Ex-Pleasantville school employee threatened man with knife and gun, charges claim

A former Pleasantville school employee is accused of threatening a neighbor with a knife and a gun last week.

Douglas Harmon, 50, was jailed Aug. 8, on charges including terroristic threats, unlawful possession of a handgun and aggravated assault.

The former aquatic instructor for the school district allegedly threatened to cut his neighbor’s throat during an argument. He then said he was going to get his gun, according to the charges.

While a gun was later recovered inside the home, there is a disagreement on whether Harmon ever possessed it.

The small handgun — along with a revolver — are legally registered to Harmon’s 88-year-old father, a disabled veteran he cares for, defense attorney John Bjorklund told the judge.

The state left out “some critical facts in this case,” he said.

The prosecution alleges Harmon went back inside the home and came back with a small black handgun. But Bjorklund said his client never had a gun. Instead, he claimed Harmon was scared that the neighbor had a gun and he had taken out his wallet, which is what he was holding.

“There’s an ongoing problem in this neighborhood between the defendant and a number of Hispanic people, and it’s been going on for more than three or four years now,” the attorney said, as Harmon nodded his head.

Harmon told the man to stop using his internet, since “some of his neighbors have apparently been pirating some of his wifi and things of that nature,” Bjorklund said.

But the problems go beyond that, according to other neighbors.

One woman, who had issues with Harmon before, said she looked out her window she saw him say, “I’m going to shoot you,” and gesture toward the victim.

Harmon admitted to police that he had a penknife, which was on him when officers arrived. He also led police to his father's gun when the searched the home, Bjorklund said.

Harmon, who was honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard, already has a case going through veterans’ diversion. 

But that he has no prior convictions, even as a juvenile, moved Judge Donna Taylor to go against the public safety assessment’s recommendation that he be detained.

    Douglas Harmon reacts after the judge consented to his release.
 L C   

She released Harmon under the highest conditions, including weekly check-ins, with every other week in-person.

Harmon worked for the school district for years, until quitting to take care of his father, Augustus Harmon, who previously served several terms on City Council, including becoming the city’s first black councilman in the 1970s.