Man who was jailed for brown lawn is free, lawn work done by good samaritans.

[madfloridian]

A man in Florida was jailed on Friday without bail for having a lawn with brown spots. He did not have the money to pay his mortgage much less worry about the lawn. But of course there are those homeowner association rules which are kin to God's rules in not being broken.

His lawn before the jailing.



Joseph Prudente was jailed for his brown lawn, shown on Friday, in Beacon Woods. Prudente came home from jail Sunday to a freshly landscaped lawn, courtesy of friends and neighbors.

Man jailed for brown lawn gets help from neighbors

BAYONET POINT — Andy Law was eating breakfast with his girlfriend, Mary Dinan, at their Hudson home Saturday morning when she pushed the newspaper at him.

"Read this," she said. It was a story in the St. Petersburg Times about a 66-year-old grandfather, Joseph Prudente, who was jailed without bail on Friday because his lawn was brown. For nearly a year, he ignored letters from his Beacon Woods homeowners' association and a court order because, he said, he barely had the money to pay his mortgage. He was trying to keep his house and didn't care about the lawn.

"This is not right," Law said. He was livid. Law's own handyman business had slowed to nothing, and both he and Dinan lost money when they sold their houses to buy this, their dream home on 5 acres, which they likely will lose. Both are considering bankruptcy.

More on those who came to help.

The knock was insistent.....It was Law, who found their address in an old phone book. He told her they were going to get her husband home and started calling everyone he knew to come help.

He got a guy to let him borrow a machine to remove the old grass. Two companies donated sod. Soon, the yard was full of people. Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano also read the story, found the house, canceled a speech and went to work.

CHRIS PRICE Special to the Times Free from jail, Joseph Prudente, 66, inspects his new lawn with pride Sunday. Prudente, who says he barely has enough to pay the mortgage, was jailed for having a brown lawn.

Joseph Prudente had a court hearing Sunday morning, arranged by Mariano, Pasco Sheriff Bob White and others. After hearing testimony from a Beacon Woods Civic Association representative that the work had been done, Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray said Joseph Prudente could be released, though he still faces court and association fines.

[PVnRT]

1. Another reason I will never, ever live in an area with a neighborhood "agreement"

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Neighborhood Nazis. Jailing an old man (or anyone) for a brown lawn is criminal.

[dhpgetsit]

59. He should have been commended for saving water in a time of drought.

Keeping weeds down to prevent a fire hazard I can understand.

[codjh9]

36. No fucking shit! This country has gone completely insane, and the supreme irony is that the people

who yell the most about 'freedom' live in Nazi neighborhoods with a laundry list of things you can't DO!!! Hell, I would've been jailed all YEAR for my lawn (we're in a drought here in TX).

[Sequoia]

50. Things like this remind me of that X Files episode

where Fox and Muldar were posing as a couple in one of these homeowner places and the monster that lived underground who'd snatch people who didn't abide by the rules.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. The judge should make the homeowners association pay the court costs. Fuckers.

It's one thing if the homeowner is an obnoxious republican libertarian asswipe who refused to fix the lawn; quite another if it's an old guy with no money who can barely afford to keep his house in his own possession.

Fuckin' homeowner's association busy body jackbooted fuckwits.

[liberalhistorian]

38. No kidding. I was a real estate paralegal for several years

and I had the supreme misfortune of having to deal a lot with these fucking HOA's. And let me tell you, I saw and heard some really, really crazy laws, rules and regulations and had to deal with some really, really anal-retentive, over-the-top petty tyrants calling themselves HOA's. Seriously, you would NOT believe some of their shit. I have no trouble whatsoever believing in the truth of this. I remember one resident who was threatened with a court order for not having her Christmas wreath hung on her door correctly; she refused to "correct" it the way they wanted. I fucking kid you not. Hubby and I don't currently own a home, but you better believe we will NEVER EVER EVER EVER buy a home or condo that would be under the thumb of an HOA. EVER. And I would strongly advise against being under an HOA rule, period.

