Waterford — Police said they seized a heavy-duty stun gun from the attic of a Hamast Avenue home last week and arrested two people after a neighborhood woman complained a man chased her with a Taser while she walked two dogs on the street on Aug. 30.

Douglas M. Greene, 19, of 6 Hamast Ave. was charged with breach of peace, threatening and carrying a dangerous weapon. Thomas Dyment, 36, of 6 Hamast Ave. was charged with interfering with an officer. They both are due Monday in New London Superior Court.

The police returned to the small neighborhood near the former Poor Richard's restaurant on Boston Post Road the following night, Aug. 31. According to an incident report, Jennifer Dyment, 35, mother of Greene and wife of Dyment, called to say the alleged victim of the stun gun incident, 24-year-old Morganne McCarthy of 45 Boston Post Road, had returned with her dogs and was yelling threats at them.

Jennifer Dyment claims McCarthy is friends with others in the neighborhood who have problems with people on Hamast Avenue. She said McCarthy has been walking along the street taking pictures of houses and cars and looking into windows. McCarthy denies the allegation adamantly and said she works long hours and hardly knows anyone in the neighborhood.

Police said in a report that they discussed with McCarthy "alternative routes for walking the dogs in an effort to calm tensions in the neighborhood" and talked with Jennifer Dyment about changing some of her habits, such as when she goes outside to smoke, to avoid a direct confrontation with McCarthy.

The next day, Sept. 1, McCarthy filed a civilian complaint against police Sgt. Marc Balestracci, writing that she felt threatened and harassed by the sergeant when he came into her yard and told her he would have her arrested if she walked her dogs in the neighborhood again.

"I now not only feel threatened by my neighbors, but also by a police officer who was supposed to protect me," McCarthy wrote in the complaint.

Police Chief Brett Mahoney said in a phone interview Thursday that he sent McCarthy a certified letter Thursday confirming the department received the complaint. Mahoney said he assigned a lieutenant to investigate and that he would review the findings and render a judgment. The chief estimated the process would take about a month.

Jennifer Dyment, a mother of four, said during an interview at her home Thursday that she, too, was upset with the police because they "bullied" her son into admitting there was a Taser in the attic of her home and accused her husband of hiding the weapon.

She said Douglas Greene had come into the house asking for the Taser after McCarthy let her dog loose during an argument. Jennifer Dyment said she handed her son her smartphone, which has an application that simulates a Taser, to scare off McCarthy. She said McCarthy's Labrador retriever jumped on her 15-year-old son and scratched his arm during the incident but the police "ignored" her complaint about the injury.

During the interview, Dyment picked up her phone, which has a pink cover, and showed several photos and videos she had collected during the neighborhood dispute. She activated the stun gun app, which made cracking noises and sent out simulated stun gun sparks.

McCarthy said she saw a Taser's sparks and heard cracking sounds as she fled from Greene.

An arrest report in Greene's case says Balestracci viewed a neighbor's video of the incident that showed "a male running and yelling at (McCarthy) and the clicking of a Taser could be heard in the video." Greene denied having a Taser, but after several minutes "ultimately stated he did have a Taser during the confrontation and said it was inside the house."

Police said they went into the house, where Thomas Dyment told them he had hidden the stun gun in a remote part of the attic. He retrieved it and turned it over to officers and was "taken into custody for his involvement of hiding the Taser inside the residence," according to the report.

Dyment said she had purchased the stun gun after the family was threatened by some people from New London and eventually asked her husband to hide it out of the children's reach. As the police continued to press her son to turn over a stun gun that night, she said she told her husband to retrieve the one in the attic just to "end it all." Though police listed Greene's address as the family home on Hamast Avenue, he actually lives in Groton, Dyment said.

"It was all uncalled for," she said.

McCarthy, who lives around the corner, said she has been walking her small dog on Hamast Avenue for years. Her older brother also lives in the neighborhood and recently began paying her to walk his bigger dogs, a Great Dane and Labrador retriever, she said.

A hair stylist at Utopia Salon, McCarthy said that on Aug. 29, she received a voice message at work from a woman who said McCarthy had been taking pictures of people's cars and homes on Hamast Avenue and that the police had been contacted.

"I know where you live," said the caller, who had blocked her identity, according to McCarthy. "I know where you work. I need you to stop doing what you're doing."

During the Aug. 30 incident, she said the Labrador had slipped out of its collar and she was trying to retrieve him when Greene got the Taser and started chasing her. She said she begged onlookers to hold Greene back, ran home crying and called police.

McCarthy said in the days that followed, several other people who had never visited Utopia left negative reviews about her online.

Jennifer Dyment admitted Thursday that she had left a bad review on the site with a one-star rating, but later deleted the comment and left just the one star. She said she never knew McCarthy, but figured out who she was after seeing her photograph. Dyment said she is "like the FBI" and can find out anything when it comes to her family.

McCarthy said she has spoken to court-based victim advocates about the incident and will be seeking protective orders prohibiting the Dyments and Greene from having any contact with her. She said she would like to see Greene get services, such as counseling and anger management. She said she would rather see him become a good person than get into trouble.

Meanwhile, McCarthy said, she hasn't been walking the dogs in the neighborhood anymore.

k.florin@theday.com