HOA pool ban for prior vandalism of HOA property

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems crazy. Have them pay to replace little library and books. Done. This is very petty vandalism. The pool doesn’t have anything to do with what they did. Banning them for years insane and probably unlawful. The parents could and should sue if they enforce this. Pretty sure a court would side with the family, unless there are other documented issues that have been going on

HAHAHA. Please cite the pertinent law. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mom of the boy that was banned for 7 years made a comment on the NBC Washington article on facebook. It was under someone else's comment that there must have been more incidents than just this for the boy to be banned for 7 years. The mom replied to that comment saying:

"or the parent lives across the street from the hoa president and that president has animosity towards the parent and using this as a power trip.
In another article. The 11 year old has no prior anything. There is always more. Hoas are power trips"

I don’t know this woman or her kid but that description of an HOA is consistent with my experience in two different HOAs. I went to a couple meetings and the craziness was just exhausting. I think the same people just try to ignore it, and the crazy people take over. So glad our current neighborhood has no HOA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The door got broken off..."

OMG

What about, "My child broke the door so he's now going to be punished for the next year BY ME."

No wonder the kids are shits.

Absolutely NO RESPONSIBILITY.

That's fine--no reason for the HOA to ban him for 7 years.

The assumption that a parent with multiple larcenies, DUIs, and ecstasy on their arrest record would actually be willing-and-able to appropriately accept responsibility and instill it in their own child is not one the HOA is willing to make. For obvious reasons.

[Anonymous]

I normally loathe HOAs, but I'm on their side for this one. The parents suing sound like real pieces of work.

[Anonymous]

People, the story that ran on the air is FAKE, full of untruths.

Here is the real truth of this story.

A special needs child in our neighborhood built the little library as a project with his father. This family has other boys that are all Eagle Scouts, and this special needs boy wanted to show that he also can contribute positively to his world. This family can only be distraught that there special child is being drug through this very hurtful event.

There were three boys that damaged this special little library, and destroyed the books, breaking them and throwing them in the woods. I suspect that the damage to the little library and the replacement of the books was expensive to the association, and more importantly emotionally damaging to the boy who built the little library and his family.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue, the father of the boy, David Verhagen, and their son that was involved, didn't appear for the HOA hearing with the association to explain their position, plea for forgiveness, and most importantly express any sort of contrition towards this criminal act. It is also my understanding that If you want to find more information out about these parents, go to the Prince William County Court system, and research their names. If you do, you can most certainly imagine that it must be a concern that this boy has no meaningful parental guidance at home, and it isn't my HOA's responsibility to be this child's parent. This family never, ever apologize to the beautiful young man that built this library, nor his family.

Joni Blue has a history of attracting media attention to herself. What parent would want to parade their children around through the media to draw attention to themselves.

The statement that the prosecutors would not prosecute this matter is 100% false. If you understand how the juvenile court system works, then you would understand that a prosecutor doesn't make that decision, the judge does. If the HOA decided to put these boys in the juvenile justice system, then I suspect that the system would ban these boys from the HOA property, similar to a No Trespass Order, and maybe for a longer period of time. Instead, I suspect that the No Trespass Orders were done to keep the boys out of the juvenile court system, but doing all they can to protect the HOA property.

The statements that the HOA abused their authority, and issued punishment are also a very interesting untruths. The only system that can punish anyone is the Court, not an HOA. Also, an HOA can't mandate that a child perform community service, again because they are not the Court. Can you imagine the liability to our HOA should they require underaged children to perform manual labor on HOA property, let alone insurance issues? If the HOA did so, they would expose all of us members to legal liability.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue's son received a No Trespass Notice from the Police Department banning him for 7 years from the HOA property, and I am certain that HOA did so for good reason. It is also my understanding that the Gadbois' son is banned for only 1 year. That difference in the length of time tells you a lot about how our Board is treating this. I do understand from social media posts that the Gadbois did give a letter of apology and did pay the money, unlike Joni Blue. At least the Gadbois seem to understand a little bit, but frankly, missing one pool season for this criminal act, should just be accepted by the family, and turn it into a learning lesson, not a blaming session acting like victims. They should also probably reconsider their association with Joni Blue. I assume that is not helping them in the eyes of the HOA.

