Michigan vegetable garden charges dropped
Charges against an Oak Park, Mich., woman, who faced 93 days in jail for having a vegetable garden in her front yard, have apparently been dropped.
The attorney for Julie Bass said, however, that he is not certain that officials won't revive the charges after the negative publicity subsides.
News of the action against Bass, who has a tidy collection of raised beds in her front yard where she grows vegetables, went viral, and officials in the town found themselves swamped by bad publicity after charging Bass with violating city codes.
The Oak Park Hates Vegetables Facebook page, for example, has more than 29,000 "likes."
I am thinking that this might make a good headline on the story: "Tomatoes beet bureaucrats."
Comments
Now they have new charges on her. They are charging her with having unlicensed dogs, even though her dogs are licensed.
Posted by: Elizabeth | July 15, 2011 1:31 PM
GREAT NEWS!!!
Posted by: Michelle Brown | July 15, 2011 1:37 PM
Update on Julie Bass case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1jASxcnAP4
Posted by: MIchael M | July 15, 2011 11:57 PM
They are charging her with having unlicensed dogs, even though her dogs are licensed.
Posted by: Simultandolmetscher | July 17, 2011 3:28 PM
You might want to check Julie's blog, the charges have not been dropped. She wrote:
"1- the charges against us were not actually “dropped”. they were dismissed by some judge we have never heard of or seen. we hope this person is a real judge, and had the real authority to dismiss our case, but we are going to double-check on that today
2- the dismissal without prejudice means that the prosecutor can come back at any time and reinstate the garden charge as well (he has already reinstated the dog license charge, but i will get to that in a minute). there has been no final disposition of the case, so we can’t take a deep breath and relax."
http://oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/trying-to-be-clear/
Posted by: Amy | July 18, 2011 10:11 AM
I cant believe what this world is coming too. Don't these people have real criminals to go and arrest. Good grief this is ridiculous. we have far worse crime in South Africa than "vegetable gardening"
Tree Felling In Johannesburg
Posted by: Garden Guru | August 23, 2011 12:47 AM
I remember when I first heard about this on Yahoo news. I don't understand though, why was she charged? There are alot of people in my neighboorhood with vegetable gardens in the front yard.
Posted by: Playstation Home | August 26, 2011 7:49 PM