By Alex Robinson
The publisher of a Howard Beach-based weekly newspaper was arrested last week after a roaring dispute with a neighbor, the Queens DA’s office said.
Police booked Patricia Adams, of the Forum Newspaper, on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest last Friday, after responding to a disturbance outside the publisher’s house, according to the criminal complaint filed by the DA.
Adams had been engaged in an argument with her neighbor about garbage cans, which had been placed in her driveway, according to a law enforcement source.
When police arrived, Adams became irate and started to scream at the responding officers, causing a small crowd to gather in the neighborhood, the complaint said.
“Do you know who the f— I am? I run the Forum,” she allegedly yelled at police, according to the complaint. “I’m going to have your job. F— you.”
She then flailed her arms as police were trying to place her in handcuffs, the complaint said.
Adams could not be reached for comment.
The blowup was the culmination of a longstanding feud between the publisher and her neighbor, whose properties sit closely together without a fence between them, according to a source familiar with the battle between the two.
The quarrel first started when Adams accidently backed her car out of her driveway and grazed her neighbors grass, the source said.
Since then, both parties have become increasingly petty over their property lines and the police had been called several times, often by Adams, to settle squabbles between the two, the source said.
Adams owns the Forum South, which covers Southern Queens and the Rockaway Beat.
The publisher helped start the Rockaway Times in the early summer, but has since parted ways with the newspaper and started the Rockaway Beat – a rival publication on the peninsula.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