I love what I am seeing in our community. There is a lot of positive buzz about our Board bringing the community together. They have our support as they do everything they can to protect us.

Finally, from me any many of us within our community, my sincerest apology to the young man that gave our community such a very, very special gift in Benjamin's Little Library for having to endure what appears to a selfish news media grab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, the story that ran on the air is FAKE, full of untruths.

Here is the real truth of this story.

A special needs child in our neighborhood built the little library as a project with his father. This family has other boys that are all Eagle Scouts, and this special needs boy wanted to show that he also can contribute positively to his world. This family can only be distraught that there special child is being drug through this very hurtful event.

There were three boys that damaged this special little library, and destroyed the books, breaking them and throwing them in the woods. I suspect that the damage to the little library and the replacement of the books was expensive to the association, and more importantly emotionally damaging to the boy who built the little library and his family.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue, the father of the boy, David Verhagen, and their son that was involved, didn't appear for the HOA hearing with the association to explain their position, plea for forgiveness, and most importantly express any sort of contrition towards this criminal act. It is also my understanding that If you want to find more information out about these parents, go to the Prince William County Court system, and research their names. If you do, you can most certainly imagine that it must be a concern that this boy has no meaningful parental guidance at home, and it isn't my HOA's responsibility to be this child's parent. This family never, ever apologize to the beautiful young man that built this library, nor his family.

Joni Blue has a history of attracting media attention to herself. What parent would want to parade their children around through the media to draw attention to themselves.

The statement that the prosecutors would not prosecute this matter is 100% false. If you understand how the juvenile court system works, then you would understand that a prosecutor doesn't make that decision, the judge does. If the HOA decided to put these boys in the juvenile justice system, then I suspect that the system would ban these boys from the HOA property, similar to a No Trespass Order, and maybe for a longer period of time. Instead, I suspect that the No Trespass Orders were done to keep the boys out of the juvenile court system, but doing all they can to protect the HOA property.

The statements that the HOA abused their authority, and issued punishment are also a very interesting untruths. The only system that can punish anyone is the Court, not an HOA. Also, an HOA can't mandate that a child perform community service, again because they are not the Court. Can you imagine the liability to our HOA should they require underaged children to perform manual labor on HOA property, let alone insurance issues? If the HOA did so, they would expose all of us members to legal liability.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue's son received a No Trespass Notice from the Police Department banning him for 7 years from the HOA property, and I am certain that HOA did so for good reason. It is also my understanding that the Gadbois' son is banned for only 1 year. That difference in the length of time tells you a lot about how our Board is treating this. I do understand from social media posts that the Gadbois did give a letter of apology and did pay the money, unlike Joni Blue. At least the Gadbois seem to understand a little bit, but frankly, missing one pool season for this criminal act, should just be accepted by the family, and turn it into a learning lesson, not a blaming session acting like victims. They should also probably reconsider their association with Joni Blue. I assume that is not helping them in the eyes of the HOA.

I love what I am seeing in our community. There is a lot of positive buzz about our Board bringing the community together. They have our support as they do everything they can to protect us.

Finally, from me any many of us within our community, my sincerest apology to the young man that gave our community such a very, very special gift in Benjamin's Little Library for having to endure what appears to a selfish news media grab.

Maybe your community needs to put the full story out there a little louder. I am a PP that also lives in Bristow (not Kingsbrooke, and I'm not going to say which community) and I can tell you that this story has been brought up on our private facebook group, and it is not a "positive buzz."

[Anonymous]

I am certain that the HOA is handling it as best they can with the attorney, at least the statement from the attorney was shown in the News.

[Anonymous]

They destroyed the free library of a special needs child?! How cruel and ugly. I hope they didn't know he built it but if they did it should be a discussion on whether or not this SN child was targeted by these angry tweens.

