The Lawn Lady from Orem, Utah County, who got in trouble last summer for not watering her lawn, has settled her case with the city of Orem. Here are the two News Story Articles about this:
Orem 'brown-lawn lady' averts trial, fined $100
By Donald W. Meyers
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 02/08/2008 12:39:25 PM MST
Posted: 12:14 PM- OREM - Betty Perry, the 70-year-old Orem woman whose brown lawn and a scuffle with a police officer last summer catapulted her into the headlines and caught the attention of a well-known Los Angeles defense attorney, has settled her case with the city.
Perry today entered a no-contest plea in absentia - to avoid media attention - to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, according to City Prosecutor Andrew Peterson. In addition, the city dismissed the zoning violation for not watering her lawn.
She will pay a fine of $100 and be on unsupervised probation for six months, Peterson said.
( Link: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8207906?source=rss )
Saturday, 09 February 2008
Lawn lady, Orem strike plea deal
Jeremy Duda - DAILY HERALD
A contentious trial and a showdown between Orem city and a superstar defense attorney from Los Angeles were averted when a plea deal was reached in the case of a 70-year-old woman who grabbed international headlines after she was arrested in a dispute over her unwatered lawn.
At a change of plea hearing at Orem's 4th District Court on Friday, Betty Perry pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct as an infraction, a minor offense that carries no possibility of jail time. Perry had previously been charged with a zoning violation and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.
Under the terms of the deal, Perry will have to pay a $100 fine and spend six months on court probation. Her probation will be with the court, not Adult Probation and Parole, meaning she will not have to report to a probation officer and will simply have to keep the court apprised of her address, break no laws and pay all ordered fines.
Orem city prosecutor Andrew Peterson said the city was not interested in sentencing Perry to jail, and wanted only to secure a conviction from her arrest.
"I think each side can really claim victory. They certainly got a very good plea bargain," Peterson said. "And we got what we wanted, which was a conviction that described her disrespectful and dangerous behavior with the officer."
Perry was arrested in July after an officer with the Orem police department's Neighborhood Preservation Unit attempted to give her a ticket for not watering her dead, brown lawn. According to police, Perry refused to give her name to Officer Jim Flygare, and she resisted when he tried to arrest her for it. During the altercation, Perry fell, suffering cuts and bruises.
( Link: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/254697/ )
There was pretty much of a drought last here in most of Utah, and I didn't see a problem with the lawn lady refusing to water her grassy lawn last summer. A lot of the state of Utah is really a desert. In Arizona, a lot of the Houses with yards there do Not have any grassy lawns, to save water there in the desert. Maybe some of the People with houses and yards here in Utah, should think about not having grassy lawn, to save a bit of water.