A Florida mom says she was jailed for a week over a series of homeowner association complaints over dead patches of grass in her yard.
Florida mom arrested over lawn maintenance
Irena Green, who resides in Riverview, said her ordeal began when she received a letter from her HOA management company scolding her for a brown lawn.
She told WFTS-TV the letter instructed her to either reseed the lawn or install fresh sod.
However, Green argued that local watering restrictions due to drought and the shade from a large tree contributed to the issue.
“If you drive around my neighborhood, you’ll see there’s plenty of yards not up to par,” Green said, defending the condition of her yard.
But the HOA didn’t stop with the lawn. Green said she was later cited for a dent in her garage door, a dirty mailbox, and parking a commercial cargo van in her driveway.
Green said she didn’t respond to the HOA’s offer for mediation, and a lawsuit followed.
When she appeared in court and submitted a handwritten defense, the judge and the HOA’s attorney rejected it.
According to Green, she was given specific steps to resolve the cited problems.
“My grass had to be brung 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,'” she recounted.
Taking action, Green said she sold her van, cleaned her mailbox, bought seed, and began tending to the grass.
But a missed court appearance in August proved costly, though Green maintains that she never received notice of the hearing.
“I was supposed to receive documentation. Nothing was sent to my home. And I reached out to the courthouse several times to try to find out when was my court date,” she said.
Because she missed that appearance, the judge found her in contempt and issued a bench warrant.
Florida mom arrested while driving daughter to practice
In late May, Green was pulled over by police while taking her daughter to cheer practice, which is when she learned about the warrant.
She was arrested and processed into jail. The most shocking part was that no bond was set.
“There was no 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 said.
The arrest warrant had been filed by Francis Friscia, an attorney representing the HOA.
Green’s relative, a paralegal, filed an emergency request for a hearing and presented photographic evidence showing that the lawn had been improved. Green said she was shackled during the hearing.
The HOA’s legal counsel pushed back on her release, demanding that the lawn be completely resodded. Despite the lawyer’s protesting, Green was released the following day.
Friscia later released a lengthy statement defending the HOA’s legal moves, partially blaming Green for her lack of response to official notices.
“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,” the attorney wrote.
The Florida mom says she felt humiliated and that her treatment was grossly disproportionate to the minor violations in question.
“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.
She believes last year’s watering limits played a major role in her lawn issues and maintains that other yards in the neighborhood looked far worse. But she’s the only homeowner who ended up behind bars.
“I think they have way too much power. I’ve never heard of anything like this in my life,” Green told ABC’s I-Team Investigations.
Green later admitted she probably should’ve hired legal counsel earlier in the process to avoid the situation spiraling out of control.
Since her incident, the HOA board has reportedly brought in a new management company to handle enforcement.
Property manager scams HOA
Meanwhile, in a completely separate HOA-related incident, a property manager in Colorado was arrested last year after investigators uncovered a staggering fraud scheme targeting several HOAs.
Sandra Oldenburg, 48, was taken into custody by Johnstown Police following a months-long probe into widespread financial misconduct tied to multiple HOA communities in northern Colorado.
Authorities allege that Oldenburg, a representative and business partner at Poudre Property Services (also known as RCE Inc. and NOCO Real Estate Solutions), stole approximately $650,000 from various associations.
Investigators executed several search warrants and recovered documents and evidence to support the charges, according to police.
Oldenburg now faces a slew of serious charges, including theft, fraud by check, cybercrime, second-degree forgery, and money laundering.
