THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120407
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Ocean View resident Rodney D. Meyer has proven an age-old adage wrong - you can fight city hall and win.
Since last year, Meyer says, he's has been on a one-man crusade, fighting the city's nuisance ordinance.
``I'm fighting the city of Norfolk for invasion of my privacy rights,'' Meyer said in an earlier interview. ``I've been trying to keep this a decent residential neighborhood and the city is just making it very unbearable for me.''
But the city, after obtaining court convictions against Meyer for three misdemeanor violations last year, agreed last week to ask that the charges be dismissed.
Assistant city attorney Cynthia B. Hall wrote a letter last week to Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Poston, following Meyer's appeal of the charges in November. Poston deferred ruling on Meyer's appeal until attorneys from both sides submitted written arguments on whether the ordinance under which Meyer was convicted violated the privacy rights of property owners. Another hearing is scheduled for Jan. 25.
Hall was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
But the city's offer, said defense attorney Clay Macon, is an attempt to avoid a court battle that could have put a thorn in the side of the city's cleanup efforts.
``I think Rodney had a valid constitutional argument, but now we'll never know how the judge would have ruled,'' Macon said.
As part of the city's efforts to clean up blight in Ocean View neighborhoods, city inspectors have stepped up code enforcement efforts, citing residents and absentee landlords for junk cars, old building materials and other unsightly trash.
But Meyer alleges that city inspectors violated his constitutional rights last year when they came onto his property without permission or a warrant and issued him several citations for having too much junk, collecting water where mosquitoes can breed and having unlocked refrigerators at his home.
Meyer is not ready to give up.
``This is not the way I wanted it to end,'' Meyer said. ``The code still stands and the code is still wrong.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER/
Rodney D. Meyer was cited for having too much junk and collecting
water where mosquitoes can breed. Norfok has agreed to drop the
charges.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CODE VIOLATION by CNB