After Marie Brown was evicted from her Peoria house, strangers pulled together to help her.  Government, no matter what the form, was nowhere to be found.  People whom Brown had never met found her a place to live, found homes for her cats, got her to a doctor.  Noticeably absent were elected officials and people running for office - even when a cluster of TV cameras focused on the cleanup of the house.  Brown, 77, was forcibly evicted after a long battle   with the Westbrook Village Homeowners

Pat Haruff was among the volunteers helping to move Marie Brown's things from the home she was evicted from for not paying her homeowner association fees.

Her house was sold at a sheriff's auction for $52,500 to Armando Hernandez. 

The house was a disaster. She had 15 cats. Boxes and clutter filled almost every inch. Appliances did not work. 

Charlie Bindert learned of the eviction from television news. He immediately started scrambling to find a way to help, although he had never met Brown. She now lives in his house. 

No person of any official position has made any attempt to check on Brown, he said. None helped in cleaning up the house. 

"As far as anyone who had some power, who could have done something, who had a lot more influence that we had, no one has come forth at all," he said. 

Bindert, Pat Haruff and Lori Hubbard, none of whom knew each other or Brown, came together to take care of Brown and her belongings. 

What government did, in the form of her homeowners association and the courts, was take away her house. 

Ken Forgia, a Peoria councilman who lives in Westbrook Village, said he did as much for Brown as he could. 

"I don't think government let Marie Brown down. I think Marie Brown let Marie Brown down," he said. 

"It's really funny how the news media has responded, making everyone involved a villain except Marie Brown. She is a very, very defiant woman." 

John Keegan, Peoria's mayor, would not talk about Brown's situation. 

Given similar circumstances, the Westbrook Village HOA would act exactly as it did with Brown, President Patrick Hickson said. 

"Given the same situation - and most folks don't know all that went on - given the obstinate approach, yes," he said. 

Forgia, who served as a sounding board for Brown, considers her a friend. He said he advised her in almost every phone call, which came sometimes twice a day, to get an attorney. 

"I don't believe I let her down a bit. I tried to help her by telling her what I thought she needed to do. . . . You got to know her. You can't go in there and force her to do anything," he said. 

Adult Protective Services had no authority to force her into anything, said Tina Dannenfelser, the agency's operations manager. She would not speak about what services were offered Brown. 

"In Arizona, freedom comes before safety," Dannenfelser said. 

That means that unless someone can show abuse, neglect or exploitation, Adult Protective Services can only offer help. 

"People refuse services, so it looks like we're not doing our job," Dannenfelser said. 

Scott Bundgaard, who represented Brown as a state senator, said his office tried to help after he learned of the eviction. He had his office call the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program for the indigent. 

"Everything the government could do was after the fact," he said. 

He said his office looked into the matter and found there wasn't anything it could do. 

Bundgaard praised the volunteers who are trying to make Brown comfortable. 

"(They) have done what more neighbors should be doing in cases like this," he said. "I'm glad they did it without government intervention." 

Haruff, who is an activist in homeowner association issues, said she agrees that government is not the answer. 

"We need to take care of ourselves and not ask somebody else to do it," she said. 

In Brown's case, government did not need to be involved if people had paid more attention to her and had been willing to help, she said. 

Government has no role in dealing with Brown now, Haruff said. 

"Absolutely not. I do not think she needs government help. . . . Marie actually is probably better off than when she was in that house." 

Over the last several days there have been numerous articles and editorials regarding the eviction of Marie Brown. Almost without exception they state she was foreclosed and evicted for failure to pay her HOA assessments. They also mention such things as 
"clutter", "cat urine stains", "mental state", etc. All of which were never an issue in the actual foreclosure.

SO WHY WAS SHE FORECLOSED AND EVICTED?

In my opinion the major reason was ATTORNEY FEES. These fees were generated almost entirely because the HOA decided they didn't like her landscaping, NOT because of past due assessments.

The following is based upon documents obtained via the Maricopa County Recorders Office.

