Case of a grandma's dry lawn ends with infraction and fine

OREM — The criminal case that began with a dry lawn and escalated to a well-known California attorney has finally ended with an infraction.

Betty Perry was the 70-year-old grandmother who made international headlines when she was arrested and handcuffed by Orem police for failing to give her name so she could be cited for her dead grass.

Friday morning in Orem's 4th District Court, Perry's attorney, Paige Benjamin, entered her written no-contest plea to a disorderly conduct infraction. She was also ordered to pay a $100 fine and be on court probation for six months. An infraction is a charge lower than a misdemeanor and doesn't carry the potential for any jail time.

California attorney Gloria Allred, who was approved to participate in the two-day trial Monday and Tuesday, will no longer have to make another trip to Utah.

She was at one of Perry's first hearings and castigated the city prosecutors for filing harassing charges against a grandmother.

However, regardless of the media scrutiny, Orem prosecutor Andrew Peterson said they handled the case and the resolution just like any other case.

"The fact (is) that the crime remains and we are still confident in our decision to charge her with it," Peterson said. Perry was originally charged with a class B misdemeanor of interfering with legal arrest, which was decreased to the infraction and a class C misdemeanor of a zoning ordinance violation, which was dropped.

"We try to resolve it early on in every case, but sometimes the parties just really have to see the impending jury trial to really bring them to the ultimate decision," Peterson said.

Benjamin said he offered an earlier resolution that they would relinquish claims to a civil suit if the city would drop the charges, but the city declined. Benjamin also said the city was hesitant at first to accept the no-contest plea, rather than a guilty plea.

Perry was confronted on July 6 by Orem police officer Jim Flygare about her lawn. She told him she hadn't watered her lawn because she couldn't afford to.

She also refused to give her name and allegedly said she was leaving soon and never coming back, Peterson said.

To prevent that, Flygare put her in handcuffs, and during the scuffle she fell, scraping her hands and face.

Perry told reporters soon after her arrest that she felt abused and bullied and didn't know why she was being so mistreated.

Despite rumors that a civil law suit was in the works, Benjamin said Perry is not interested in that right now. She "just wants to move on with life," he said.

Benjamin said he will say more about the case and its history at a press conference Monday.

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E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com