Farmington receives mowing restitution

FARMINGTON — Restitution has been paid to Farmington for its costs in mowing parts of the now-closed Valley View golf course on Oct. 2, 2020.

Mayor Ernie Penn said Joseph Stewart remitted a check in the amount of $8,469.37 to Farmington District Court on Jan. 11, the day before Stewart and the three other defendants had been ordered to appear in court to answer for not paying the money yet.

Joseph Stewart, Jennifer Stewart, John Kenneth Lipsmeyer and Melissa Lipsmeyer were found guilty in Washington County District Court, Farmington Division, on Feb. 10 by Judge Graham Nations for violating the city’s ordinance that deals with unsightly or unsanitary conditions on property.

Nations ordered the defendants, who were represented by their attorney in court, to pay $8,449 in restitution to Farmington for its costs, along with other fines and fees.

The defendants appealed Nations’ decision to Washington County Circuit Court but failed to appear in person as ordered by Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay for the Nov. 15 pretrial hearing.

Lindsay then dismissed the case with prejudice and ordered that the guilty judgment from district court be reinstated.

The city cited the four defendants on July 8, 2020, for violating the ordinance, which says that brush, grass, vegetation and weeds must be maintained at a height not to exceed 6 inches. When the defendants did not respond, city employees spent 90 hours mowing the high grass and vegetation on the former golf course in the Farmington city limits.

The defendants were found guilty a second time in district court for violating the same ordinance. In this case, the Stewarts and Lipsmeyers were cited June 14 by the city for violating the ordinance, and city employees mowed the tall grass and vegetation in October.

Their attorney, James Hornsey, entered a plea of no contest on behalf of the defendants Dec. 8, and Nations found all four defendants guilty of the misdemeanor. Nations ordered them to pay $11,241 in restitution to the city for its costs in mowing the grass, along with $1,020 in fines, court costs and fees per defendant.

Nations gave the defendants 45 days in jail with 45 days suspended upon payment of all sums owed within 90 days, “and no similar offenses as per prosecutor.”

The four defendants appealed Nations’ decision Jan. 8 to Washington County Circuit Court. Lindsay has set a pretrial hearing for 3 p.m. April 18. His order says the defendants are required to be in court that day.