Jailed for a messy yard

MAHWAH -- Two white watering cans and a yellow broom dangle above the porch of a stone and shingle house perched atop North Hillside Avenue. Just below, empty flower pots and plastic chairs and tables clutter the entryway. "No trespassing" and "Beware of dog" signs line the sloping property.

The more-than-100-year-old house has been home to Samantha Moor for 10 years. Its sloppy condition is the reason she nearly spent the night in jail. Moor, in her late 40s, was arrested Tuesday morning and sent to the Bergen County Jail for failing to pay $4,921 in fines issued by Mahwah for property maintenance violations. She was bailed out by her former husband just before midnight.

The township has issued Moor 37 summonses dating to April 2004. A warrant was issued for her arrest when she failed to make payments, as set forth by a municipal judge. "Since she couldn't afford to make the repairs, she couldn't afford to pay the fines," said George Cotz, a lawyer Moor called from jail on Tuesday. She was expected to appear in Municipal Court in Mahwah at 1:30 p.m. today, although Cotz, who is trying another case, won't be at her side.

Moor could not be reached for comment. Cotz said her phone has been disconnected. "I don't think she particularly has any marketable skills," Cotz said. "Before she got married and had a child, she was a clerk in an office. And I think she's got health issues.

"She really has no money," he said. "I don't think this is a show." Moor's troubles started with a dishonest contractor who tore apart her house and walked away with her money, according to Ian J. Hirsch, a Hackensack lawyer who used to represent her. The contractor was fined in Mahwah Municipal Court, but that didn't help Moor, Hirsch said. "The house stayed the way it was," he said. "The scaffolding stayed, there were shingles in the yard. It started to become an eyesore."

Moor's neighbors began complaining, and eventually the fines started piling up. "The town building inspector was very, very nice," Hirsch said. "We genuinely tried to help her. But she doesn't have any money, so what can she do?" When Moor was arrested Tuesday, she called another lawyer, Hirsch suspects, because she owes Hirsch money. "Had she called me, I would have helped her anyway," he said.

When Hirsch represented Moor, she was taking classes to become a plumber, he said. "She's trying to hold onto a piece of property she's not going to be able to." Moor's property taxes were paid in full in 2005, officials said. But her first-quarter payment, due Feb. 1, has not been received. Hirsch describes Moor as a nice person whose problems have snowballed. "Some people belong in jail. Not Samantha Moor," he said. "You don't put people who are struggling to survive in jail."

John Lane, Mahwah's property maintenance and zoning enforcement officer, says Moor's problem is that she hasn't complied with the ordinances or the court orders that attempted to enforce them. If people comply and show an effort, he said, the township will work with them. "The ultimate goal we're looking for is compliance," Lane said. "We'd rather residents put the money toward property maintenance" than fines.

The idea of racking up thousands of dollars in fines, he said, is not unusual in the sprawling township. Going to jail over them is. In nearby Ramsey, both are unheard of. "We've never had anything that extreme," said Ramsey's zoning officer, Richard Mammone, who has been with the borough for 30 years. Most of the property maintenance complaints in Mahwah come from neighbors or other third parties, Lane said.

An enforcement officer investigates the complaint to check its validity. If the violation exists, residents are given a letter saying they have three days to comply. If they don't make the necessary changes, a second letter is issued saying the resident has one day to comply. If they still don't comply, a third letter is sent warning that a summons will be issued, he said. After that, a summons is issued every day the property owner fails to comply.

From having read her replies, there is another side to the story.

There is a cult of property owners I like to refer to as "Lawn Nazis" who have lovely, sterile properties without trees which produce anything but leaves and no blade of grass out of place.

There is another mindset which would have their property more functional, that is with fruit trees and gardens.

The two inevitably clash in proximity. With the set who wouldn't know a black walnut from a mock orange having fits about the 'overgrown and unkempt' nature of their neighbor's property.

The one group views a home strictly as an investment--a house, the other wants to live there in perpetuity (a home), and are not in it to just turn the property at a profit on their way to bigger digs or elsewhere. The former are far more likely to enact anal-retentive rules to protect 'their investment' because they have no intention of living under those same rules for very long.

