Woman arrested for unkempt lawn

OREM, UT -- A 70-year-old Utah woman is now free after being arrested for not watering her lawn and refusing to give a police officer her name.

When Betty Perry heard a knock at her door and saw a police officer standing outside, she never imagined she would end up in jail, but that's what happened when the officer tried enforcing Orem, Utah's nuisance ordinance against neglected yards.

"I didn't want to tell him anything until I talked to a lawyer or my son, I wanted to see what he'd tell me to do, I've never had any experience before with the law ever in my life," said Perry

As the enforcement officer started writing her a ticket, she tried going back in her house...that's when the officer tried to handcuff her for refusing to give her name and resisting the ticket.

She tripped on the steps, scraping up her nose and elbows, leaving blood on her door, her porch and her clothes.

Perry was handcuffed, fingerprinted and put in a jail cell, where she sat for more than an hour.

When police brass learned what happened, she was immediately released.

"Every officer in his career has situations they find themselves getting into, at the end of it they scratch their head and say 'Gosh, how did this happen?' Today I think was one of those days, clearly there were some other options available," said Orem Police Lieutenant Doug Edwards.

Perry says she is now scared of the police.

"Don't ever say no when the police tell you do to something, you better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don't have anybody to help you, you've got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you."

The arresting officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave.

Police are not pressing any charges against betty perry for either neglecting her yard or resisting the ticket.