In 1997 the HOA decided they didn't like the looks of Marie's landscaping. Enter "Trimmers R US" (your wallet, not your trees) Ekmark & Ekmark, who was more than willing to force that errant foliage into the HOA's idea of compliance -- FOR A PRICE.

This resulted in a judgement in 1997 which in addition to money included the following "...the Court hereby issues a permanent injunction compelling Defendant (Marie) to :
(1) remove all ribbons, ropes, and ornaments from the landscaping on her property;
(2) trim the landscaping on her property; and 
(3) maintain her property in accordance with the Association's architectural standards."

Marie stopped paying her assessments in 1998.

There were several other Court actions, ALL dealing with the landscaping, leading to the "Judgement and Decree of Foreclosure and Order of Sale" issued June 29, 2001. Exhibit "A" of that order listed the principal amount owed the HOA with a breakdown.
The total judgement was for $22,388.95. So how much was for past due assessments?

$1,660 + 166(late fees) = $1,826.00

Of over $22K less than $2K for past due assessments doesn't sound like the reason for foreclosure to me.

If you breakdown Exhibit "A", including breaking down the broad categories like "Unpaid Judgement" into their components like fines, attorney fees, etc. you see just what comprises that over $22K.

1.) Court costs..................................                                                        $      843.38
2.) Past due assessments & late fees...........                                        $   1,826.00
3.) HOA landscaping bill.......................                                                   $   1,940.00
4.) Fines & Sanctions awarded to HOA...........                                      $   3,561.50
5.) Attorney fees.............................                                                           $ 14,218.07
Total.......................................                                                                    $ 22,388.95

OVER $14,000.00 IN ATTORNEY FEES!!!!!!!
Now that's what I call a trim job.

She was foreclosed for not paying her assessments.
What a crock of crap!

The following Recorder documents were used in the above assessment.

97-0795244; 98-1187720; 99-0667469; 99-0774623; 99-1010878; 99-1014295; 99-1142734; 00-0894254; 01-0516867; 01-0618399; 02-0499199

WESTBROOK VILLAGE "The Neighborly Neighborhood"

Yes, those folks over at WESTBROOK VILLAGE they're so neighborly they even pasted an amendment to their CCRs just for new neighbors. New neighbors arriving after Jan 25, 2001 have the privilege of contributing $750.00 to the Capital Preservation Fund (aka reserves), this is in addition to any transfer fees (01-0056037). So make the move today!

Maricopa County public records are online at: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/recdocdata/

The stench is overpowering. It makes you gag and retch and wonder how an old lady could live like that.

Not with the odor coming from her house. It's the one coming from the neighborhood that really offends.

It's been 21 days now since Marie "Penny" Brown was forcibly ejected from her house of 17 years. Twenty-one days since the 77-year-old woman was evicted for the unpardonable sin of not paying her homeowner association fees. 

What, you might ask, did Westbrook Village do to help once she was put out? Or the community? Or the city of Peoria? Or the state of Arizona? Don't ask.

Penny is alive and not exactly well, but living, at least, with a roof over her head, thanks to a few people who heard her story and decided they had to help. Pat Haruff of Mesa picked her up after a short stay in the hospital.

"It didn't seem like anybody else was going to do it," said Haruff, who fights homeowners association abuses.

Others came forward as well. People like Lori Hubbard and Charlie Bindert. Together they found her temporary housing and a doctor who diagnosed a heart condition that may require surgery. They got her hair done and took her shopping for clothes. They found homes for her cats and they moved her things, those worth salvaging, out of the house on Taro Lane. 

The house is a mess and it reeks of cat urine. But it also tells the story of a woman in more gracious times. The silk couches and mauve and cream draperies that had a decorator's touch. The Waterford crystal and Mikasa china and sterling silver. The pictures of dinner parties and of her husband, Hugh, in better times. By 1990, the retired Air Force officer had Parkinson's. He died in 1995.

The house speaks of a woman who, at 77 and alone, was unable to manage. A toilet was broken, yet there was an unopened repair kit. The TVs were broken, yet a new one sat in an unopened box. The refrigerator was broken, so Penny kept her food in an ice chest. Every day, she would walk to the rec center to get ice. I wonder, did anyone ever question why she needed all that ice?

