Evans’ Parents Lose Suit Over Band Practices

The band can play on--for now.

A judge this week ruled against Olympic swimming champion Janet Evans’ parents, who were seeking to stop the El Dorado High marching band from practicing early in the morning on a field adjacent to their home.

Paul and Barbara Evans say they generally support the school, their famous daughter’s alma mater.

But they found themselves in the thick of an increasingly testy dispute--they have received nasty phone messages--over the band’s 7 a.m. practices just yards from their backyard.

Although they have lived next to the school for 24 years, the couple said the band’s drum corps rehearsals in preparation for fall football games have grown unbearably loud in the past year, rattling their nerves and forcing them to check into a hotel on occasion.

The couple sued the city last month, contending it has failed to enforce its noise ordinance, which prohibits outdoor levels from exceeding 50 decibels. The Evanses contend the drumming was measured at 85 decibels from inside their home.

But last year the city had adopted an exemption in the ordinance that allowed the band to exceed the 50-decibel minimum and practice at 7 a.m., instead of its usual 8:45 a.m. Orange County Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein on Thursday upheld the ordinance and the band’s exemption.

“I’m just happy that next year we’ll be able to practice in the morning and get our practice done,” Mandy Kershaw, 15, a percussionist in the band, said after hearing about the ruling.

“At least this part of it is over with,” said parent Lindsay Thompson, who has two children in the band and played in it himself in the early 1970s. “Our hope is that this would put the issue to rest and we can get beyond all this and not have it be a burden on the city, the school and the band.”

Said City Atty. Carol B. Tanenbaum: “I feel the decision was the correct one. The dispute here really is between the Evanses and the school district.”

Paul Evans referred comment to the couple’s attorney, William B. Hanley, who said Friday he had not yet seen the judge’s decision but would appeal any ruling against his clients.

Even without an appeal, the Evanses’ legal fight is not over.

Still pending is a lawsuit filed last month against the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, the high school, the band’s booster club and the band’s conductor.

“This is really just round one as far as I’m concerned,” Hanley said.

School district officials have said they had tried to settle the dispute with the Evanses and said the band has no other option but to practice on the football field. The Evanses would like to see practices take place on a lower field away from their home.

The battle between the Evanses and the band has grown increasingly bitter. At one point this fall, Barbara Evans blasted her stereo system during practice in an effort to disrupt the band.

The Evanses said that after their lawsuits were made public, they received several insulting telephone calls. They also accuse some members of the band’s booster club of encouraging people not to patronize Paul Evans’ Placentia veterinary clinic.

Janet Evans graduated from El Dorado High School in 1989 and no longer lives at home. The swimmer is the winner of four Olympic gold medals and was one of the first inductees into the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District’s Hall of Fame in 1993.