[Anonymous]

So what it private property or HOA property. Special needs kid aside, because the 11 and 14 yr old probably didn’t know who personally made the free library if it was on HOA property. It is the equivalent of a teen knocking over a mailbox. Which is vandalism and wrong, but it isn’t some heinous act deserving to be banned from something for several years. I’m sure a large portion of their HOA fee goes toward pool maintenance and usage. I don’t see how they can legally keep that money and not allow them to utilize services for 7 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, the story that ran on the air is FAKE, full of untruths.

Here is the real truth of this story.

A special needs child in our neighborhood built the little library as a project with his father. This family has other boys that are all Eagle Scouts, and this special needs boy wanted to show that he also can contribute positively to his world. This family can only be distraught that there special child is being drug through this very hurtful event.

There were three boys that damaged this special little library, and destroyed the books, breaking them and throwing them in the woods. I suspect that the damage to the little library and the replacement of the books was expensive to the association, and more importantly emotionally damaging to the boy who built the little library and his family.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue, the father of the boy, David Verhagen, and their son that was involved, didn't appear for the HOA hearing with the association to explain their position, plea for forgiveness, and most importantly express any sort of contrition towards this criminal act. It is also my understanding that If you want to find more information out about these parents, go to the Prince William County Court system, and research their names. If you do, you can most certainly imagine that it must be a concern that this boy has no meaningful parental guidance at home, and it isn't my HOA's responsibility to be this child's parent. This family never, ever apologize to the beautiful young man that built this library, nor his family.

Joni Blue has a history of attracting media attention to herself. What parent would want to parade their children around through the media to draw attention to themselves.

The statement that the prosecutors would not prosecute this matter is 100% false. If you understand how the juvenile court system works, then you would understand that a prosecutor doesn't make that decision, the judge does. If the HOA decided to put these boys in the juvenile justice system, then I suspect that the system would ban these boys from the HOA property, similar to a No Trespass Order, and maybe for a longer period of time. Instead, I suspect that the No Trespass Orders were done to keep the boys out of the juvenile court system, but doing all they can to protect the HOA property.

The statements that the HOA abused their authority, and issued punishment are also a very interesting untruths. The only system that can punish anyone is the Court, not an HOA. Also, an HOA can't mandate that a child perform community service, again because they are not the Court. Can you imagine the liability to our HOA should they require underaged children to perform manual labor on HOA property, let alone insurance issues? If the HOA did so, they would expose all of us members to legal liability.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue's son received a No Trespass Notice from the Police Department banning him for 7 years from the HOA property, and I am certain that HOA did so for good reason. It is also my understanding that the Gadbois' son is banned for only 1 year. That difference in the length of time tells you a lot about how our Board is treating this. I do understand from social media posts that the Gadbois did give a letter of apology and did pay the money, unlike Joni Blue. At least the Gadbois seem to understand a little bit, but frankly, missing one pool season for this criminal act, should just be accepted by the family, and turn it into a learning lesson, not a blaming session acting like victims. They should also probably reconsider their association with Joni Blue. I assume that is not helping them in the eyes of the HOA.

I love what I am seeing in our community. There is a lot of positive buzz about our Board bringing the community together. They have our support as they do everything they can to protect us.

Finally, from me any many of us within our community, my sincerest apology to the young man that gave our community such a very, very special gift in Benjamin's Little Library for having to endure what appears to a selfish news media grab.

Thanks for sharing. The news story only covered the parents' side of things and even then I think most people thought the parents' attitude was a bit fishy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what it private property or HOA property. Special needs kid aside, because the 11 and 14 yr old probably didn’t know who personally made the free library if it was on HOA property. It is the equivalent of a teen knocking over a mailbox. Which is vandalism and wrong, but it isn’t some heinous act deserving to be banned from something for several years. I’m sure a large portion of their HOA fee goes toward pool maintenance and usage. I don’t see how they can legally keep that money and not allow them to utilize services for 7 years.

