Yard Junk Prompts Indictment - washingtonpost.com: "For a decade, Mount Rainier officials tried to get Wade Dunston Jr. to clean up the tires, TV sets and other debris that littered his yard. Cited dozens of times for code violations, Dunston usually cleaned up on days he was due in court, only to fall back to his old ways, authorities said.
Yesterday, prosecutors in Prince George's County announced that Dunston and his mother, Lillie M. Dunston, who owns the property, have been indicted on misdemeanor charges of illegal dumping. The offense carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $30,000 fine."
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Tom Skiba sent this link along. What a mess. I am surprised the place hasn't burned down already.
5 comments:
Pretty EXTREME situation. Good reason for HOA's, COA's, etc., to make sure NOTHING like this would happen in the neighborhood! No wonder this was sent along.
In many an HOA/COA,etc., I would suspect this trashing of property, debris dumping and property destruction to be the work of some board members and their associates. What else do many of these abusive, destructive board members have to do but create conflict, destroy lives, families, finances, careers, and lie, cheat and steal. Did I mention, destroy property, commit perjury, and drag innocent homeowners into court rooms for fabricated "offenses"?
To me, this story shows that HOAs can't possibly do what they claim (make these folks clean up their acts). If a municipality that has resources such as police, courts, etc. to enforce codes cannot make this guy clean up permanently, and if this guy can manage to avoid trouble by cleaning up just for his court dates, then how on earth could an HOA do better?
Beth, I was thinking the same thing. If the city couldn't do it sooner despite their best efforts, what could an HOA have done any better? I am also surprised that anybody could bamboozle the judge(s) more than once. If this place had burned down or somebody had been injured or rats infested the neighborhood, the judge would have been partly to blame.
An HOA presumes deed restrictions in the first place - and if there were deed restrictions then there is still no need for an HOA. Anyone with property similarly burdened could put a halt to this. If, on the other hand the property is not burdened with restrictions then this person is perfectly entitled to utilize his property as he sees fit so long as he is operating within applicable city/county ordinances. Clearly there were city/county ordinance regulating dumping and those have been asserted. This is yet another scare tactic by the industry whose entire existence relies upon terrifying homeowners that this is going to happen 100% of the time if you don't have an HOA. Clearly all that was required was for the legitimate government to enforce constitutional ordinances.
As a VICTIM of one of these, "abusive boards," (and I believe this is TOO polite a term for many of these "terroristic neighbors of henchmen/henchwomen), I continue to wonder, just when will those who have inflicted these scams on innocent and unsuspecting homeowners, and in some cases, unsuspecting judiciaries end up in the slammer.
Good news is, I have recently heard another division of the US Government has been mobilized to deal with these "economic crimes,"
NOW!
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