He Fought the Law, and the Lawn Lost

An Anaheim man who has already spent 30 days in jail because city officials consider his front and side yards unsightly could face more time behind bars if the city prevails in a new court case it has brought against him.

City officials have long maintained that 59-year-old Raman Patel’s yard violates city nuisance codes because the lawn is not landscaped, garbage cans are visible from the street, the garage is discolored and the gates are rusted.

Patel, however, maintains he’s being unfairly targeted by city officials and that other yards in his neighborhood have similar violations. A 1997 stroke left him unable to speak, and Patel said he’s afraid about the prospect of going back to jail.

Some of Patel’s neighbors complain about the yard’s condition, fearing it will bring down property values.

“I go by there all the time, and the house looks like a dump,” said Jim Bushore, who lives down the street. “The garage door needs painting. The yard is a mess. It’s a disgrace to the neighborhood.”

But others said they have no problem with the lawn and that the city is going too far.

“To put a man in jail because he doesn’t have a green lawn . . . that’s really bad,” said Israel Cabrera, who lives a few doors from Patel on Loara Street.

The controversy began in 1996 when code enforcement officers told Patel his yard violated city rules and that he would have to bring it into compliance. That meant landscaping the lawn, painting gates and garage and placing his trash cans out of sight.

Officials said they gave Patel plenty of time fix the problems. “He just doesn’t want to maintain his yard,” said John Poole, Anaheim’s code enforcement manager.

So in 1997, Anaheim took Patel to court. According to court papers, a jury found him guilty of the code violations, and he was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation. Patel served 30 days before being released.

Patel, who cannot speak because of the stroke and communicates by writing, said he tried to keep his frontyard in shape after leaving jail, spending thousands of dollars on a sprinkler system and seeding. But he said the sprinklers were vandalized and the lawn poisoned, leaving it brown and unkept.

Now the city has charged Patel with violating his probation, which requires him to keep his yard in compliance with city codes. On Nov. 2, a judge will decide whether Patel’s probation should be revoked, a move that could send him back to jail.

City officials said it’s rare--but not unheard-of--for residents to received jail time for code violations. They point out that the vast majority of violators simply rectify the problems before court action is necessary.

Councilman Tom Tait said he disagrees with the city’s policy of putting people in jail for zoning and code violations, though he wouldn’t comment directly on the Patel case.

“Individuals and businesses should not be charged criminally for code violations,” Tait said. “The city should be able to get the same thing done through monetary citations.”

City officials said they would leave Patel alone if he would only fix his front lawn. But Patel says he doesn’t have the money to make further improvements.

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Times staff writer Elaine Gale contributed to this report.