Bill Gross’s Southern California neighbor says the billionaire should be jailed for five days for violating a judge’s order not to play loud music because it’s the only way he’ll get the message that he must abide by it.
“Financial sanctions won’t have any effect on Mr. Gross’s behavior,” Chase Scolnick, a lawyer representing tech entrepreneur Mark Towfiq, told an Orange County judge Friday at the end of Gross’s contempt trial. “Five days will force him to take it seriously.”
After hearing from Gross’s lawyer Patricia Glaser, who argued Towfiq failed to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt, Judge Kimberly Knill had just one question.
“If I find your client in contempt, what’s your recommended sentence?” Knill asked Glaser.
Glaser suggested a fine, or community service.
“No matter how rich or poor people are, no one likes to pay monetary sanctions,” she said.
Knill said she’d issue a ruling Oct. 1.
The trial is the latest turn in a yearlong dispute between the two neighbors that blew up when Gross put a netting over a piece of art in his yard. Towfiq complained to the city and Gross and his wife, Amy, responded by playing music loudly, often replaying themes to old TV shows, including “Gilligan’s Island.”
In December, Knill ordered Gross to stop playing loud music in his yard when he or his wife weren’t outdoors themselves, and to keep at least five yards away from Towfiq and his wife. The judge set the restraining order to be in place for three years.
Towfiq claims Gross violated that order in July when he again played loud music, had pointed high-power speakers at Towfiq’s home and earlier installed a 15-foot umbrella to impede his neighbor’s view.
Scolnick replayed for the judge videos from Towfiq and police officers who responded to the scene in which music from the Grosses’ yard could be heard at Towfiq’s home, as well as video from Amy Gross’s phone in which she yells loudly “I am outside” while taking a selfie in her pool.