Code Enforcement

Arresting people over their yards

l3wis October 19, 2014 1Comments

I think a better approach would have been to mow her lawn and send her a bill, instead they decided to waste a lot of time on courts, lawyers and such, initially wasting more tax dollars to make an ‘example’. But hey, like the Bruce Danielson case, let’s blow tax payers money on frivilous lawsuits, and even if we lose, who cares, it’s not our money;

According to Knoxville’s WVLT, Karen Holloway was cited by the city last summer for her failure to maintain a neat and orderly yard. She received a citation in the mail, but was too consumed with other things to pay it much mind.

“With my husband going to school and working full time, me with my job, with one vehicle, we were trying our best,” said Holloway.

The working mom said that she would be the first to admit that the yard around their house could use some maintenance, but she was utterly shocked on Monday when Judge Terry Vann handed down a five-day jail sentence.

“It’s not right,” Holloway 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.”

Holloway made an additional appearance before Judge Vann to plead for clemency. Vann reduced her sentence to six hours in the county jail, but would not dismiss the charges altogether, nor would he allow her to serve the time by performing community service.

She turned herself in to authorities at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

This was not the first time that she has been served with code violation citations, she told WVLT. When her husband was stationed overseas, she fell behind on the yard work due to “personal, family issues.”

“This opens a floodgate to everybody in Lenoir City being put in jail for silly things,” Holloway said.

A gigantic floodgate of giving absolute authority over what your private property should ‘look like’.