[MadrasT]

3. OMG that is insane.

Just freakin' nuts. We get slapped with a "cut your grass or pay a $1000 fine" notice if ours gets above 6 inches. But brown spots??? :wtf:

[roguevalley]

18. bless the people who helped for they show us all the way.

[MadMaddie]

4. They are in Florida

How much water are they using to keep these lawns green?

And arresting a man because his lawn is brown, does the police department not have anything else to do?

These associations are one of things I would like to disappear when the Repugs are crushed.

[whistle]

6. St Augustine grass requires thousands of gallons a month to keep green

...and both water and sewer rates are metered on a regressive use rate. Watering lawns could cost several hundred per month

[MadMaddie]

13. That's insane 700 dollars that could be used for like I don't know

basic needs! geeze...

[Ahpook]

33. In certain parts, no

When we lived in Ponce Inlet, THE fucking pig would drive around measuring grass. If it was over a certain length you would come home with a ticket hanging off your door. It was so fucking fun!

He would also look over privacy fences to see what was in the backyard. No doubt with intention of writing up some other bullshit charge.

And I don't even want to get started on Port Orange pigs:)

Anyone that has lived in Daytona knows exactly what i mean? :)

[petwlkr]

41. I here ya

This is a perfect example of why I don't live in Florida anymore. The part of this story that I find particularly disgusting is that the guy was jailed with NO BAIL!!!!!

[OldEurope]

7. The land of the free:

you can get imprisoned because your neighbours do not like your lawn?

:crazy:

[prayin4rain]

9. seriously what the hell?? they can take away your freedom for ANYTHING it seems like

the word "criminal" is starting to lose all meaning.

[madfloridian]

8. "he left for jail, clutching a grocery bag full of medicine,"

But he had to go to jail...he had a "brown lawn". :scared:

[ITsec]

10. "They hate us for our freedoms..." n/t

[LiberalAndProud]

11. This is such an inspriring story.

Until I read the last paragraph quoted above. There is something very wrong with that homeowners' association.

[Left Brain]

52. I wish I could say it was inspiring.

I mean, I understand what you're saying about those folks who so unselfishly donated their time and resources to help "fix" the man's yard. Bless them.

But the story made me sick to my stomach. It brought a level of anger and frustration to the surface that I thought -- hoped -- I had banished.

My family and I lived in a manufactured home for ten years. As a single parent with three young kids, I thought it would be our opportunity to live the "American Dream" of owning an affordable home. Our brand-new house was great -- four bedrooms, two full baths, a family room and plenty of living space for everyone. But the oppressive rules imposed by the land owners made life in our beautiful new home a living hell. The asshole land owners come to believe that they're rulers of their own little kingdoms, and that the people living in their so-called "parks" are nothing more than serfs; mere peons they can dictate and control.

Unless they've lived it, people find it impossible to imagine how oppressive life in a manufactured home community can be.

I shed tears for that man, because the tyrants who rule the kingdom he lives in care nothing about the negative press the imposition of their "laws" has cost them. Their concern, like corporate America, is their money, their power, and their control. The law is on their side, and they know it. You can bet your last dollar the the landowners are repukes with a capital "R," too.

Although we found our way out the nightmare three years ago, I still feel the frustrated rage of being oppressed when I read stories like this. The man now has a record of conviction because his lawn was brown. Absolutely sickening.

[earth mom]

12. This crap is what's wrong with America. Home of the free, my a$$.

:grr:

[malaise]

14. I'm so glad this planet still has decent people

Thank you Mary and Andy. :yourock:

[Vinca]

15. Next time he ought to call the guy who paints lawns with nontoxic dye.

I've never heard of anything so stupid as a person going to jail for a bad lawn. What, exactly, was the charge? Homeowner's fees would be a civil matter.

[madfloridian]

16. I would have thought it a civil matter also.

Jail time without bail seemed extreme.

[Leopolds Ghost]

17. Notice who ISN'T going to jail in this country and notice homeowners who crow about freedom the most

[bertman]

19. This looks like some kind of insane skit you would see on Saturday Night Live.

America--the greatest country in the world. Right?