I don't live in this neighborhood, but most neighborhood pools have a separate pool membership fee apart from HOA fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what it private property or HOA property. Special needs kid aside, because the 11 and 14 yr old probably didn’t know who personally made the free library if it was on HOA property. It is the equivalent of a teen knocking over a mailbox. Which is vandalism and wrong, but it isn’t some heinous act deserving to be banned from something for several years. I’m sure a large portion of their HOA fee goes toward pool maintenance and usage. I don’t see how they can legally keep that money and not allow them to utilize services for 7 years.

I don't live in this neighborhood, but most neighborhood pools have a separate pool membership fee apart from HOA fee.

I'm the other Bristow poster (not the one that lives in Kingsbrooke)

It is not like that in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People, the story that ran on the air is FAKE, full of untruths.

Here is the real truth of this story.

A special needs child in our neighborhood built the little library as a project with his father. This family has other boys that are all Eagle Scouts, and this special needs boy wanted to show that he also can contribute positively to his world. This family can only be distraught that there special child is being drug through this very hurtful event.

There were three boys that damaged this special little library, and destroyed the books, breaking them and throwing them in the woods. I suspect that the damage to the little library and the replacement of the books was expensive to the association, and more importantly emotionally damaging to the boy who built the little library and his family.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue, the father of the boy, David Verhagen, and their son that was involved, didn't appear for the HOA hearing with the association to explain their position, plea for forgiveness, and most importantly express any sort of contrition towards this criminal act. It is also my understanding that If you want to find more information out about these parents, go to the Prince William County Court system, and research their names. If you do, you can most certainly imagine that it must be a concern that this boy has no meaningful parental guidance at home, and it isn't my HOA's responsibility to be this child's parent. This family never, ever apologize to the beautiful young man that built this library, nor his family.

Joni Blue has a history of attracting media attention to herself. What parent would want to parade their children around through the media to draw attention to themselves.

The statement that the prosecutors would not prosecute this matter is 100% false. If you understand how the juvenile court system works, then you would understand that a prosecutor doesn't make that decision, the judge does. If the HOA decided to put these boys in the juvenile justice system, then I suspect that the system would ban these boys from the HOA property, similar to a No Trespass Order, and maybe for a longer period of time. Instead, I suspect that the No Trespass Orders were done to keep the boys out of the juvenile court system, but doing all they can to protect the HOA property.

The statements that the HOA abused their authority, and issued punishment are also a very interesting untruths. The only system that can punish anyone is the Court, not an HOA. Also, an HOA can't mandate that a child perform community service, again because they are not the Court. Can you imagine the liability to our HOA should they require underaged children to perform manual labor on HOA property, let alone insurance issues? If the HOA did so, they would expose all of us members to legal liability.

It is my understanding that Joni Blue's son received a No Trespass Notice from the Police Department banning him for 7 years from the HOA property, and I am certain that HOA did so for good reason. It is also my understanding that the Gadbois' son is banned for only 1 year. That difference in the length of time tells you a lot about how our Board is treating this. I do understand from social media posts that the Gadbois did give a letter of apology and did pay the money, unlike Joni Blue. At least the Gadbois seem to understand a little bit, but frankly, missing one pool season for this criminal act, should just be accepted by the family, and turn it into a learning lesson, not a blaming session acting like victims. They should also probably reconsider their association with Joni Blue. I assume that is not helping them in the eyes of the HOA.

I love what I am seeing in our community. There is a lot of positive buzz about our Board bringing the community together. They have our support as they do everything they can to protect us.

Finally, from me any many of us within our community, my sincerest apology to the young man that gave our community such a very, very special gift in Benjamin's Little Library for having to endure what appears to a selfish news media grab.

I don’t understand how it is possible for the police to issue a 7 year “no trespassing” order. For one, that would need to come from a judge, and second, restraining orders against people doing so much worse to actual people and property are rarely ever over 1 year- except in extreme circumstances. This doesn’t make sense. Plus it was said a police report was made but no charges were brought...so it doesn’t appear this even went before a judge. Confusing story.

[Anonymous]

pp with the background info: you’re a real jerk for posting an 11 year old’s full name, no matter what a miscreant he is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp with the background info: you’re a real jerk for posting an 11 year old’s full name, no matter what a miscreant he is.

With his attitude and his parents, it’ll be in court records in another 7