Reading the other side of the story, and once, long ago having been a victim of similar shenanigans, there is a distinct possibility that someone wants the property cheap and is not adverse to using official agencies to harrass the current owner. Many such are more than willing to prey on anyone they think will just throw in the towel, and will either eventually back down or redouble their efforts when they stumble across a fighter.

In the instance that the local officials are on the level, ultimately, this can be dealt with. If not, it is a difficult situation indeed and the only alternatives which remain are to kick things up to a higher level of government or law enforcement, (in which case very careful documentation of every claimed abuse of power had best be at hand, and in at least triplicate, with coppies elsewhere), or throwing in the towell and selling out.

In my case, several local agencies had been used to harrass me, and the break point came when I got a phone call from the health department. Winter here normally involves snow on the ground from late October to March, and in the spring, if you have a dog, when the snow melts, any of the frozen 'landmines' your dog may have left are revealed.

You clean then up, and life goes on, no biggie.

The complaint was that there "was a strong odor of dog feces emanating from my yard". (Now think about that for a second.) I knew that once having received a complaint, the guy had to check it out.

He was surprised when I laughed and said to come on over and check it out--right now if you have the time.

He was further surprised when I said that someone locally was using official agencies to harrass me, just so he knew, and I was sorry they had to waste his time like this.

As it turned out, he did come over within five minutes, and I led him to the offending fece.

That's right, singular, one, fece.

I explained that I would have cleaned it up, but it was my son's job to police the dog's area, and that he was not home from school yet.

I did not want to undermine his work ethic, but if he insisted, I would remove the offending fece and dispose of it.

By then, he was laughing, so I figured I'd tag him with the clincher.

I said, "You know, the location of this fece is not readily observeable from off the property, and someone called about the odor of a specific variety of fece."

"Man, someone really knows their sh!T!"

That had him howling. It was also the beginning of the end of the complaints. There were a couple more minor details, but the official stuff was half-hearted at best and it finally quit.

Lessons learned: first, realize that you are being harassed.

Second: In general the person who is "just doing their job" is really just doing their job. They are not the ones who started the fracas, they are just caught in the middle.

Venting frustration on them will only make an enemy where the rubber meets the road, with the person who has to write the report of what they observed in the field. The Health Department guy was visibly surprised at my congeniality, noted I was not noncompliant, and I am sure any aggravation he had at that point went in the direction of the complaintant, and not me. I am sure he expected hostility and was relieved when that was not the case.

Being rational, even congenial with the field people, will only win you points and can get them to pull for you in the end.

You have to appear more sane than the people making the complaints. Make them look like idiots or raving lunatics.

Third: Find out the rules and comply with them. If you are depending on an official service, such as trash collection, and it does not get done, get on the horn and make it known that the trash was not picked up. If the rules require the can to be removed by a certain time, make it happen, if lids are required and it is not prohibited, attach them to the can with a rope, small chain, whatever. It is not about what your neighbors get away with so much as what you are doing.

If the neighbors are all not doing something you are being required to do, you may consider a counter complaint. Failure for the powers that be to enforce rules against some and not all may be cause for judicial action-seek advice and act appropriately.

Try not to create enemies, though, even though some are there now. WInning hearts and minds goes farther than taking the 'Fort Apache' approach of being besieged. You will get far farther with the neighborhood being friendly than combative. Show progress, get the most obvious things cleaned up and fixed, even if it is only a little bit at a time. Trim the herb garden to look like an English Formal garden. A few rocks or bricks painted white can do wonders, and do not have to be expensive.

Plant shrubs to screen the areas the lawn nazis won't understand.

Present an appearance that makes your acre look inoffensive to them, while preserving the functionality you desire behind the screen.

Beneath it all, though, faith helps, as did these words from Isaiah 51:

7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings 8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. 9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Keeping the faith helps keep your cool, and places all in perspective. The war is already won, there are just some battles to take care of. All things are possible through God.