What is scariest about this is that his neighbors would stand by while a fellow citizen was jailed for this type of idiocy. Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if Prudente is a Republican living in a Republican neighborhood. My folks used to live in one of those retirement communities near Tampa where everything was so neat and clean it looked surreal. Most of the folks who lived there were very nice, but they did not like for anything to be amiss in their world.

Is there any wonder that we Americans are losing all credibility with the rest of the world?

[ramapo]

20. Crazy shit

I have always taken great offense at gated communities and anyplace with a homeowner's association that imposes property rules upon residents. I would never, ever move into such a place. They are downright un-American. Bad enough the town gets after people for not keeping the landscape to their liking.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. I hate green lawns

and I dislike the American style of suburban living where every neighbor can see what you are doing at all times. I prefer the European style of having a 6 foot high wall around the house and with gravel in the front yard. Lush green lawns in the middle of a desert like the Los Angeles area make no sense and don't look natural.

[Retired AF Dem]

22. My wife owns a house in Waukegan Il

This is a "blue area" if you know what I mean. Has to have a parking permit to park in her own driveway. Will be fined if the garbage can is not put up within three hours, will be fined if the grass gets over three inches tall. Democrats, Repubicans, both suck the same.

[1monster]

23. "Hey man! Whacha in for?" "Brown spots on my lawn." "Whoa, Man! You BAD! You real BAD! I don

want no trouble, Man. No trouble at all..." bacing away nervously.

When Home Owners Associations can have people put in jail without bail for lawns that are not compliant with the Home Owners Association rules, We ARE living in the END TIMES. The END TIMES of our Democracy.

edit: typo

[lligrd]

35. So, Lying, Cheating, Stealing, Murder, Invading Sovereign Nations

are now okay but a brown lawn is worthy of jail time? What a country!

[madfloridian]

24. Home owners' group speaks out....they are getting hate mail. Video at link

The link is screwy, but it works. Hard to link to Bay News 9..don't know why.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/10/13/391562.html?title=HOA:++We're+not+'a+pack+of+Nazis'

"Prudente said he didn't do it because he had to pay his home mortgage, which was two months behind.

But when he didn't show up for a court date over the brown yard, a judge found him in contempt of court. Prudente had to report to jail and he did it wearing his "Grandpa Gone Wild shirt."

"The other residents (inmates), they didn't believe it when I says, 'Why you in here?', I says 'grass'," Prudente said. "They say, 'You mean' (gesture)? I said 'No, grass on the ground.'"


"Now, the HOA president is getting hate e-mail from across the world.

"We are not as we we're called in some of e-mail 'a pack of Nazis', we're not power hungry people," said HOA president Bob Ryan. "We are simply fellow homeowners of Mr. Prudente, I felt sorry for him."

But he says Prudente didn't follow the rules and the HOA was just following rules that apply with Florida statue's for homeowner associations."

The assn. is getting hate mail from around the world. :eyes:

[Fumesucker]

25. I vas chust followink ordersss..

Where have I heard that excuse before?

[madfloridian]

26. Direct link to the video. Worth watching.

http://www.baynews9.com/VideoPlayer/?Brown_Sod_Arrest_1013

[PVnRT]

56. Good. I hope the hate keeps pouring in.

[dsc]

27. are you all in a drought now?

We had a drought for months and brown laws were a sign of responsibility here.

[tom_paine]

28. A great ending to the story. That Old American Spirit still lives.

Just not in our elite, Ruling Class. (there are some 20 or 30 exceptions like Kucinich, Feingold, Ron Paul - however much we might disagree with him on the issuesetc.)

It a pity. In this story one can very much see the part of the nation (2/3rds of it) that does NOT deserve to live under Bushie Tyranny.

You know, I find myself cursing "99% of the Amerikan Subject Populace", but it's easy to forget that, as with the Nazis, only 1/3 are active Loyal Bushies.

