HUBBARD, Ohio - A couple who gained notoriety by claiming people were honking car horns outside their Hubbard home have lost a two-year court battle that was originally directed against city and county officials.

U.S. District Court Judge Benita Person on Wednesday ruled in favor of the Eagle Joint Fire District which had asked for the dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit filed by Garrick and Lucinda Krlich in early 2017.

The fire district was the last of the defendants in the lawsuit alleging at the time that the Krilch's were targets of what the pair described as a nine-year campaign of tyranny, intimidation, terrorism, and retaliation.

The couple initially claimed that Trumbull County, the city of Hubbard, its police chief James Taafe, and the Eagle Joint Fire District, which offers fire protection to the city, did nothing to stop the alleged harassment.

The county, the city, and police chief were terminated as defendants from the case in September, leaving the fire district as the sole defendant.

The lawsuit, which sought more than $75,000 in damages, alleged that the couple's constitutional right to equal protection under the law had been violated.

Long before the lawsuit was filed, the couple made news headlines over complaints that people had been driving by their home at the corner of East Liberty and Creed Streets, honking their car horns, screeching tires, and revving their engines to harass them.

Krlich said he believed he was being targeted because in 2007 he refused to withdraw an auction bid on some property that had been owned by the aunt of then Hubbard Fire Chief John Clemente.

Following Krlich's refusal to withdraw his bid for the property, Krlich claims members of the Clemente family, friends, and coworkers, began the alleged horn honking campaign.

The couple installed video and audio recording equipment to record the alleged horn-blowing incidents.

Krlich alleged in the suit that those blowing their car horns over the years included the Hubbard police chief's son and brother, city of Hubbard councilmen, members of the Hubbard Police Department, city of Hubbard firemen, firemen from surrounding municipalities, a Hubbard zoning township official, Trumbull County school buses, Hubbard Local School District buses, and the son and sister of a Girard municipal court judge.

In the lawsuit, Krlich said there had been several hundred of these incidents happening at all hours of the day and night, and he reported them to Hubbard police.

He said the department failed and refused to accept many of his reports.

On at least one occasion, alleges Krlich, Trumbull's 9-1-1 Center refused to take his call, telling him to contact the Police Department and then hanging up on him.

The lawsuit alleged that the Hubbard Police Department and Trumbull 9-1-1 Center began requiring him to follow a specific "protocol" before contacting the police.

Krlich contended that neither the Hubbard Police Department nor Trumbull 911 required other callers to follow that protocol, saying the situation violates his constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

In 2011, four alleged horn blowers were hauled into court for violating a protection order that Krlich had obtained at the time.

A year later, Krlich took matters into his own hands by creating a website and renting two billboards to publicize his complaints.

After two years of legal wrangling, Judge Pearson sided with the fire district's request to dismiss the lawsuit.

In Wednesday's ruling, Judge Pearson stated that the Krlich's failed to put forth any viable claim against the fire district and failed to show that their constitutional rights were violated because they were not permitted quiet enjoyment of their property.

Judge Pearson's opinion may be read here