Once you take that perspective, it is easier to deal with things rationally.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I wrote about from my side of the story. I do agree with you about the "Lawn Nazis." I suspect the reason that they don't move to those "restricted" communities is because while they "know" what is best for everyone else, they certainly don't wan't anyone telling THEM what to do. LOL

Another important aspect that wasn't brought out is that one of the primary instigators built a shed on my property.
she sent me a threatening letter demanding $400.00 after the town official required her to get a survey of her property. What did her $400.00 survey show?... You got it- her shed was on my property. They have yet to make her take it off, yet they respond to each and every one of her bogus complaints.

I don't know if anyone read the story in the paper that came out the following day which was a little more balanced and fewer inaccuracies?????

When the first article was written I was in the county jail. The township officials certainly weren't going to be forthcoming about the truth since it would make them look HORRENDOUS---speaking of Nazis!!! You see they had the police break into my house WITHOUT a warrant. Hello???????
Is this just about one of the worst violations of an individual's constitutional rights that there is??? How would you feel to hear male voices coming towards you while you are in bed asleep with shades over your eyes? The "story" they concocted was that if I were there when they broke in, that they would claim to be making a "welfare call." NONE of my neighbors or friends or family members had called the police to ask them to check on me. They broke in specifically to arrest me on a BENCH WARRANT!!! Since my husband had been providing the majority of my support, I had been waiting on him to get the documentation to me that he just couldn't afford to bail me out. I was going to take it to the judge as soon as I received it.

The fact is that I have been CONTINUALLY working on the property to improve it. I had taken care of everything even before going to trial (except the two pieces of broken gutter- I was planning on replacing the whole thing as soon as I had the dough). The reason I insisted on a trial is that they had been extorting money from me for 4 years and I wasn't going to pay any more. I knew that what they were doing was illegal- please look up "selective prosecution." My one neighbor easily has at least FIVE times the amount of "Stuff" on his property as I do- where in fact according to the county mosquito director is where mosquitoes are breeding!!!! The other neighbor had as I already mentioned her shed on my property!!! The third had her fence backwards!!!

The other salient facts is that the police began stopping me (only at NIGHT) and making up false tickets against me i.e.: driving without license or insurance with and obstructed plate---All False... That cost me $1,000.00 to have dismissed. Two tickets while I was legally parked on the street where I live in front of my property!! I fought both those and won. You see there are two volunteer firemen who live on an adjacent street and like to come barreling down the middle of my little block like bats out of hell. As far as they are concerned it is Their OWN personal driveway. They don't dare try that stunt with my other two neighbors who park on the street as one is an attorney and the other is a special agent with FBATF.

They have come onto my property and 2,3, and 4 in the morning to frighten me.

Perhaps worst of all they have abducted my little cocker spaniel Baby on a few occasions and one time I came home to find that they had cut the cable on his lead which is attached to his run and hog-tied him-he was covered in his own vomit when I got home. They also took my shepherd Tigger one time after drugging him-yes I do have a witness!!

Cleanup may cut fines

Friday, March 10, 2006

MAHWAH -- Samantha Moor's tough week got a little better on Thursday. A municipal judge offered her an option for possibly reducing or suspending the $4,921 in fines she has incurred for property maintenance violations. Judge A.J. Gianni told Moor to accept the aid of volunteers who have offered to help clean up her yard after reading about her plight in The Record. If the North Hillside Avenue property is in compliance with township codes when she returns to court in 30 days, Gianni said, he will "reconsider" the fines. On Tuesday, Moor was roused from her bed and arrested by township police for failing to pay the fines she began racking up nearly two years ago. When she was unable to post bail, she was taken to the Bergen County Jail and strip-searched, she said. Just before midnight, she was bailed out by her ex-husband.

"They put me in jail with criminals," Moor said tearfully outside town hall after the court proceeding.

She has been fined for, among other things:

Not bringing in her garbage cans within 12 hours of trash pickup.
Allowing black, stagnant water to remain in an in-ground pool.
Having an inoperable or unregistered vehicle on her property for more than 30 days.
Accumulating rubbish, such as wood, paper and cardboard, on the property.

Moor was raised in Maine in a 250-year-old house. She developed a love for old homes, so when she and her former husband were looking for a place to raise their son, the 1895 stone and brown shingle home on nearly an acre seemed perfect. They looked at houses is Ridgewood, Wyckoff and other towns, but Mahwah's rustic side appealed to her.