This is a good reminder for me to remember what the real score "on-the-ground-is" and that is that our nation has been hijacked and that, even now, most Americans are good and decent people, just badly denied information, kept in the dark and fertilized with bullshit by the Bushie-Corporate M$M.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

29. This typical of the absurd stuff that happens in FL. n/t

[madfloridian]

30. Yes, it is.

:hi:

[rucognizant]

49. And NJ!

In 1993, my car motor died and I had to stay with friends there for several months ( I had to get a job there to pay for the new motor.)
A family of 5 with 4 very small bedrooms.........they used their camper trailor in the driveway as guest room. ( For her parents when they visited as well as for me) It was cozy digs, plugged into the house, water line to the sink........
BUT the HOA complained...........threatened a fine, so I wound up sleeping on the sofa in the den listening to the late night religous shows after my host fell asleep on the sofa watching Carson for another several months!~
Boy was I glad to be able to come home!

THOSE homeowners in FLa. should ALL be forced to grow wheat & corn as their Patriotic duty instead of wasting all that money and energy on green lawns!

[Elidor]

31. You'd better be a good citizen, neighbor!

Ve haff vays...to make you vater...your lawn.

Step out of line, the men come and take you away...

[ddeclue]

32. JAIL? The homeowner's association Nazi's have gone TOO FAR!

This sounds like an episode of Seinfeld in "del Boca Vista"...it's just WAY over the top.

You should be allowed to arrest someone for a bad lawn.

I'm passing this one onto two radio show producers in Florida that I know!


Doug D.

[salguine]

34. Sure would be a pity of someone put grass killer all over every other lawn in the neighborhood.

[Downtown Hound]

37. Getting jailed over a brown lawn is downright crazy

Getting jailed WITHOUT BAIL is absolutely loony tunes. This is the modern equivalent of debtor's prison. Put someone in prison for failure to have money, and then keep them locked up where they have no chance to pay it off. Our justice system keeps getting more and more primitive.

[liberalhistorian]

39. This reminds me of an old X-Files episode where

Mulder and Scully were investigating the disappearance of several families in a particular neighborhood. Their homes and everything they owned were intact, but they had simply disappeared. Mulder and Scully moved into one of the homes pretending to be new residents in order to fully investigate. It turned out that there was a "monster" hidden beneath the ground that would "take care of" any HOA member who didn't follow every single rule and regulation of the HOA to the very letter. They were given one warning, then "taken care of" after any further violations. And the HOA had pages and pages of rules and regulations that all had to be memorized.

I worked as a real estate paralegal several years later and found out just how close to the truth that episode really was in a lot of cases!!!

[sasquatch]

40. Another reason to not live in the South

[McCamy Taylor]

42. I will never ever live in Florida. Have lived in the South all my life. Tx, Ga, Ala.

Florida takes the cake when it comes to inhumanity, police brutality, official corruption and just plain mean spiritedness.

There is nothing good about the state of Florida, and if they pull any more election crap this time---even if it does not change the outcome of the election (i.e. if Obama wins anyway) I say launch a boycott of the state to force them to clean up their act. Florida depends upon tourism dollars and during the recession they will depend upon them even more. There will never be a better time to make them realize just how wrong it is to attempt to steal electoral votes three times in a row (assuming that is what they are up to which I firmly believe)

On a related note, I say we should organize boycotts of all states that have evidence of GOP election fraud. Make them hurt in their pocket books.

[1monster]

54. On the other hand... I live in a subdivision in Florida. Several years ago, the non-mandatory

home improvement association got together with our representative to the county commission and decided that they were going to lay down rules in county enforced ordinances regarding what kind of vehicles and where they could be parked and how high our lawns could be.

They decided that no trucks of any kind could be parked in front of our houses and that no grass in the lawns could be twelve inches or higher(On edit: there are species of grass that seem to crop up in every lawn despite due vigilance that can spring up a 12" or more seed stalk over night...). If these rules were violated, then the county could enforce them through fines and jail time.

The home improvement association announced a meeting with the county commissioner to discuss the issues with the residents of the subdivision prior to its coming up for vote by the county commission.

We atteneded that meeting. The club house room where the meetings (usually very sparsely attended) was full to over flowing with angry residents. The association board and the commission were up front, looking very nervous.

As soon as the meeting was called to order, the commissioner announced that the ordinance regarding the rules for our subdivision were DOA and would likely NEVER be brought up even for discussion again.

