Don’t question your HOA or you might get Arrested!
Actually – you should question your HOA if you think what is going on is wrong, but I kept the headline from the Las Vegas Sun because in this case a couple of gentlemen did get arrested. While charges were eventually dropped – it does cause some interesting insights into behavior that is overzealous. PLEASE NOTE: In spite of the title on this and the newspaper article, they did not get arrested for questioning what the association was doing – they got arrested for filing false police reports! Every homeowner has a right to make sure their association is operating in compliance with the law, there are just more acceptable ways of doing it than violating the law yourself! Usually we see this sort of behavior with spurious claims in small claims court – but these homeowners decided to up the ante.
This article is was written by J. Patrick Coolican and published in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper.
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact)
Friday, March 30, 2012 | 2 a.m.
J. Patrick Coolican
Don’t question your homeowners association because Henderson Police might arrest you.
Here’s the story: Robert Frank and Tim Stebbins probably cared too much about the finances of their homeowners association, Sun City Anthem. Frank was first a resident agitator and then a board member. Stebbins was just a concerned resident.
Frank and Stebbins believed the board was piling up excess HOA reserve funds — more than $3 million — when that money should have been returned to homeowners. Not returning the HOA reserve funds placed the money at risk of IRS tax liability, they insisted.
Frank and Stebbins built their case and then sought advice from friends in the legal community to avoid a boomerang lawsuit from the HOA board. They were advised to bring the issue to local law enforcement, meaning Henderson Police. Bad advice.
Frank and Stebbins accused two board members of “forgery” — essentially knowingly signing a false statement — which was probably also imprudent. According to a police affidavit, Frank told the investigator a “flagrantly false” board resolution related to the HOA reserve fund surplus was “used to deceive the community membership and government agencies concerning the improper disposition of millions of dollars of overcharged/surplus homeowner assessments.”
After an investigation, Henderson Police exonerated the board members and then arrested … Frank and Stebbins.
Huh?
Yes, they were arrested in 2010 for filing a “false report of a crime.”
Henderson Police determined the board members didn’t knowingly sign false documents and so couldn’t be accused of forgery. Moreover, police said Frank and Stebbins had to have known their allegation was false and so should be prosecuted for filing a false police report.
Meanwhile, an IRS audit vindicated the claim of Frank and Stebbins that Sun City Anthem owes the U.S. Treasury more than $1 million for not returning the surplus HOA reserve funds to the homeowners.
An administrative appeal to the IRS was denied, but negotiations with the government to find a resolution are ongoing, according to current HOA board President Jim Long. The tax liability is roughly $1.35 million, he said.
Regardless, at least for now, it seems Frank and Stebbins were right that Sun City faced a tax liability by not returning the excess dues of homeowners.
Attorneys for Frank and Stebbins successfully had the venue of the case changed because a member of the HOA board was also a substitute Henderson judge.
So, North Las Vegas City Attorney Jeffrey Barr prosecuted the case, until recently dropping it.
Through a spokeswoman, Barr sent me a brief statement: “It was in the interest of justice that the North Las Vegas city attorney decide not to move forward with this case.”
Thankfully, this puts an end to it.
Frank is a 72-year-old retired Air Force Colonel who said he’d never had a speeding ticket before this ordeal.
Stebbins is a 73-year-old retired salesman of analytical instrumentation and laboratory robotics.
Frank said when the pair were arrested they were stripped to undergarments and left in handcuffs for four hours while other alleged criminals were processed. “And for what? To scare a couple old guys?” he exclaimed, suddenly choked with emotion.
There are good reasons we have laws against filing false police reports, which waste law enforcement resources and can besmirch the good name of innocent persons. And I can see ignoring Frank and Stebbins or sending them off to the IRS to make their complaint. But prosecuting them? This seems to be a curious use of government resources.
HOA Reserve Funds
I should note – it appears the IRS issue is also not valid and will eventually get sorted out. HOA reserve studies help ensure that the association is collecting adequate dues – Roy Helsing
