B3 THE NEWS JOURNAL Saturday, March 4, 2000 [Wilmington, Delaware]

The News Journal/WILLIAM BRETZGER

By ADAM TAYLOR

Special to The News Journal

K. Kay Shearin says she is a gardener of wildflowers. Officials in Elsmere say she is someone who does not like to do yard work.

One of about 20 Libertarians -- a political party advocating absolute and unrestricted liberty -- in a town of about 6,000, Shearin says she's the victim of a governmental conspiracy. Town officials say she's politically irrelevant.

There is, however, some common ground in this story of how one person's flowers are another one's weeds. Both parties agree that if Shearin does not clean up her property within a month, she could end up in jail.

Shearin, 53, a suspended attorney, was convicted in late February, guilty of growing the greenery in her Maple Avenue yard too tall and using her dog's waste to get it that way.

Elsmere officials said her yard violated two parts of the town's weeds ordinance.

One prohibits weeds from being more than 8 inches tall. The other prohibits "unrestrained or unmanicured" shrubbery. Elsmere law also prohibits allowing fecal matter to accumulate so that it creates an odor.

Common Pleas Judge John K. Welch sentenced Shearin to 10 days in jail, fined her $252 and placed her on probation for a year. The jail time was suspended but could be activated if she does not make her yard code-compliant in 30 days.

"There is no way I am going to start chopping that stuff down," Shearin said. "I will go to jail before I do what they want. I'm planting tulip bulbs now. I'm going to be making more, not less."

"That's a choice she has to make," Town Manager Dennis Godek said. "We just want the property cleaned up. We don't want to see anyone sent to jail, but the judge will have that option."

There have been numerous complaints from neighbors about Shearin's property, Godek said.

Shearin said her problems stem from her political activism. She unsuccessfully ran for state attorney general in 1990. She later sued Elsmere, contending a municipal election there in 1993 was riddled with fraud. The suit was dismissed.

Shearin's license to practice law was suspended in 1998 for actions while she was representing the Conference of the African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church in Wilmington.

She claims part of her fence was bulldozed last May or June -- and has sued the town for damages. The case is ongoing.

Godek denied those allegations and said the rest of Shearin's contentions are without merit as well.

"Politically, she's a nonfactor," he said. "And if her yard was up to code, we would defend her right to grow that kind of stuff.

"But those aren't wildflowers. She just decided she didn't want to mow her lawn."

The town cited Shearin due to the condition of her yard in 1994. A magistrate dismissed those charges.

The latest ones were filed in 1998. She was convicted by a magistrate and appealed the decision to common pleas court. She asked for a jury trial. Her appeal was denied.

Town officials say they waited for the new round of complaints before filing the most recent charges.

"It's just not normal in the community," Godek said. "It would be different if they were something she was cultivating to some natural beauty."

But wildness, Shearin said, is an inherent part of growing wildflowers.

"It really is an art to make it look cultivated," she said.

She admits it's a talent she does not possess. Her front yard is cluttered with bare vines and branches. She grows an herb called echinacea, hollyhock, daisies, roses, lilacs and tulips.

"I know it's a poor workman who blames his tools, but this dirt is bad. It looks as ratty as they say it does," she said.

The back yard of her row home is full of waste from Deyda, an American Eskimo spitz, and Drudwyn, a Samoyed.

"I leave it there and use it out front as a fertilizer," she said.

The town considers that a health hazard, and neighbors are offended by the odor and overgrowth, the town's Code Enforcement Officer John Bianchino said.

Shearin said the waste loses its aromatic powers after a few hours -- a point she tried to prove in court by asking the magistrate to smell a sample she brought with her. (He took her word for it.)

Ed Szczerba, Elsmere's mayor 30 years ago, lives across the alley from Shearin.

He thinks the town did the right thing, saying the dog waste is a health hazard and the overgrowth hurts the neighborhood's real estate values.

"She's a good neighbor, she gives me no gray hair, no problems. You couldn't ask for a better neighbor in that way. But she's different. They had to do something," he said.

