Interesting local article due to years of complaints about their messy yard and house causing blight, they are now facing jailtime if they don't clean it up.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5574901?nclick_check=1
Willow Glen `junkyard' house headed to trial
MOTHER, SON FACE 19 CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR EYESORE
By Joshua Molina
Mercury News
Article Launched: 04/02/2007 01:45:01 AM PDT
Willow Glen homeowner Shirley Garman moves slowly with a cane in the front... (Len Vaughn-Lahman)«1234»
People on the block call it "the Junkyard."
Shirley Garman and her son Robert call it their home.
An ugly fight over blight in this otherwise pristine Willow Glen neighborhood is tearing neighbors apart and devastating a mother and her son.
"It's insane," said a nervous Shirley Garman, chewing on ice chips in front of her house last week. "You don't send someone to jail for blight."
The Garmans are facing a combined 19 criminal counts and up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine for each charge. A trial is set for today.
The crime?
Their back yard is a mess. A total mess.
Behind their rickety wooden fence at 660 Willow Glen Way is a massive heap of junk. At least four cars litter the one-acre property. There's a small boat and a few commercial trailers. Oil barrels and piles of lumber are scattered throughout. A forklift towers over the fence.
A vinyl back seat that likely used to be in a van now sits in the yard. There's a mattress leaning up against a wall, beside a television and aquarium tank.
Just about everywhere you look, there's junk. For two years the roof of the house was covered with a plastic tarp, according to public records.
Cleanup already begun
Remarkably, there used to be even more junk. Robert Garman, a former truck driver, has spent the last few days moving stuff off the property to avoid the pending trial.
In a criminal complaint
filed a year ago, city attorneys alleged that the Garmans have kept dirt, debris, garbage and hazardous materials - including propane and gas tanks - in their back yard. Over the years Shirley Garman, the owner of the property, has received several administrative citations.
City Attorney Rick Doyle said the Garmans have had plenty of opportunity to clean up their act. City officials have been wrangling with the family since 2002. The city already cleaned up the property a couple of years ago - but the Garmans brought in more stuff.
"A neighborhood shouldn't have to live with this and these conditions, because someone is flagrantly ignoring the law," Doyle said. "There's been no desire on their part to date to clean it up."
Doyle said taking a dispute over blight to court is rare. He could only think of one conviction in the city's history - but the person was put on probation and did not serve any jail time.
The turmoil has boiled over into a full-fledged neighborhood controversy.
Willow Glen is a tightly knit community. Homeowners take pride in the area's reputation as a safe, family-friendly corner of San Jose. It's a place where the lawns are manicured and the streets are mostly free of potholes.
But it's also a place where residents lash out at their neighbors for having a portable basketball hoop on the street or call the police when someone cuts down a tree on private property.
Repeated complaints
The city got involved in the Garman case only after several complaints from residents. The situation has gotten so bad neighbor Tim Gale says he won't let his children walk by the Garmans' house at night.
Gale said he and his wife Lori have lived nearby for 11 years and that Robert Garman, 51, works at all hours of the night, unloading truckloads of stuff. One night, Gale recalls, Garman chain-sawed a tree in the yard, prompting Gale to get out of bed and tell him to stop waking up his kids.
"All the neighbors would like it sold," Gale said. "It's like a junkyard. Who wants a junkyard in their neighborhood?"
Shirley Garman, 69, walks with a cane. The osteoporosis in her back has weakened her spine. Born in San Jose, she lives at the house with Robert, who said he has a stress-related disability that makes it difficult for him to remember details.
The two have a tender relationship - and they both depend on each other, whether it's her providing a roof over his head or his driving her to errands.
And they're intensely protective of their privacy. They've got a pit bull in the yard and "No Trespassing" signs around the house.
On a recent sunny afternoon, the blinds were closed.
Mrs. Garman and her ex-husband, who owned a trucking business, bought the property in 1967. Earlier this year, feeling the pressure from the city, she put the house on the market and got an offer for $2.5 million. But after the house went into escrow, she tried to get out of the sale because she said the offer was below the property's true market value. Now she's embroiled in a legal dispute over the sale, in addition to the battle with the city.
Garman is upset that the people on her block have raised such a stink. "We have busybody neighbors," she said.
She's convinced the city is out to force her to sell the property. "This is a large piece of property, and they want it developed and that brings more money into the city," she said.
But Doyle said the city has no interest in forcing her to sell.
Son wants more time
In his size 14 shoes and grubby blue jeans, Robert Garman stands in the back yard, pointing with grimy hands to various items, offering an explanation for the presence of each one. He takes responsibility for some of the stuff in the yard, while others he says his mother won't let him throw away.
Rather than take everything to the dump, he said, he would like more time to sell the stuff - to help with his child-support payments. He said the controversy has taken an emotional toll, and he's sorry for the drain on his mother.
His only regret?
"That I didn't find the Lord sooner," Garman said. "I did in 1998. He has kept me strong through all of this."
He and his mother attend the Church of God in Willow Glen. Church member Patty McNeil is saddened by the Garmans' plight.
"To threaten to send someone to prison is ridiculous," McNeil said. "If he is convicted, that is truly a crime and we should truly be afraid."
Doyle said the city's ultimate goal is to get the property cleaned up - not to throw anyone in jail. The two sides may still reach a settlement.
"We don't bring this lightly," Doyle said, "and it is clearly the last resort."
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Contact Joshua Molina at
jmolina@mercurynews.com or (408) 275-2002.
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