Good Samaritan Pays Woman's $287 Fine

Good Samaritans have helped the elderly woman who was fined when she couldn't remove a weather-torn mobile home from her lot.

After the 2004 hurricanes blew the windows out of Verdell Deshazior's trailer house, she bought another. Neither was habitable, so Highlands County Code Enforcement condemned them both.

After the county housing office built a new house for her, they hauled off one trailer, and the 78-year-old woman agreed to remove the other.

"I didn't have the money," Deshazior said. "I'm on a fixed income of $987 monthly."

So she was fined $287, and her yard at the end of an isolated lane near the DeSoto ball fields still contained concrete blocks, wood, lawn chairs, the frame of an old shed and the debris from those two mobile homes, all of which could be the subject of a future complaint from her neighbors.

In April, she finally paid a man to disassemble the mobile home and haul it three miles to the county dump. After the county commissioners balked on whether they should dismiss or reduce the fine, Deshazior's case was featured in Saturday's edition of Highlands Today.

That same day, four readers called. One man and the member of a church group have offered to haul off the debris from her lawn.

"Our youth at church are always looking for ways to bless our community," said the church member, who planned to contact the youth director.

And on Monday, a reader who asked to remain anonymous went to the county finance office and paid her fine.

Deshazior wasn't home on Wednesday, but her property appeared cleaner. A picnic table was neatly arranged, and tires were stacked at the roadside for pickup. More junk remained at the back of the property, though.

"I can't afford to hire it done," Deshazior said last week. "They want $50 just to mow the yard."