BAYONET POINT — 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."
