Hypothetical question: Is it really wrong to beat your Homeowners Association president with a golf club? Wait! Before you get mad, I really raised that question just to amuse you. Some might say, “Nah, that’s never wrong.” But of course it is.
Our latest story of HOA violence involves the father of famed country singer Kenny Chesney. He’s been arrested for beating his HOA president. I’m not sure what his defense will be, but it looks like he’d had enough from this board official and just lost his temper. He’ll probably plead temporary insanity, which is what most suspects in HOA violence do. That’s a pretty good defense for him because about two million HOA homeowners would probably corroborate the fact that HOA bullies really can drive you insane.
So you’re thinking of spending your ‘golden years’ in a beautiful peaceful retirement community? You want to live in a neighborhood where neighbors really care about each other?
You have so many really wonderful choices of communities to live, places like Mainlands 3 in Tamarac, Florida. Warm air, well-kept lawns, ocean breezes, bird songs filling the air, happy people wishing each other “Good morning,” or “Good afternoon.”
Before you get too excited, check out the video linked below. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic. It graphically demonstrates what’s going on in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Homeowners Associations across the country.
I recently spent eight long days in Wichita at the federal courthouse observing the pre-trial hearing of an HOA lawsuit where a Homeowners Association board member attacked and severely beat a homeowner with a crow bar! These six photos, taken at the hospital, show the viciousness of the attack.
It seems the homeowner discovered work being done on a neighbor’s condo that also happens to belong to the mother of an HOA board member. While others had been on a long waiting list to have their work orders completed, the board member opted to make his mother’s condo top priority over everyone else. The homeowner took his camera and phone to the nearby common area and proceeded to document this “special treatment.”
The board member saw him taking pictures while looking out his condo window, grabbed a crowbar from his garage and started clobbering the camera holding homeowner. The homeowner did not fight back. Obviously, one man was taken to the hospital by ambulance and the other went to jail!
Surprisingly, the District Attorney declined to press charges. The injured homeowner proceeded to file a civil suit in federal court. And as bizarre as this sounds, the HOA members, not their insurance company, are paying all the legal bills because the board member claims his actions were part of his “official duties” as a board member. The legal bills are already estimated at more than $200,000 and the case hasn’t even gone to trial yet!
The homeowner who was beaten began sending emails expressing his anger and frustration with the board of director’s conduct. He did not send any to the defendant. He admitted to the judge that it wasn’t one of his better moments when he attached the somewhat crude “Revenge Song” by Miles Betterman. The HOA board’s legal team actually played that YouTube song in the courtroom, claiming it amounted to a “death threat” to a board member. Give me a break!
The board is seeking a court-ordered injunction to take away this HOA member’s First Amendment rights to communicate with his neighbors. The board also created an HOA “no call” list and they fine this homeowner $100 for every email he sends. The U.S. Constitution be damned!
The community is divided with supporters and haters on both sides. This community has been plagued with lawsuits causing property values to plummet. Even more dramatic, the HOA members have installed security cameras aimed at every nook and cranny of this neighbor’s condo. They even have them installed in their cars!
One other interesting note: While being interrogated about life in this Kansas Homeowners Association, the board member on the stand was asked about a suicide committed by a female resident of the HOA. The woman reportedly had told neighbors she could no longer take the harassment from this particular board member. She hanged herself from a tree right next to the entrance sign to this HOA. I was stunned: When questioned under oath about this tragedy, the board member chuckled.
Dear Readers, let me take you by the shoulders and shake you until you totally understand the madness that’s happening in American HOA neighborhoods!!! “Love thy neighbor” is a completely dead commandment when it comes to life in an HOA!
Insanity!
I cringe to think of the special assessments these HOA homeowners are going to have to fork over when the dust clears. If this homeowner wins a sizeablelawsuit over the crowbar beating or the invasion of his privacy….put a fork in it…this HOA is done!
This story is so sickening, that I’d like to close with the only amusing part of the pre-trial hearing. It involved the HOA attorney and happened on Day 2.
The HOA attorney is very large with a girth that rivals that of Governor Chris Christy. Can you envision that image? While standing at the lectern and questioning a witness his suspenders came loose letting his pants drop down to the floor on one side while he was gripping the other and still questioning the witness. The judge didn’t see it, but those of us in the gallery sure did! Priceless! I nearly burst my lungs trying to keep from laughing out loud!
(Editor’s note:)
Please help this story go viral. Every homeowner in America should read it. Send it to everyone on your email list and ask them to do the same. Send it to your friends, and make the same request to keep it moving throughout our country.
I’m including a link to the song that was actually played as evidence in this Federal Court of law in the case described above. If you are easily offended DO NOT click on the link. If, however, you do listen to the song, just keep in mind that it was introduced into the U.S. District Court record by a well-known Kansas Homeowners Association and its attorneys and is now part of the official court record. Actually, this song could eventually become the national anthem for the anti-HOA movement. Bizarre.
Actually, he was only a potential juror who was tossed out of the jury pool when defense attorneys discovered some prejudicial FaceBook postings.
But this goofball, Jerry Counelis, had apparently posted a comment that said, “Justice for Trayvon” two weeks before George Zimmerman was arrested for Martin’s murder. Then he lied about it during voir dire.
When Counelis was ousted from the jury pool he came back into the courthouse and tried to get into the jury room. He was yelling that his anonymity had been taken away from him. And this is the kind of nut case who could have gotten onto the jury? Dear Lord God!
Counelis was finally arrested and jailed for trespass. His mug shot will ensure that he has no anonymity. Ever.
Zimmerman was an HOA crime watchman for the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association in Sanford, Florida. He says he shot and killed Trayvon Martin after the teenager attacked him. Zimmerman was on a cell phone talking to police when the shooting happened.
This Homeowners Association has already paid Martin’s family more than a million dollars to settle a lawsuit against the HOA. But homeowners there haven’t begun to see the real costs of their gated neighborhood zeal. If Zimmerman is found ‘not guilty’ (as is probable), he’ll have a heck of a lawsuit against his own HOA. They put him at risk. They didn’t support him when he got into trouble while serving his official crime watch duties.
I would not want to be a member of that HOA when the special assessments start arriving.
That’s one HOA that could be going down the drain.
Violence rarely solves a problem. But as Arizona psychologist Dr. Gary Solomon has long predicted, we’ll see ongoing increases in the number of angry HOA members using violence against board members and board members using violence against homeowners.
Thus, you have a homeowner beaten with a crowbar by an HOA board member in Kansas, angry homeowners in Arizona and Kentucky shooting and wounding or killing multiple board members during public meetings, a Colorado homeowner setting fire to a board member’s home, also a Colorado board member’s adult son setting fire to a homeowner’s home (in this case, mine). You have multiple instances of violence in the turbulent HOAs in Florida. In fact, that’s where the latest case happened.
Police in Port Orange arrested 67 year old Ronald Lovejoy for firing gunshots into two homes in his Countryside Homeowners Association. He was in some kind of dispute with his HOA and he apparently discharged his anger along with a few bullets. The homes were occupied at the time, but no one was injured.
Life in a rogue Homeowners Association can be incredibly stressful, and every so often some lunatic uses a weapon to settle the score.
What we really need is a national database of HOA related violence. Not emotional violence, there’s no way of ever accurately keeping track of that.
But physical HOA violence? That might be a little easier to track.
