Florida Elder Faces Jail Without Bail for Non-Violent Crime
LAND O'LAKES ,FLORIDA USA — 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."
Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.
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."
Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6247.
Source=>>St Peterburg Times
Related:U.S. Leads the World in Number and Percentage of it's Citizens it Incarcerates
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I am grateful that I am still able to make entries into this journal/blog about the hardship conditions/humiliation that our family is going through bar nothing we have ever experienced or in any way feel we deserve.
I was recently received a very threatening letter with code violations and heavy fines because I had placed an ad in the local newspaper in an attempt to rent out the empty portion of my mother's 5 bedroom, 3 bath house in order to make up for the shortcoming of my parent's social security income.
My mother's social security income has been re-routed since July of last year and no longer goes into her account, it is rather coincidental that attorney fees for tasks that were previously performed by her family (more efficiently,on time, and without paying late fees amounting to thousands of dollars, utilities cut off and other hardships which are somehow blamed on us ) have been performed by a court appointed guardian whose fees match or go over her total social security income.
Friends of the family who work several jobs without the additional expense of taking care of an infirm elder report that they are having a hard time with the economy in a tailspin, so you can just imagine the hardship our parent is subject to in having this crucial income withheld for so long.
Our family agrees that this situation is not sustainable and have been fighting to restore her social security income at a great cost in opposing attorney fees, health, and emotional cost.
We use this medium to make a plea to the honorable court to see to it that our parent's income is restored quickly and without further delay and that the day to day decisions be returned to the family as quickly as possible in order to gives us a chance to survive the difficult economic situation facing us all..
----------------------------
I am grateful that I am still able to make entries into this journal/blog about the hardship conditions/humiliation that our family is going through bar nothing we have ever experienced or in any way feel we deserve.
I was recently received a very threatening letter with code violations and heavy fines because I had placed an ad in the local newspaper in an attempt to rent out the empty portion of my mother's 5 bedroom, 3 bath house in order to make up for the shortcoming of my parent's social security income.
My mother's social security income has been re-routed since July of last year and no longer goes into her account, it is rather coincidental that attorney fees for tasks that were previously performed by her family (more efficiently,on time, and without paying late fees amounting to thousands of dollars, utilities cut off and other hardships which are somehow blamed on us ) have been performed by a court appointed guardian whose fees match or go over her total social security income.
Friends of the family who work several jobs without the additional expense of taking care of an infirm elder report that they are having a hard time with the economy in a tailspin, so you can just imagine the hardship our parent is subject to in having this crucial income withheld for so long.
Our family agrees that this situation is not sustainable and have been fighting to restore her social security income at a great cost in opposing attorney fees, health, and emotional cost.
We use this medium to make a plea to the honorable court to see to it that our parent's income is restored quickly and without further delay and that the day to day decisions be returned to the family as quickly as possible in order to gives us a chance to survive the difficult economic situation facing us all..
The Fernandez family ...........
1 comment:
You said it succinctly. You called them "our loved ones." The guardians do not see our parents as "loved ones." They see them as "cash cows."
Janet
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