SANFORD, Fla. — A Florida appellate court has upheld a ruling in favor of a homeowners’ association that claimed a group of men leasing a house in its neighborhood were violating its restrictions on running a business out of a home. The men installed 24 cameras in the house and charged customers to view their sex acts on a Web site, the ADF-supported lawsuit claims.
“When homeowners’ associations have to choose between protecting the children of their communities and tolerating a sexually-oriented business that is violating the rules, the choice is obvious. Our children’s safety comes first,” said ADF-allied attorney Frederick Nelson of the American Liberties Institute. “This profit-making venture from illicit activity in the midst of a neighborhood of families was not only a nuisance that was in clear violation of the homeowners’ association’s regulations, it also posed a danger to the residents.”
According to the lawsuit, residents were concerned about a wide variety of activities surrounding the business at the home, including increased speeding traffic, noise related to parties at the home that were advertised through the Web site, and numerous unrelated people frequently moving in and out of the property (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=2605).
The homeowner, Judith Crago, leased the home to Charles Foulk, the owner of the Web site, under the name of “College Boys Live, Inc.” The tenants would conduct sex parties around the backyard pool even though windows from two neighboring homes overlooked the area. The residents at one of the neighboring houses had to obstruct their 8-year-old daughter’s bedroom window to block the view.
After Nelson filed suit, Foulk shut down his operations in the neighborhood and vacated the home.
“Homeowners’ associations should have the right to protect children in their neighborhoods from the dangers that come with illicit commercial activity,” said ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco. “Without question, the appellate court made the right decision.”
A copy of the decision issued Feb. 18 by the Seminole County Court of the 18th Judicial Circuit, Appellate Division, in
Brantley Harbor Homeowners’ Association v. Crago can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BrantleyOrder.pdf.
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