Journal-News.com

FAIRFIELD — If Marvin Pickrum insists on keeping his dog, then some residents say he needs to leave Deer Run Condominiums.

"We have rules we voluntarily submit ourselves to because those are the rules and the bylaws of the organization we're a part of. Anybody who chooses to live in a condo, in a condo association, are bound by those rules and bylaws," said Paul Schaney.

The Deer Run Condo Association filed suit June 26 against Helen Pickrum to have her son Marvin's dog — Jazzman — removed from the condo because it violates the association's 35-pound weight limit and fought with a Schnauzer in late April or early May.

But the Pickrum's next door neighbor, Walter Seward, believes the condo association should make an exception.

Marvin Pickrum, 39, worked in New York City for SMW Trading, a company focused on commodities option trading, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. He said he was able to escape from the center's first tower, and help others escape, just minutes before it collapsed. A counselor recommended Pickrum get a dog "to have something to look forward to" when he got home. That is when he got Jazzman.

He moved into his mother's condominium in March.

Helen Pickrum said the condo association denied the Pickrums when they asked the board to increase the weight allowance for dogs, or to make an exception for Jazzman, a nearly 60-pound German shepherd.

Seward said the schnauzer Jazzman fought "is more of a nuisance than any dog around here. It barks and growls and tries to lunge at you, even if you're an adult."

The schnauzer belongs to Carole and Thomas Arend, who deferred all comments to the Deer Run Condo Association attorney Rex Wolfgang.

"The dog was injured to the extent it needed surgery," said Wolfgang, adding it also received multiple stitches. He said he believed the injuries to the dog were not life-threatening.

The Pickrums have 28 days from June 26 to respond to the civil suit filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court. Helen Pickrum said Tuesday she has not read over the suit but anticipates she and her son will respond. Marvin Pickrum, who plans to take his Ohio Bar exam in February, has said he intended to represent himself.

Schaney said it is "absurd" for people to "think they can violate the governing principles because they are bigger than the organization."

"They choose to live there. They don't have to live there," he said.

Helen Pickrum, who had sat on the condo association board for 17 years until November, said a neighbor once had two dogs both 100-plus pounds, and alleges the board knew about it but did nothing.

Board member Christel Sainsbury last week said one of the dogs was removed, but owner Lucy Davidson said she had kept the large dogs until they died two years ago.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.