Tyger Posted October 13, 2008 Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 How utterly stupid is this???Brown lawn means jail time By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer In print: Saturday, October 11, 2008 BAYONET POINT — On Friday morning, Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his "Grandpa Gone Wild" T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag. Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do. His crime? He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home. His bail? Zero. Prudente, 66, must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes until the required sod work is completed, under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray. "He's in prison for God knows how long because we can't afford to sod the lawn," said his sobbing daughter, Jennifer Lehr. Prudente has owned a home in the deed restricted community since 1998. The covenants require homeowners to keep their lawns covered with grass. Earlier this year, the Beacon Woods Civic Association took Prudente to court after he failed to install new sod on his browning lawn, which had withered after his sprinklers broke. The association had already sent letters telling him to resod his front and back yards by certain dates. In an interview at the jail Friday evening, Prudente said he thought he had made a good financial hardship case to the association: His adjustable rate mortgage went up an extra $600 a month. Wachovia repossessed his Toyota Scion. His daughter and her two young children, who had fallen on hard times, moved in with him and his wife, Pat. "To me, keeping the house is more important than the grass," said Prudente, a retired registered nurse from New York. "I just ignored them." He ignored them, too, after the association filed a complaint in court. He ignored a court order in May, signed by Bray, giving Prudente 30 days to sod the yard. In June, the court also awarded the association $795 in fees, which included a $645 attorney's fees and a $150 fee for "an expert witness." By September, there was still no sod. Bray found Prudente in contempt of court, but said in his order that Prudente could "purge himself of this contempt" by doing the required work within the next 30 days. That time expired Friday. "It is clear to the Court that the ability to avoid incarceration is well within the Defendant's grasp," Bray wrote. Representatives of the Beacon Woods association expressed regret Prudente had landed in jail. But they said it was his own fault. "It's a sad situation," said board president Bob Ryan, who added that the association had followed all the correct procedures. "But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself." Lawyer Thomas Gurran, who represents the association, said in a statement that the association had "just wanted Mr. Prudente to comply with the lawn restriction." He added that the contempt power of judges is essential to the system. "Many orders and judgements … would be absolutely meaningless if they could not be enforced by a judge's contempt power," he said. "This case is an example of what happens when someone defies an order entered by a judge in our country." Prudente's family said the case had gone too far. Pat Prudente said she and her husband knew they had chosen to live in a community with restrictions. "But they shouldn't have this much power," she said. Back at the jail — where the population is 1,132, well above the 782 capacity — Parente said he was being treated well. He has no criminal record in Florida and said his stay in Land O'Lakes was his first time ever in a slammer. What comes next? He doesn't know. "Should I go out and rob a bank? Then I'd be back here," he said. "But then I'd get out on bail." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mystofpric Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 There needs to be some kind of understanding. Also, couldn't he have seeded and it isn't that expensive, I think. Flip side, how hard would it have been for him to take a hose to the lawn when his sprinklers broke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eminatic Posted October 13, 2008 Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 how hard would it have been for him to take a hose to the lawn when his sprinklers broke?that was my immediate thought too =/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mystofpric Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 that was my immediate thought too =/No, my immediate thought was this is bullshit especially in light of today's economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pappyld04 Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 This is the most ASSININE thing I have heard. Bullshit like this at a time when jails are housing almost double their capacity is exactly why the system needs to be torn apart and revamped. IDK if it's abuse of power or of process, more like both, but this should be a civil matter at best. And since the jail is overcrowded shouldn't the judge and LEO be in that same jail. I'd bet that many of their inmates are there on petty offenses. I think he should go buy some green spray paint and paint the grass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members triedntru Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 I would oh so love to see an attorney take the case probono and nail thier ass to the wall!!! That is crap. I'm with you Pappy, WTF!!! I don't know about you, but I have better things to do with my time then stand there and water my grass every day, I wouldn't have done it as a point. Oh well!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pappyld04 Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 I would oh so love to see an attorney take the case probono and nail thier ass to the wall!!! That is crap. I'm with you Pappy, WTF!!! I don't know about you, but I have better things to do with my time then stand there and water my grass every day, I wouldn't have done it as a point. Oh well!!!I'd love to see one or more with enough ass in their shorts to take a stand against their own! That's got to be reckless endangerment at the very least. And I never water my grass. They're lucky that I have it mowed! And I've had to go to court for it at the first of this summer. I had bent the blade on my mower and the grass/weeds did get a bit tall. A few reminders about the City's own little offenses and they left me alone with a request/demand to get it done ASAP. They tried to request that I sell my El Camino that was parked in my driveway to the Salvage Yard and I gave them a different request. They could pay for the value of it minus the $50 the man would have given for it. (PS I still have that car)! The guy in this story shouldn't even be on probation much less in jail! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mystofpric Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 100% agree. The only reason I mention the hose was we have a sprinkler that I just gook up to the hose turn it on and forget. it. The man's car was repoed, do you think he can afford a few hundred dollars for sod? Hell I can't and I'm not paying a mortage. I could see them fining him, okay. I know where I lived in PA they would tell you to do teh maintence, and if within a certain about of time the city would pay for it and then make you pay them back and sue your ass in civil court. At best they could get this guy on breach of contract, he did agree to live with and uphold their restrictions, but come on. Jail time? What judge in his right mind agreed to that?! If I were this old guy I'd be turning around and getting teh best damn lawyer I could and I'd be sueing the housing commission and that judge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kinky Twinkie Posted October 13, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 13, 2008 How utterly stupid is this???Brown lawn means jail time By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer In print: Saturday, October 11, 2008 BAYONET POINT — On Friday morning, Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his "Grandpa Gone Wild" T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag. Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do. His crime? He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home. His bail? Zero. Prudente, 66, must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O'Lakes until the required sod work is completed, under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray. "He's in prison for God knows how long because we can't afford to sod the lawn," said his sobbing daughter, Jennifer Lehr. Prudente has owned a home in the deed restricted community since 1998. The covenants require homeowners to keep their lawns covered with grass. Earlier this year, the Beacon Woods Civic Association took Prudente to court after he failed to install new sod on his browning lawn, which had withered after his sprinklers broke. The association had already sent letters telling him to resod his front and back yards by certain dates. In an interview at the jail Friday evening, Prudente said he thought he had made a good financial hardship case to the association: His adjustable rate mortgage went up an extra $600 a month. Wachovia repossessed his Toyota Scion. His daughter and her two young children, who had fallen on hard times, moved in with him and his wife, Pat. "To me, keeping the house is more important than the grass," said Prudente, a retired registered nurse from New York. "I just ignored them." He ignored them, too, after the association filed a complaint in court. He ignored a court order in May, signed by Bray, giving Prudente 30 days to sod the yard. In June, the court also awarded the association $795 in fees, which included a $645 attorney's fees and a $150 fee for "an expert witness." By September, there was still no sod. Bray found Prudente in contempt of court, but said in his order that Prudente could "purge himself of this contempt" by doing the required work within the next 30 days. That time expired Friday. "It is clear to the Court that the ability to avoid incarceration is well within the Defendant's grasp," Bray wrote. Representatives of the Beacon Woods association expressed regret Prudente had landed in jail. But they said it was his own fault. "It's a sad situation," said board president Bob Ryan, who added that the association had followed all the correct procedures. "But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself." Lawyer Thomas Gurran, who represents the association, said in a statement that the association had "just wanted Mr. Prudente to comply with the lawn restriction." He added that the contempt power of judges is essential to the system. "Many orders and judgements … would be absolutely meaningless if they could not be enforced by a judge's contempt power," he said. "This case is an example of what happens when someone defies an order entered by a judge in our country." Prudente's family said the case had gone too far. Pat Prudente said she and her husband knew they had chosen to live in a community with restrictions. "But they shouldn't have this much power," she said. Back at the jail — where the population is 1,132, well above the 782 capacity — Parente said he was being treated well. He has no criminal record in Florida and said his stay in Land O'Lakes was his first time ever in a slammer. What comes next? He doesn't know. "Should I go out and rob a bank? Then I'd be back here," he said. "But then I'd get out on bail."These kind of stories always burn my ass and one reason I tell people it best to avoid any neighborhood with a home owners association if at all posiable especially in south florida. The south florida associations are always doing this kind of crap to people for flying U.S Flags and such. When anyone goes to buy a house, make sure home howners association are not coming with it if possiable. They have a few pluses but mostly negatives. Of course condo assns are not any better. They can control what kind of car you have, what color house you have, what kind of plants you have, etc. You name it and they do it.Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pappyld04 Posted October 14, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Our 5 yr old neighborhood just started a homeowners association. We found out about it when they sent the $50 dues bill. None of my neighbors knew much more than we did. In most states HOA can levee fines and even put a lein on your home and this shit is legal. Extortion is what it is. I hadn't even thought of that part of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger Posted October 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Yeah, we live in a subdivision, that have all these deed restrictions. They tried giving us shit cuz my mother's travel trailer was on our property (first on her lot then ours so she could have power), stating that "trailer houses" weren't allowed. I called them and told them it was a TRAVEL TRAILER, NOT A TRAILER HOUSE, and it was for our own personal use. They told me they sent those letters to everyone that had a travel trailer because of some jackass that was pissed cuz he got denied approval on bringing in some old trailer houses to rent, on his property. I told them that if they pulled that shit again, I'd sue them for defermation of character, harassment, not only the board, but all involved in it as well. I have yet to hear anything else about it. They picked on the wrong Yankee bitch to harass.Many committees/HOA's, think they can bully their residents. This was the case for us. I also pointed out that, in nowhere of all the paperwork then sent, since they had broken down the "blocks", & their restrictions, was my block listed, and, in fact, in checking with the county, deed restrictions were NEVER filed on the block we live on. They were like, "oh, uh, well....there's just a lot of copies floating around everywhere, we probably gave you the wrong ones". I pointed out that their copies weren't even legal, cuz none of the blanks were filled in, nor was the county seal on it either. They didn't give me a legal document, just some bullshit paperwork that isn't even filed with the courthouse, and they could kiss my ass, and that if they continued, I would definitely contact our lawyer about the harassment. Yeah, go ahead, try to intimdate THIS Yankee bitch!!LMAO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ohshelly Posted October 14, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Makes me glad I live in the up here in the big woods with cows and Amish for neighbors.Geez Lousie, that is crazy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ohshelly Posted October 14, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 LMAO!! I wanna see you take them on, Tyg!! Bet they would never forget that day!! I get the same way when I am riled. Look out, mad blonde!! Duck and weave, duck and weave.............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eminatic Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 No, my immediate thought was this is bullshit especially in light of today's economy.relax, i was simply agreeing that while its stupid to begin with, it wouldnt have been so hard to hand water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pappyld04 Posted October 16, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Seems to me that they would have gotten further by getting together with this family and finding out what they could do to help him with this. There are many times that we have come together as a group to help one person or another with something when they cannot do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hotgirlydragon Posted October 21, 2008 Members Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 This happend here in Orem, Utah last year. The lady was on a fixed income and they dont have a secondary water there and the cops tryed to give her a fine and she went to walk back in her house and she some how ended up falling. Then Gloria Alred (i think was her name, from the OJ murder trial) came her and defended her in court and she still had to pay the fines. But now she is back in are news here because she will no longer live in utah and she let her house her go to forclosure over the city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.