"I moved here because I thought it would be like Maine," she said.

Her husband, who worked in Manhattan, could walk to the train. The schools were good for her now 26-year-old son. And she could indulge her green thumb by planting fruit trees, grapevines and vegetables, she said. Moor's problems began six years ago when she hired a contractor, using money borrowed against her house, to remodel her kitchen and dining room. The contractor stripped the two rooms down to the studs. She was going through a divorce at the time, and when the contractor -- her good friend's husband -- asked for the final installment for the $42,000 job, she didn't think anything of it. Weeks went by and the contractor never came back. "It was stupid," she says, looking back. "But they were my friends. I didn't think they were looking to cheat me."

Her husband, though now estranged, continued to support her until he was laid off after a corporate upheaval at the software company he worked for and invested in. The stock crashed and so did their life savings. Six weeks later, her husband had a heart attack. Moor started taking classes learning to do plumbing and electrical work thinking she could fix up her house herself and gain a new career to support her husband. Finding work proved difficult. "I've been out of the workforce since my early 20s," the 48-year-old said. She said she has applied at ShopRite, The Home Depot and other places that advertise a need for nighttime help. Then she could focus on getting her plumbing business off the ground during the day. In the meantime, she learned how to do roofing, climbed on top of her two-story home and reshingled the roof. "I've worked steadily to improve my house," she said.

Moor suspects that the real reason for the fines is to get her to forfeit her property. The sprawling parcel could be subdivided into two or three lots, she said. "Yeah, it's untidy, but that can be fixed," she said, gesturing toward patio furniture, piles of roofing shingles, bundled stacks of newspapers and gardening supplies strewn about her leaf-ridden yard. "You think this is worth $5,000? Or putting me in jail?" Mayor Richard Martel said he has no idea where the notion of someone trying to take Moor's home comes from. "I don't know who would be trying to take her property," he said. "Not the township. We're not around to do that."

Martel fielded phone calls from three groups of people -- some residents and some from outside of the township -- who want to help Moor get her house in order. "They offered to assemble some people ... and said they'd be happy to spend some time helping Ms. Moor." One of those volunteers is former councilman and Planning Board member Louis Rizzo. "It's a beautiful town we have here," Rizzo said outside the courtroom Thursday. "I hate to see something like this."

Locked up for sloppiness

Monday, March 13, 2006
THE RECORD'S EDITORIAL STAFF

NO ONE should go to jail for having a messy yard, or for failing to pay fines arising from an unkempt property. This is, after all, 21st century America, not Dickensian England. We don't have debtor's prison here for people without money to pay bills. Or at least we're not supposed to. But a municipal judge in Mahwah last week sent a borough homeowner to jail over her failure to pay $4,921 in fines for the sloppy condition of her property. The woman, Samantha Moor, escaped having to spend a night in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday only because her ex-husband bailed her out. It's outrageous that Ms. Moor was arrested in the first place. Communities should try to help people like her who have fallen down on their luck, not put them behind bars.

And many good-hearted people in our area stand ready to help, as evidenced by the calls and e-mails last week to Mahwah officials and to Record Staff Writer Alison Pries, who has been reporting on Ms. Moor's case. The publicity about Ms. Moor, and the outpouring of public sympathy, seem also to have softened the approach of the municipal judge who initially ordered her arrest. Judge A.J. Gianni told Ms. Moor on Thursday that he would consider suspending or reducing the fines if she accepted the help of volunteers in cleaning her property. Court officials say Mr. Gianni had also tried to be flexible earlier by inviting Ms. Moor to pay the fine in installments and by setting her bail at the low amount of $250.

But Ms. Moor has financial problems stemming from her getting ripped off by a building contractor several years ago and from the layoff of her former husband from his job. She doesn't seem to have any money for the fines. And she also appears to believe she should not have to pay them. Such a situation could arise in any town. But when municipal officials get locked into an adversarial stance with stubborn or down-and-out homeowners, no one wins. A far better solution is to meet with such homeowners personally before hauling them to court, and to contact social-work agencies, religious congregations or service clubs that might be able to help. Ms. Moor might now get the aid she needs. But she shouldn't have had to face jail to receive it.

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