The Criminalization Of Everything: Woman Serves Jail Time For Falling Behind On Yard Work
A woman in Tennessee was jailed for having a messy yard, reports WVLT. Yes, we've put a woman in a cage intended for people who are dangers to society because her trees and bushes around her house didn't look so nice.
Karen Holloway was cited by Lenoir City officials for not keeping up her yard.She says this all started over the summer, when the city sent her a citation, claiming her yard wasn't properly maintained.
"With my husband going to school and working full time, me with my job, with one vehicle, we were trying our best," she said.
Holloway, who has two kids still at home, says she'll be the first to admit this yard needed some attention. But she feels the city has gone too far by imposing jail time.
"[The bushes and trees] were overgrown. But that's certainly not a criminal offense," she said.
She was shocked at a hearing last week, when Judge Terry Vann handed down a five-day jail sentence.
"It's not right," she said. "Why would you put me in jail with child molesters, and people who've done real crimes, because I haven't maintained my yard."
She says she was never read her rights nor told she could have a lawyer present.
A commenter, Max 1, points out:
In the city I grew up in I mowed and shoveled snow for about a dozen people in the neighborhood. Sure they paid me five bucks to do it, however it was more of a lesson about building relationships through doing things for other people. Correct, the community failed her. Being neighborly went out of fashion?
Another, Geri Harper, wrote:
This is how they treat the wife of a military veteran with children, both while this veteran served overseas and after he returned home? What are these people? Why didn't they donate time and help on this yard out of respect for this veteran?
The scary thing is, as a country that was about escaping tyranny and providing freedoms, we now find myriad reasons to take away citizens' freedoms. We all should be afraid -- and protesting.
The video:
LOL. I graduated from Lenoir City High School back in 1980. Place was prosperous enough back then, now the main drag features pawn shops.
Robert Evans at October 16, 2014 10:45 AM
When you own a home, you are responsible for doing what you can to keep property values up in your neighborhood. If you neglect your yard and cause property values to drop, then yes, you have committed a criminal act. However, the prosecution would need to prove that property values did indeed decrease in order for this to be considered criminal. I don't think she deserves jail time for this.
If both adults are working, I'm just wondering why they never paid a landscaping service to come in and take care of this, which looks like it could be done by four people in less than eight hours. (I should note I have no idea how much that would cost.)
Fayd at October 16, 2014 11:01 AM
I wondered if there weren't more to this case than meets the eye--and there may be. Apparently the situation had been going on for some time, with multiple warnings from the city. And from the photo, the place looked seriously overgrown, with vines crawling all across the roof of the house(those take months, if not years, to grow)and at least one tree that she removed, possibly because of safety hazards. While I don't think jail time was appropriate (the judge should have accepted her offer of community service), it did appear that she wasn't exactly cited out of the blue.
Charlotte Allen at October 16, 2014 11:11 AM
If they had to punish her for not doing yard work, instead of jail time why couldn't they sentence her to five days of cleaning up her own yard?
Ken R at October 16, 2014 11:55 AM
I think some of you are missing the point. Even if she ignored numerous warnings and property values decreased THIS IS NOT A CRIMINAL MATTER! If the City wants to start fining her for non-compliance, and then tack that onto her tax bill, that would be one thing. NOBODY SHOULD BE GOING TO JAIL BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KEEP THEIR YARDS NEAT AND TIDY. Pardon the caps lock. I'd prefer to see jail space reserved for something truly heinous...murder, rape, parking in my designated parking spot (just kidding!). I don't want my tax dollars going to house someone for even 5 minutes for something as trivial as an unkempt yard.
sara at October 16, 2014 12:50 PM
Yeah, this isn't a criminal offense. Fines, fines, and more fines, and then seizure of the property if fines are unpaid. But not jail time. My thoughts are that this is obviously an overreach by a judge, but who censures judges over matters such as this? Who has to toe the line for overstepping their powers? Doesn't seem judges nor police nor prosecutors are dealt any consequence for this. At least none that I ever hear about.
gooseegg at October 16, 2014 1:32 PM
How is she going to clean up her yard when she is in jail? Will she get more jail time because it wasn't cleaned up while she was incarcerated?
Just seems counter productive to me.
Ben at October 16, 2014 1:37 PM
As I mentioned earlier, I don't think she deserves jail time. However, if I lived next door to you and did not maintain my yard, causing the value of your property to go from $250,000 to $150,000 while you were trying to sell, you would probably consider that a crime. You would want me to pay dearly for that, but not go to jail.
Fayd at October 16, 2014 3:58 PM
My parents regularly flipped houses. My father regularly mowed lawns that needed to be mowed in the neighborhood so that he got top dollar for our house. That seems like a better solution than sending someone to jail.