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B3 THE NEWS JOURNAL Friday, April 21, 2000 [Wilmington, Delaware]

A 53-year-old Elsmere woman convicted in late February for violating town ordinances outlawing tall weeds and accumulated animal feces in yards will probably spend at least the weekend in jail.

K. Kay Shearin of Maple Avenue turned herself into Elsmere police after New Castle County Court of Common Pleas Judge John K. Welch issued a warrant for her arrest Thursday.

Deputy court administrator Lynn Anthony said Shearin appeared before Welch for nonpayment of $292 in fines and penalties. Welch issued the warrant after she failed to comply with a 3 p.m. deadline to pay the fine or report to officials to work it off.

Shearin, a suspended attorney who said she works as a free-lance legal writer, said she cannot afford to pay the fine and does not have enough spare time to work the fine off. Shearin's license to practice law was suspended in 1998 for actions while she was representing the Conference of the African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church in Wilmington.

Elsmere Police Chief Robert W Shipley said Shearin was arraigned at Magistrate Court 10 in Prices Corner. Bail was set at $292. After failing to post it, she was taken to the Women's Correctional Institute in New Castle.

A hearing has been scheduled for Monday at the Court of Common Pleas. The court is closed today because it is a holiday.

Shearin thinks Welch is trying to scare her with the jail time.

"He doesn't understand that I haven't got it," she said of the money. "Maybe after this long weekend in jail he'll realize I'm not playing."

Elsmere officials had cited Shearin for code violations because her yard contained weeds that were more than 8 inches tall, the limit allowed by town code. She was also cited for keeping unrestrained shrubbery and allowing fecal matter to accumulate so it creates an odor.

Elsmere code enforcement officer Jack Bianchino said he drove past Shearin's property Thursday and noted that the violations had not been corrected.

"She's obviously on a crusade," said Bianchino, who planned to photograph the property in the next several days so he will have evidence to present to the court.

Shearin said she has taken no steps to clean up her yard because she thinks it was not in violation in the first place. She refers to the weeds as wildflowers and the dog feces as fertilizer.

"I'm waiting for the decision to be reversed," she said. "I have an appeal pending. It's in Superior Court. I consider it a matter of principle."

Welch originally sentenced Shearin to 10 days in-jail, fined her and placed her on a year's probation. The jail time was suspended.

Shearin said Thursday she was prepared to spend time in jail.

"I can afford to, do that, can't I?" she said, laughing.

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B1 THE NEWS JOURNAL Saturday, April 22, 2000 [Wilmington, Delaware]

An Elsmere woman jailed Thursday for failing to pay a fine levied for her refusal to clean up her yard was bailed out Friday by a sympathetic stranger.

"This is a very good Good Friday for me," K. Kay Shearin of Maple Avenue said after being released from Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle.

Shearin, 53, turned herself in to police after New Castle County Court of Common Pleas Judge John K. Welch issued a warrant for her arrest Thursday. The warrant stemmed from her failure to pay $292 in fines and penalties for violating the Elsmere town code.

Shearin, a suspended attorney who works as a free-lance legal writer, said she could not afford to pay the fine -- levied for keeping tall weeds and accumulated animal feces in her yard. She said she considers the weeds wildflowers and the feces fertilizer.

Don Shane, a Wilmington truck driver who bailed Shearin out of jail after reading a news story about her case, said he thought it "seemed a little heavy handed.''

"For $292, you're going to take this woman and send her to jail for Good Friday and Easter?" he said.

Shane said he does not want to get involved in the legal tussle and won't accompany Shearin to her arraignment hearing Monday.

Shearin said she was not intimidated by the prison experience, adding that most of her fellow inmates were incredulous when she told them why she was in jail.

"I've never been to summer camp, but my experience at WCI was everything I thought summer camp would be like," she said. "It was like being in a dorm room with a bunch of girls. They picked the wrong person to try it on," she said of her jail stay. "Because, unfortunately for them, I've been around the block."

She does not plan to change her landscaping habits.

"I'm going to keep continuing my appeal," she said. "I believe that, in the end, I'm going to be vindicated."

Elsmere also will continue to do everything it can to get Shearin to comply with the law, Town Manager Dennis Godek said.

"She picked the wrong town to try to take her personal crusade to," he said.