It was around the time her husband got sick that problems with Westbrook Village developed. At one point, Westbrook Village hired a crew to trim her yard. Haruff, pointing to years-old clippings piled around the backyard, says the landscapers charged Penny $1,900 and didn't finish the job. Penny refused to pay the bill and then refused to pay her dues.

Big mistake.

Westbrook Village, with a little help from a Superior Court judge, took her home and had it auctioned off for less than half of what it's worth in order to collect the $25,000 now owed in dues and legal fees. Charlie Bindert couldn't believe it.

"It broke my heart to see in this day and age that people could do this," he said. "There were some problems with her, but did they need to put her to the street? The outcome could have been so different."

These days, Penny and two of her cats, Tabitha and Morris, are living in Bindert's house in north-central Phoenix. He has invited her to stay. Penny, however, has other ideas. 

"I want my house back," she said. "It isn't that I wouldn't want to stay here. It's just that I've got to get it back."

Of course, she won't get it back, but there is no telling Penny that. She doesn't understand that there is no mercy, no charity and certainly no hope of getting back what was once hers.

There is no way to explain that something stinks on Taro Lane, and it's not just Penny Brown's former home.

PEORIA - Marie Brown, 77, lost her fight Wednesday to keep her north Peoria home.

Constables forced her from the house, then waited patiently for about two hours until she agreed to go to a hospital.

Brown had been living in the house on borrowed time since it was sold at a sheriff's sale last September. The house was sold because Brown refused to pay Westbrook Village Homeowners Association fees, plus the cost of court-ordered trimming of her trees and legal fees.

The fees totaled about $27,000. The house sold for $52,500. Ron Myers, the Peoria justice court constable, was charged with carrying out the eviction. "It's not a very happy day at all," he said as he approached the house. "It's a lose-lose situation for everyone." With an audience of neighbors and media, Myers talked to Brown through the front door, asking her to open up. Brown refused, saying she would be hurt and people would steal her papers if she came out.  Myers kept her talking while a locksmith opened a back door, allowing Constable Phillip Hazlett to enter.

After two hours of persuasion, Marie Brown, 77, agrees Wednesday to be taken to a hospital for evaluation after being evicted from her Peoria home.

Hazlett later said Brown attempted to stop him physically, but he kept walking and she could not resist.

Brown agreed to go into the house's courtyard, where she sat on a gurney under the shade of a bougainvillea while paramedics took her blood pressure and evaluated her health.

That's when a standoff began. Brown kept insisting that she needed to get medicine, medical records, important papers and the flag that draped her husband's casket. She refused to tell anyone where to look for them, saying she had to do it herself.

Myers was just as insistent that she would not be allowed to re-enter the house.

Hazlett said the condition of the house was a classic example of a hoarding person. Boxes, papers and other items were stacked 2 and 3 feet high. Paths were clear to get from room to room.

Brown said the house was in that condition because she was trying to organize things to move out.

In addition, the house had a strong stench from animals, officials said. Maricopa County animal control officers removed at least four cats. 

After viewing the house, authorities determined that the best place for Brown was a hospital. 

"Obviously, she needs some mental help," Myers said.

Paramedics agreed but decided that she demonstrated enough understanding to make her own decisions on hospitalization.

If she refused, their choices were to get a doctor's order or police officer's direction to admit her.

A Peoria officer talked to Brown but chose not to order her to a hospital.

Paramedics decided the only answer was to persuade her to go to a hospital voluntarily. Brown picked up on the situation quickly. 

"You can't take me to a hospital without my permission," she said. 

Meanwhile, neighbors from Westbrook Village gathered around, including some who have feuded with Brown for years.

"Some of the neighbors say why not arrest her and get her out of here," Myers said. "That's not our intention."

His patience paid off. Brown eventually agreed to go to a hospital and was wheeled to the ambulance on a gurney.

Her belongings remain in the house. Authorities said she will have a period of time to clear them out.