Woman hurled in jail after letting grass in front of her home go brown during hot weather

Daily Mail​

10 hours ago

A woman in Florida was thrown in jail after letting the grass in front of her home go brown during hot weather, violating HOA guidelines.
Irena Green was arrested and spent a week in jail after a battle with her homeowner's association in Hillsborough County over browning grass in front of her home.
'I think they have way too much power,' Green told ABC news. 'I've never heard of anything like this in my life.'
Green said her grass is often not green due to a large tree that's planted near her sidewalk, as well as mandatory watering restrictions that were put in place last year following a drought.
She claimed, however, that her lawn was not the worst looking in the Riverview Creek View subdivision.
'If you drive around my neighborhood, you'll see there's plenty of yards not up to par,' she added.
The Trowbridge Company Inc., the HOA management company, began notifying her of the violations, which spanned a range of issues including her browning lawn and a dirty mailbox, Green said.
'The grass had started turning brown. So they started sending notes, and it went from the grass being brown to there's a dent in my garage.'
Green said the grass often isn't green in her yard due to a large tree that's planted near her sidewalk as well as mandatory watering restrictions last year following a drought
On May 23, as she drove home with her daughter, she was pulled over and asked to step out of her vehicle and she was arrested and booked into the Orient Road Jail
Green also was notified of violations including owning a commercial cargo van, which is not the only in her neighborhood, ABC reported.
But as she failed to comply with the guidelines and respond to a request for mediation, the HOA filed a lawsuit against her alleging that she violated community appearance rules.
Yet as she attempted to represent herself in court, she was told last July by the judge that she had around a month to fix the violations.
'My grass had to be brought up to par. He said you can get seed, you can do something, but you've got 30 days to get it corrected. So I said fine. He said if it's not done in 30 days, you're gonna go to jail,' Green told the outlet.
Green said she did what she could to comply, even selling her van and cleaning her mailbox.
She bought seed and watered her grass, but missed her next court date and claimed she hadn't been notified to appear at the hearing last August.
'I was supposed to receive documentation. Nothing was sent to my home,' Green said.
'And I reached out to the courthouse several times to try to find out when was my court date.'
Green said she did what she could to comply, even selling her van and cleaning her mailbox. She bought seed and watered her grass, but missed her next court date and claimed she hadn't been notified to appear at the hearing last August
Yet, the judge ordered that she was in contempt of court and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
On May 23, as she drove home with her daughter, she was pulled over and asked to step out of her vehicle.
'He asked me can I get out. When I got out he said, "Ms. green, did you know that you have a warrant for your arrest?"' Green said.
She was arrested and booked into the Orient Road Jail, according to ABC News.
Yet, she was placed into custody without bond.
'So I couldn't even go home to my family. I sat in there for seven days. Seven days in the jailhouse like a criminal,' she added.
Green described the process of being booked into the jail as 'horrible.'
'I work hard to buy this home for me and my kids in a better neighborhood and environment and to be taken to jail and to be treated like that for brown grass at my own home... that's horrible,' she said.
She even described being held in jail with other inmates who queried why she was being held in custody.
'One girl, she kind of came over and asked me like "Hey, what are you in here for?" And I told her it was like for my grass,' Green said.
'And she's like 'Oh grass, they should make that stuff legal'. She's thinking that I'm talking about weed and I'm talking about my front yard grass.'
Green's sister, a paralegal, filed a petition six-days after she was booked into the jail which requested an emergency hearing.
'I went to court, and I had to be shackled from my hands to my feet,' Green said as she recalled being the only person in county civil court wearing a jail uniform.
In court, the HOA's attorney even opposed her release, Green said: 'He says "Well, it hasn't been resodded. The whole yard needs to be re-sodded." And she's like not from those pictures I see. She's like "No. I want her released immediately."'
'He wanted me to continue to sit in jail and not come home to my family,' she added.
In a statement to the outlet, the Creek View HOA Board of Directors said: 'Ms. Green received notices of violations. She disregarded them. Legal action was filed by the Association after she failed to accept the offer to mediate the matter, pre-suit, as is required before a lawsuit can be filed...'
'After suit was filed and final judgment was entered against her, Ms. Green showed up for the court hearing on July 11, 2024... At the July 11 hearing, with Ms. Green present, another court date was set by the judge for August 19, 2024.
'She was instructed to comply with the requirements of the final judgment by August 19 and to report to the judge what was accomplished on August 19. Ms. Green failed to show up in court on August 19.
'Her failure to abide by the Court's instruction led to the arrest warrant being issued...These steps were taken by the Court due to Ms. Green's failure to comply with the Court's instructions.'
While Green was released the next day following her hearing, she said: 'I definitely wish I would have hired a lawyer.'