Mother of five arrested for not cutting grass

quote:

---

CAHOKIA, Ill. (KMOV.com) – A single mother of five in Cahokia is left reeling after her arrest for failing to cut her grass.

Ebony Conner is a mother of five and says she is not entirely sure why she was arrested. But she says the only explanation is a complaint from the Village of Cahokia listing failure to cut her grass.

“I’m from the State of Wisconsin, I’ve lived in St. Louis, Missouri and I’ve never heard of being arrested for grass,” said Conner.
Conner says she was given a verbal warning by a code enforcement officer at the end of June to cut her grass, remover trash and tow derelict cars from her driveway.

But Conner says she thought she would have had more time to correct the issues.

“I understand I violated a code but take the channels, give me a ticket first, make me appear in court. I know there's gotta be channels other than if you don’t cut your grass, we're arresting you right now,” said Conner.

Officers told News 4 that Conner was held for 30 minutes in jail and was released.

But Conner's five children were left alone during her arrest. Conner says the only person present was the code enforcement officer outside her home.

“I said ‘I don’t trust him [the enforcement code officer]. I don’t know him at all.’ To just leave my kids with him. And they still hauled me off,” said Conner.

Conner says she had no idea failing to cut her grass would lead to her arrest.

---