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Show Thursday, July 12, 2007 NORTH COUNTY NEWSPAPERS Page 15 Woman arrested in lawn incident meets the national press Jeremy Duda DAILY HERALD Betty Perry's dry, desolate lawn has put her in a spotlight that extends from coast to coast and even across two oceans. The 70-yearold Orem woman wom-an was arrested and injured on Friday after a police officer of-ficer tried to ticket her for not watering her front lawn. By Monday, the media frenzy had spref d as far as Great Britain and New Zealand. Newspapers from across the United States told Perry's story, sto-ry, and Fox News interviewed her on Monday morning. The London-based British Broadcasting Broad-casting Corporation included the story about the incident on its Web site, as did sites in New Zealand and the Netherlands. Nether-lands. Countless blogs also ran the story, along with headlines that criticized the arresting officer of-ficer and the city. "After what they did to me I want everybody in the world to know," Perry said on Monday. The incident began when a police officer assigned to Orem's Neighborhood Preservation Preser-vation Unit knocked on Perry's door Friday morning and said he was giving her a citation for her brown, barren lawn. Perry refused to give the officer her name and insisted on going inside her house first to call her son and ask his advice on the situation. When Perry refused to give the officer her name, he decided de-cided to place her under arrest. Police said Perry pulled away from the officer as he tried to handcuff her and Perry said she "tried Jo sit down to get away from him." In the ensuing ensu-ing struggle, Perry fell to the ground, bruising her elbows, knees and legs. She also said she was hit in the face with a handcuff, causing a prominent bruise on her nose. "I want people to know that this is not American to handcuff hand-cuff and put somebody in jail because their lawn is brown. ... They could've given me a ticket or done something else," Perry said. LA jTYV ... T t r i - i ' 't' I t JEREMY HARMONDaily Herald Betty Perry's dry lawn is seen at her home in Orem on July 6. The officer arrested Perry and she was in jail for about an hour before supervisors became aware of the situation situa-tion and released her. Police spokesman Lt. Doug Edwards said she was released because the situation could have been resolved by other means. For example, the officer could have gotten her name through property prop-erty records. "That's where I think that we made a tactical error in that there were other options available avail-able as opposed to taking physical physi-cal custody," Edwards said. Edwards said while the situation situ-ation could have been handled differently, the officer's actions ac-tions were well within the law, which requires people to identify iden-tify themselves to an officer who is issuing a citation. She was arrested, he said, because she refused to identify herself. "What happened was not the way that we prefer to do business," Edwards said. "But clearly she did some things that were wrong too in not just saying her name." The citation was never issued is-sued because Perry refused to give the officer her name, but Edwards said the investigation is open and charges such as resisting arrest and failure to identify are a possibility. After Perry fell to the ground, police said she rolled onto her stomach stom-ach and put her hands underneath under-neath her body to prevent the officer from handcuffing her. The department is also conducting an internal investigation inves-tigation into the incident. The officer, who was not identified because of the open investigation, investiga-tion, was placed on administrative adminis-trative leave. There are four officers assigned to the Neighborhood Neigh-borhood Preservation Unit. Perry said she has not yet decided whether to take legal action against the city. She said 1 -f JEREMY HARMONDaily Herald Betty Perry, 70, stands in her front yard in Orem and talks about her experience earlier in the day with an Orem police officer on July 6. she wanted to wait until after seeing doctors about her injuries. inju-ries. She went to the hospital for X-rays on Friday and again on Saturday. While Perry has not made a decision on whether to go to court, she said the incident did help her decide to move from Orem. She had been considering consider-ing selling her house before the arrest, and said Friday's incident inci-dent clinched it for her. "Since this has happened I don't want to live in Orem anymore any-more because of it," she said. "I know now that I'll never see another winter (here)." Perry said she has received a great deal of support from family, friends and members of her LDS ward. The city and police department, however, saw a deluge of calls and e-mails e-mails from people who were concerned about the arrest. Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn Wash-burn said it is frustrating to see the city is getting so much bad press, but said he understands the concerns that people have over the incident. He also said he spoke with Perry on Monday. Mon-day. "We are very concerned and really sorry for what happened hap-pened in terms of the arrest," Washburn said. "If there was a complaint it should've followed a different course of action, and so we are very sorry that that happened. I have expressed as much to Mrs. Perry as well." Washburn also said the incident inci-dent is completely uncharacteristic uncharacter-istic of the Neighborhood Preservation Pres-ervation Unit, which deals with code enforcement but spends much of its time dealing with drug houses and other illegal activity in neighborhoods. "It's not reflective of our de- partment or our excellent, excellent excel-lent staff of officers," he said. While the incident raises a lot of questions about city policies poli-cies toward the appearance of people's yards, especially in dry conditions that have helped spark numerous wildfires in this and other counties, Washburn Wash-burn said it is not city policy to force people to water their lawns. City ordinances require residents to maintain their yards and keep them free of junk, though Washburn said few citations have been issued for brown lawns. "If you drive through Orem there are lawns everywhere that are brown and dried and whatever else," he said. "That is not our policy to go around and enforce green lawns." 0Q3Qi Come in for a quote from one of our preferred Home & Auto Carriers TRAVELERS TW Hartford Group Benefits i METALBUIL1 801-367-4437 435-623-4606 1 shop dine discover v.' -V 4 s (.' ' If - w a - , r-.. 5L. . y0' SfflnSSTLA' DAYS 65 V rs. 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