A Florida homeowner was jailed without bond after a battle with her homeowners’ association over violations escalated to the point where a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Irena Green said the feud with Riverview’s Creek View HOA’s management company, The Trowbridge Company, Inc., began last year when she got a notice over the dead, slightly brown grass in her front yard, ABC Action News reported.
“If you drive around my neighborhood, you’ll see there’s plenty of yards not up to par,” Green shared.
The mother of two said she tried keeping her grass green, but a massive tree in her front yard and a drought that had her county impose mandatory watering restrictions last year made it difficult to maintain.
Green said that’s when more notices started piling in from the HOA.
She received one for minor dents in her garage, a dirty mailbox, and having a commercial cargo van with no logos in her driveway — despite other residents in the neighborhood having similar vans.
The HOA then took things a step further when she failed to respond to their request and filed a lawsuit against her, demanding that she correct all the violations.
Green represented herself, compiling a trove of explanations and pictures to use in her defense, all of which were rejected by the HOA and the judge.
She was given an ultimatum by the judge during her July 11, 2024, hearing.
“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,” Green said.
The hardworking mom said she complied with the judge’s orders and made all the necessary corrections, including selling her van and maintaining her lawn.
However, the mom of two missed her next court appearance, claiming she was never personally served a notice to appear.
“I reached out to the courthouse several times to try to find out when was my court date,” Green claimed.
The judge found her in contempt of court and issued a warrant for her arrest, allegedly at the request of the HOA’s attorney, Francis Friscia, ABC Action News reported.
Green only found out about the warrant when she was pulled over after picking up her daughter from cheerleading practice on May 23.
She was then handcuffed and booked into the Orient Road Jail, where she found out no bond had been set.
“I couldn’t even go home to my family. I sat in there for seven days. Seven days in the jailhouse like a criminal,” Green said.
The mother of two was fingerprinted, had her mugshot taken, and lived alongside hardened criminals.
“It makes me feel 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.
On May 29, Green’s paralegal sister-in-law filed a petition for an emergency hearing.
Friscia claims that she appeared at her court hearing in July, where the judge gave her another court date for “August 19, 2024” and was told to have the issues resolved by then.
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