Seems they home improvement association board members and the county commissioner, as well as other commissioners, were inundated with constant very angry phone calls from residents regarding the issue. There were also some (over the top) death threats toward the originators of the proposed ordinance...

There are pockets of very effective resistance in Florida, at least in my neck of the woods... And not all of those pockets are rednecky type folks (perhaps the death threat makers are though).

[Swagman]

43. what lovely people ! a disgrace-sending this man to jail.

see-there are some lovely people out there..all is not lost !! ( so much for Love Thy Neighbour)

[ReadTomPaine]

44. If a person can be jailed for this, they can be jailed for any reason at all. n/t

[Norrin Radd]

45. Link to the HOA

http://www.bweha.org

And here http://www.bwcai.org

the president of their civic association washes his hands of the matter:

In conclusion, allow me to make clear that (1) this association did not jail him; his conduct forced the judge to impose that action and (2) this association, its dutiful staff and an attentive board will reach out to any and every hardship case that realizes that compromise is the centerpiece of all of our efforts. The door will always be open for all of our owners to walk through and find resolve in the face of conflict.



Sincerely,



Robert B. Ryan

President – Beacon Woods Civic Association, Inc.

[progressoid]

46. Good Gawd. What has become of us?

[yy4me]

47. Beacon Woods Homeowners Assn. Worst person in the world!

[ekwhite]

48. This is just wrong

Is there a fund to help pay his court costs and association fees?

[Bunny]

51. Well, that restores your faith in humanity doesn't it?

However, if you read the story closely, he wasn't jailed because his lawn was brown. He was jailed because:

<snip>
"For nearly a year, he ignored letters from his Beacon Woods homeowners' association and a court order because, he said, he barely had the money to pay his mortgage. He was trying to keep his house and didn't care about the lawn."
<snip>

The guy fails to respond to threats from his HOA, AND ignores an order to appear in court. Of course that's going to become a problem. In this country, if you are ordered to appear in court, that's usually not optional (unless you are Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, or Todd and Sarah Palin, but that's a topic for another thread). If you ignore a judge, it's almost certainly going to come back to haunt you.

And, like it or not, HOA's are entered into voluntarily. If they have draconian rules that you can't or won't live with, you should think long and before you sign up. His HOA claims to have sent him numerous warnings, which he apparently ignored. If true, that's another bad move, because they have the law on their side in these kinds of matters. Perhaps if he had spoken to them about his problem, some allowances could have been made.

Having said all that, I would NEVER, EVER live anywhere that had an HOA. Under no circumstances would I allow my freedom to be jeopardized over something like a brown lawn, or a garage door that was left open longer than the designated permissable time, or drapes that weren't the exact shade prescribed in the agreement. It's amazing to me that people actually, willingly, subject themselves to this sort of thing, and I'm surpised that they are even legal in The United States of America.

[flvegan]

53. As a local, I'd like to know Law's handyman service's name

and also the sod companies that donated. I'd like to know who to do business with in the future.

You know what's sad, is how this court overstepped proper process in this. The court should never have ordered him to fix his lawn. The HOA should have filed a lien and then if still unsatisfied, a Lis Pendens and started foreclosure. I'm sure the HOA had no desire to foreclose on the property (and having to pay the mortgage, sell the property, etc) and took this other route. Dirty pool, I tell you.

[panzerfaust]

55. Slippery Slope: Only encourages MORE lawlessness.

They are a bit more forceful in Utah.

Last year a 70 yo widowed grandmother was hand-cuffed and taken bruised and bleeding to jail for having a brown lawn.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6282348.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/19/lawn.dispute.ap/index.html

And up in Michigan, also last year, a scofflaw in Newaygo County got what was coming to him for a similar crime.
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6725421

I would bet that a little time on google would turn up more cases where this type of criminal has been brought to heel. And I, for one, applaud it: What possible better use of police and judicial resources can you think of at this point in our Nation's history.

Hummm. Think I will go check my lawn ... then my neighbors.

[cui bono]

57. They're going to jail him again for having that sign on his house!

[geckosfeet]

58. Ahh. The sweet smell of republicons burning in the morning.