LEBANON — A Turtlecreek Township man accused of beating up his neighbor in a brawl over a property line was sentenced Monday to 60 days in the county jail.

        Judge P. Daniel Fedders also placed John Webb on probation for three years, ordered him to quit drinking and to stay away from the Little family next door on Utica Road. Mr. Webb could have been sent to prison for up to 18 months.

        “As we go through life, all of us run into incidents where we are provoked,” Judge Fedders admonished Mr. Webb before Warren County deputies handcuffed and escorted the 56-year-old retired factory worker to jail.

        “One way you can't handle it is to resort to physical violence ... to beat somebody up.”

        During trial last month, both Mr. Webb and 71-year-old Jerry Little claimed the other threw the first punch on Sept. 6. They also blamed each other for long-running harassment over the property line.

        A jury acquitted Mr. Webb of felonious assault, but found him guilty of a less serious charge of aggravated assault because they thought Mr. Little had provoked the fight.

        Mr. Little, who received six stitches and a large contusion to his head, claimed that Mr. Webb called him names, then beat him when he stopped at the foot of his driveway to collect his mail.

        Mr. Webb, who was drinking beer and cutting his 5-acre lot on a riding mower at the time, said he fought back when Mr. Little accused him of blowing lawn clippings on his property, challenged him to a fight, then struck him in the side of the face, breaking his glasses.

        Sheriff's deputies also charged Mr. Webb with drunken driving on his lawn mower that day. Lebanon Municipal Judge Mark Bogen dismissed the misdemeanor charge last week because Mr. Webb had been convicted of the felony.

        “I'm sorry it happened,” Mr. Webb told Judge Fedders in a brief statement Monday.

        Mr. Little declined an op portunity to speak at the hearing. Instead, he handed the judge a letter asking for “some meaningful jail time” for Mr. Webb.

        “We think Mr. Webb needs to understand that he cannot settle disagreements by beating on elderly senior citizens,” Mr. Little wrote.

        In a note to Judge Fedders, Mr. Webb's wife, Kaye, offered a solution — that the judge order both families not to speak or have any contact.

        “We love our home and enjoy living in Lebanon; our very last solution to this would be having to move,” Mrs. Webb said.

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