Jen at October 16, 2014 7:18 PM
If you were in that situation Fayd, perhaps the kind thing to do, would be to speak to the neighbor. Ask if maybe you can help them out, you know, if it's that important to you. Perhaps there might be something going on behind the scenes and they just can't get to the yards. Why does it have to be about making someone pay?!?!
My second husband passed away several years ago. He happened to be in the middle of renovating the landscaping in the front yard on the day he died. It was dirt for quite awhile, and some times overgrown with weeds. Thankfully, I had kind neighbors who didn't rat me out to the city, and even mowed my weeds on occasion. I finally got the front yard finished and it looks amazing. I moved out of the house a few years ago, but still enjoy driving by and seeing all the plants.
sara at October 17, 2014 6:07 AM
Aside from the resale value and what it's potentially doing for the rest of the block, a serverely overgrown yard really can be an issue for an entire neighborhood. A yard like that could definitely pose a safety hazard with children living in the home or on the street. Imagine trying to play in that yard? Not to mention all the pests and rodents that could decide to make that yard thier new home.
When my father-in-law still owned his home here in Florida, he continually got fined by the city because he deliberately allowed his backyard to become overgrown to the point where the trees and had started to root into the pool and the entire backyard was literally hamocked within the trees and vines. He liked it. He had a dream to move to Montana to be out in nature but since he was sorta stuck in FLorida, he tried to "create" nature. In a tiny backyard with a pool and a screened in porch. Raccoons, snakes and foxes had started nesting back there. I won't even get into the amount of very large, very scary looking spiders that had made it home. It was more like a sanctuary for animals or a jungle than a back yard. It got so bad that it had started taking over the neighboring houses and the animals had started wondering into other peoples yards. Eventually, he was fined and taxed to the point where it became more cost efficiant to just maintain it. He kept the 'hammock' over the screened in porch and the pool, though. Not surprisingly, no one ever used it.
Dangerous animals moving into an overgrown yard is a very real possiblity in Tennessee. Jail time for this is just stupid though. I agree with goosegg that the proper solution would have been more fines and potential home seizure after some time... but JAIL!? How is that even productive?
Weren't there any other neighborhood kids who needed some extra cash for some chores? Or kindly neighbors who like to garden? Or any friends to help? There has to be more to this than we are getting beause as someone else pointed out, that growth looks like it's accumulated over a long period of time.
Sabrina at October 17, 2014 8:59 AM
"causing the value of your property to go from $250,000 to $150,000 while you were trying to sell, you would probably consider that a crime."
Ya know, that used to happen all the time when blacks moved into white neighborhoods. I don't remember white people going to jail for selling to blacks.
Dave B at October 17, 2014 11:49 AM
Ms. Holloway appears to have been found guilty of, and sentenced for (ultimately to six hours), a misdemeanor criminal violation of the Lenoir City municipal ordinances. Most municipalities have both civil and criminal ordinances related to zoning and public health issues. Saying that failing to comply with an ordinance shouldn't be a crime is a matter of opinion, saying it isn't a crime is factually wrong.
Normally, municipalities do not proceed to criminal penalties until they've attempted to resolve the issue through warnings and civil penalties. If unsuccessful, they proceed to a criminal prosecution. It seems that is what happened here: Ms. Holloway was given several opportunities to bring the property into compliance and did not do so. Did she and her family have extenuating circumstances? Maybe, which is why municipalities generally give parties an opportunity to come into compliance. Extenuating circumstances do not excuse one from the requirements of the law.
There are several good reasons for enacting municipal ordinances, mainly related to health, safety, and maintenance of property values. Although the story is presented with a "this lady was jailed just because she didn't mow her lawn" viewpoint, it looks her violations were more involved, and created safety and health issues for the neighborhood. Locally, if it is only a matter of an unmowed lawn or tree problem, the city would issue a warning, then mow or trim/remove the tree, and charge the cost back to the property owner, which ends up as a lien on the property until paid. Because this is cheaper and less time and trouble to do so, I'd guess that Lenoir City does so also. That this doesn't seem to have happened would suggest that the problem was a bit more involved than just landscaping issues.
Should the neighbors have helped out? Again, maybe. We don't know if the neighbors offered and were turned down, or if either the Holloways or the neighbors were worried about potential liability for injuries, property damage, or trespass. In today's society, these are reasonable concerns. It does seem, however, that when the probability of jail arose, things started getting done.
Incarcerating someone should not be the first recourse. However, after a person has been warned, found in civil violation and fined, and still will not comply, there really is nowhere else to go.
Rich at October 18, 2014 9:24 AM
Perhaps the judge was simply disgusted by her poverty?
"Even a threadbare slattern like yourself could find some underpaid illegal Mexicans to keep up your yard like we do in my neighborhood! Bailiff, take this disgusting poor person away! Next case."
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 18, 2014 2:12 PM
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