at Marsala's home declined to speak to a reporter Monday.Mark Mittler said his father did not know Marsala and never had any trouble before.”They never saw each other and they never said a word to each other,” he said. “I think the guy had a fixation about dogs peeing on his bush, and it just so happened that this particular day my father got the worst of it.”Mittler, 84, was born in Poland and survived six years in a Soviet camp in Siberia during World War II, his son said. In 1957, the family moved to Israel and then to Bayside in 1960. Mittler, who had lived in the same house on 210th Street for 35 years, remained in good health and exercised daily, his son said. He still went each day to the Nassau auto shop that he and his son owned together, his son said.”He walked the dog every morning and every night for almost an hour,” Mark Mittler said.Mittler's son said he suspected many dogs had urinated on Marsala's flowers before, and he did not know why this particular time a dispute broke out.”My father was the one, the lucky guy,” he said.In an account given to the Daily News before he learned of Mittler's death, Marsala said the dog frequently urinated on his azaleas. He said Mittler charged him after he turned the hose on the dog.”He gave me a shot to the jaw and I shoved him,” Marsala told the paper. “He went down.”Mark Mittler said the fight was uncharacteristic of his father.”He wasn't a spiteful man,” he said. “I think he treated everybody as fairly as possible.””What can I say?” the son added. “He was my father. I loved the hell out of him.”Reach reporter John Tozzi by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300 Ext. 188.
