Homeowner Joseph Prudente is battling the Beacon Woods Civic Association, which wants him to resod his yard, seen here Friday.
Posted on 10/13/2008 12:51:06 AM PDT by mrhansen
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
Let’s file this one under total absurdity. And they say there are no debtor’s prisons.
Very sad....
Spray paint.
This should be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court. I mean really. A brown lawn is a crime? The world is nuts with people like this.
And when it’s over, put this judge in jail, too. Ridiculous.
If I was going to be put in jail because of my HOA, I can assure you it wouldn’t be over the color of my lawn.
And a few years ago when we were undergoing a drought the powers that be in my town made a law that if you had a green lawn you could be subject to a fine and or jail.
Hmmmm....Bacon “Bits” Woods community of Land O’Lakes, Florida. Some pretty tough folks....and real lawyers to boot.
But you know...the toughest guy...is this guy Joe. He is just like the other two million other idiots who got into the adjustable mortgage deal...and got stuck with $600 extra he couldn’t afford. He’s lost his vehicle....and likely surviving off social security and a small pension check. If I were the Bacon “Bits” Woods community association...I might start looking around at who else will fail over the next twelve months. They might have dozens of folks sitting in county jail...over dead grass.
So for those wanting tough neighbors who haul you in your golden years to jail....think about Land O’Lakes...it might be a great place to meet jailed robbers, rapists, and killers while serving time for dead grass.
“Spray paint.”
You hit the nail on the head!
From the website:
“GrassBGreen Concentrate is green grass paint. It is a harmless dye that turns your lawn green until you mow. Mix GBG Concentrate with water. Paint your lawn with any garden sprayer. Your lawn will look golf-course-green in minutes!”
http://www.grassbgreen.com/?Click=2&gclid=CKi97KPjo5YCFQOeFQodK3Gd6w
Homeowner Joseph Prudente is battling the Beacon Woods Civic Association, which wants him to resod his yard, seen here Friday.
Homeowner Joseph Prudente is battling the Beacon Woods Civic Association, which wants him to resod his yard, seen here Friday.
Its noticeable that the judge uses an initial instead of her full first name.
LOL It’s practically a badge of honor to have a brown lawn in the Atlanta area. It means you care more that the people have water to drink than your lawn.
BTW, in my part of the country, some HOAs try to push homeowners out for having green lawns. They have the opinion that managed lawns are not natural enough for the West. Some of them also regulate paint colors and forbid cutting trees.
If the realtor said yes, I said "NEXT!"
Mark
I agree this may have gone too far but if he’s retired, his wife is retired, and he has an older daughter living with him with two children, couldn’t someone roll out a sprinkler once a morning?
Unreal.
Shakespeare was right....
*
Put this assclown judge in stocks in the public square.
So many very stupid judges making so many very stupid rulings.
Place a lien on the home not the owner in jail.
Free people rise up against idiocy such as this.
Homeowners Associations are out of control. These are the type of people that would vote Obama because they are obviously communist minded. Of course people that live there must accept that they signed their life away.
That being said, a contract is no reason to go to jail.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article850257.ece
Update- Regular people fixed it. Lawyers are such a$$holes.
Isn’t it fun to live in the USSA? (ununited socialist states of america)
Isn’t it fun to live in the USSA? (ununited socialist states of america)
“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.”
No sir. Your arrogance and ignorance brought this to the point it is at.
In a period of extreme finacial difficulty for everyone YOU worry about someone grass?
Now this man sits in jail PAID for by every taxpayer in your county and state? And YOu [probally think you have done a good thing and “won”
There was a time when people would have taken up arms and fought you over this. It was called the American Revolution. Lucky for you those people no longer exsist....
The night before going to prison, this fellow should have hit several choice yards in the association with grass-killing herbicide.
Or that same garden sprayer could be used for drive by kerosene spraying of the “judge’s” lawn. Now who’s lawn is brown, huh?
This could catch on. There are a lot of senior citizens that won't have to go to an expensive nursing home if they copy Joseph Prudente. Free room and board with 3 squares a day, and all other expenses paid by the sheriff's office. I think Joe was planning for a long stay. Why not?
Some judges have no business being on the bench.
This could catch on. There are a lot of senior citizens that won't have to go to an expensive nursing home if they copy Joseph Prudente. Free room and board with 3 squares a day, and all other expenses paid by the sheriff's office. I think Joe was planning for a long stay. Why not?
Some judges have no business being on the bench.
This could catch on. There are a lot of senior citizens that won't have to go to an expensive nursing home if they copy Joseph Prudente. Free room and board with 3 squares a day, and all other expenses paid by the sheriff's office. I think Joe was planning for a long stay. Why not?
Some judges have no business being on the bench.
If you violate a contract, your fellow contractee has no choice but to take you to court. What else can he do? Take the situation into his own hands? Then, if you ignore the court, what recourse does the court have? A strongly worded letter?
If you violate a contract, you must be taken to court. What other recourse does your fellow contractee have? None. If you ignore a judges’s order, what other recourse does the court have? A strongly worded letter?
And to top it off his lawn probably died because you can only water one day a week here.
They have patrols going around looking for people watering illegally. Its all due to ‘temporary’ water restrictions caused by the drought. Of course they’ve been temporary for at least 10 years.
Forget the water dept thats inept, uncontrolled growth, desalination plants that don’t work and a host of other issues.
Happy Ending...
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article850257.ece
Neighbors pitched in... a County Commissioner got the Judge to come to work on Sunday and Grandpa is free.
This story does have a happy ending. The community got together and fixed the sprinkler and sodded the lawn. Grandpa is out of jail.
I do wonder why the homeowners association didn’t sod the lawn themselves, assess him for the cost, and then foreclose the home.
Of course, there are other questions, as well. Why didn’t he buy a garden hose and a plastic sprinkler? Why doesn’t his daughter carry her weight? (Notice his car got repo’ed but hers didn’t). Is the jail going to bill him for room and board?
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article850257.ece
Man jailed for brown lawn gets help from neighbors
A ‘Good Samaritan’ and friends re-sodded his lawn and he’s out of jail.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article850257.ece
Man jailed for brown lawn gets help from neighbors
A ‘Good Samaritan’ and friends re-sodded his lawn and he’s out of jail.
Obamamessiah wants to turn the whole USA into a HOA.
Illegal entry into the country, not a crime. Falsified identity, not a crime. Multiple voting, not a crime. Brown lawn, go to jail.
News from the appropriately named Bayonet Point.
There is far too much time being wasted enforcing ridiculous laws, while real crime is going unpunished.
I suppose the cop who writes the ticket is from LAWN ENFORCEMENT.
There is far too much time being wasted enforcing ridiculous laws, while real crime is going unpunished.
I suppose the cop who writes the ticket is from LAWN ENFORCEMENT.
There is far too much time being wasted enforcing ridiculous laws, while real crime is going unpunished.
I suppose the cop who writes the ticket is from LAWN ENFORCEMENT.
There is far too much time being wasted enforcing ridiculous laws, while real crime is going unpunished.
I suppose the cop who writes the ticket is from LAWN ENFORCEMENT.
In Arizona, HOA boards have been shot for less.
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