“I think it’s too light for what he has done to people,” said James Rockcliffe. “To me, he should have served jail time.”

Rockcliffe said Makuch’s harassment became so bad, he and his family were forced to move out of state.

“We kept saying it couldn’t get any worse,” Rockcliffe said during his session with the judge. But it did. “For our own health and sanity we had to leave. No one should be allowed to run roughshod like that.”

Rockcliffe said Makuch “chased people out [of the neighborhood] before us.”

“He went at my son-in-law and my grandson head on,” said Edward Holewiak, who moved to the neighborhood in 1992, four years before Makuch.

He apparently enjoyed terrorizing neighbors with vehicular close calls.

“He’s cut me off [on the road]. He thinks it’s fun,” Maria Holewiak told the judge, saying he had followed her several times. “This is years of abuse.”

“It’s not just my family, it’s my whole neighborhood,” she said. “He’s like a time bomb. You don’t know when he’s going to go off. He does not respect anyone.”

The four criminal harassment complaints to which Makuch pled guilty are based on 41 separate reports from the neighborhood extending from July 23, 1998 to Aug. 3, 2005.

In a few, Makuch complains about his neighbors, such as an instance where he called police and alleged that some neighborhood children had stuck their tongues out at him.

But all of the rest are against him. The complaints range from someone saying Makuch stared out his window at them and used an obscene gesture, to vowing to kill a neighbor’s dog for barking.

For example, according to a June 13, 2000, complaint from the neighbor and his 22-year-old son, the son was washing his car and saw Makuch drive by. Makuch stopped, backed up, and reportedly demanded to know, “What the [expletive] are you looking at?” The son said he wasn’t looking at him, to which Makuch reportedly responded, “Why don’t you [expletive] Portuguese go back to your own country.”

That report from Officer William Tedford says he approached Makuch, who claimed it was a minor argument about nothing. Makuch reportedly added, “I hope those two know that I could wipe the street with both of them.”

And it’s not just neighbors. Court files include a few complaints against Makuch — such as two road rage incidents — that don’t even involve neighbors.

Most of the remaining charges stem from incidents beginning June 1, 2005.

On that date, police were called to his house because he was blasting music. The cops told him to turn it down. He did. He turned it right back up moments after the police left. They arrested him on two counts of disturbing the peace.

The next day, he decided to mow his lawn — after dark. Neighbors complained about the noise. One said he did it while shouting obscenities at him. When police arrived at 9:49 p.m., his lawnmower was off, but still warm. He was cited again for disturbing the peace.

Two weeks later, he was arrested on the same charge again because of loud music and revving his motorcycle.

Seven weeks after that, he was arrested for using a trailer to block in the cars of people visiting neighbors. He began shouting obscenities when police arrived. He received scored another disturbing the peace charge and a disorderly conduct charge.

The following December, he brought his truck around and arranged a near-collision with the vehicle of one of the neighbors who had complained about him. That produced the assault with a dangerous weapon charge and one witness intimidation charge.

For a while, Makuch was asking for a jury trial. While that request was pending, a judge ordered him to keep away from Lake Street. He resided in Westerly for a while, according to court records, and subsequently moved to Hanley Road, an isolated street close to Route 195.

Then, on April 28 of this year, with his trial just nine days away, the Holewiaks complained that Makuch had driven by their auto dealership on GAR Highway and made an obscene gesture toward them. The couple said it wasn’t the first time.

Makuch got pegged with two felony counts of witness intimidation.

The probation means that Makuch will have to stay out of trouble until Dec. 28, 2009.