{"id":1513869,"date":"2022-06-13T15:35:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T19:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1513869"},"modified":"2022-06-13T15:35:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T19:35:16","slug":"man-found-guilty-of-criminal-littering-for-leaving-flower-boxes-on-fiancees-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-found-guilty-of-criminal-littering-for-leaving-flower-boxes-on-fiancees-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Found Guilty Of Criminal Littering For Leaving Flower Boxes On Fianc\u00e9e\u2019s Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fman-found-guilty-of-criminal-littering-for-leaving-flower-boxes-on-fiancees-grave%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1513869&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An Alabama man who was arrested earlier this year for placing boxes of flowers on his fianc\u200b\u200b\u00e9\u200b\u200be\u2019s grave has been found guilty of criminal littering.<\/p>\n<p>Winston \u201cWinchester\u201d Hagans was brought to Auburn Municipal Court by his would-be father-in-law, Rev. Tom Ford, father of the late Hannah Ford, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiro7.com\/news\/trending\/trial-set-alabama-man-jailed-placing-flowers-fiancees-grave\/Q2NZDHMT6NFOLBFLIJXS3MSJZA\/\">reported<\/a> KIRO 7. Rev. Ford filed a complaint with the city after Hagans continued to place planter boxes containing flowers and photographs of the couple at Hannah\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n<p>Hagans was ordered to pay a $50 fine and $251 in court fees, <a href=\"https:\/\/oanow.com\/news\/local\/crime-and-courts\/judge-rules-against-winchester-hagans-whose-fianc-e-s-father-charged-him-with-littering-at\/article_619bef68-e847-11ec-b528-d3e47fc44d92.html\">according<\/a> to the Opelika-Auburn News. Judge Jim McLaughlin also suspended a 30-day jail sentence for Hagans, which will remain suspended so long as he does not place any more flowers on the site.<\/p>\n<p>Hagans\u2019 defense attorney, Jeff Tickal, plans to file an appeal. If that appeal is granted, the case will move on to the Lee County Circuit Court, and the initial fines and fees will be dropped.<\/p>\n<p>Ford was killed in a three-car crash on January 17th, 2021, roughly a mile from her home, according to KIRO 7. Her father owns the deed to the grave, located at a cemetery operated by the City of Auburn, and the City Prosecutor Justin Clark stated in court that according to city regulations, \u201cbenches, urns, boxes, shells, toys and other similar articles are not permitted to be placed or maintained on any lot of grave in said cemetery,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/oanow.com\/news\/local\/crime-and-courts\/judge-rules-against-winchester-hagans-whose-fianc-e-s-father-charged-him-with-littering-at\/article_619bef68-e847-11ec-b528-d3e47fc44d92.html\">reported<\/a> Opelika-Auburn News.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:D4uypBAFAuUJ:https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2022\/06\/11\/alabama-flowers-fiancee-grave-littering-hagans\/+&#038;cd=1&#038;hl=en&#038;ct=clnk&#038;gl=us\">The Washington Post<\/a>, city officials told Hagans that he could continue placing the boxes so long as there wasn\u2019t a formal complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe police don\u2019t enforce the law unless the owner of the plot tries to do something about it,\u201d Hagans told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Rev. Ford explained that he filed the complaint because every time he and his family visited and saw the boxes on the grave that they did not want, they had to remove them.<\/p>\n<p>Hagans said that Ford\u2019s family never directly told him to stop leaving the boxes, although the family disapproved of the relationship and asked him not to come to Hannah\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n<p>Sari Card, the administrative assistant of Auburn Parks and Recreation, testified that she had spoken with Hagans several times about the problem with the planter boxes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said he didn\u2019t care,\u201d Card told the court, according to Opelika-Auburn News. \u201c[He said] that every time a box is removed he would make another one to replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to The Washington Post, David Dorton, a spokesperson for the city of Auburn, explained, \u201cAny citizen has the right to pursue a criminal charge against another upon showing that sufficient probable cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find no joy to be here, and I did everything I could not to be here,\u201d Rev. Ford told the court, reported Opelika-Auburn News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t get paid to have emotions or to rule on what\u2019s right, or what\u2019s nice, or what\u2019s moral, or what\u2019s Christian,\u201d Judge McLaughlin said. \u201cI\u2019m paid to rule on the law and the facts. When you take all the other out of it \u2026 you got a deed that says no boxes. You got a gentleman who\u2019s been told no boxes by the City of Auburn uncontroverted testimony. You got a gentleman who says \u2014 this frankly is where I lose my patience \u2014 \u2018I don\u2019t care what the rules are and what the law says, I\u2019m gonna do what I want.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before his conviction, Hagans thanked friends and family who had supported him during his grief and subsequent legal battle on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/winston.hagans\/posts\/10221416557506104?__cft__[0]=AZX5iE6cLS1wbva4rrcERRXSjQ_f8J7P_WsdBdId467sRe4avprqpPArhEugz3cxs48BilcsWoQ4xWtqvIOftVqzr9CPSWzLqF1hs-S5P01IklW3Uthv5F_IfpAtwM2-_Xbf-2T093w_ddDXr0cxJMaGusZecwv99NWoiC5c1uSEfQ&#038;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\">Facebook<\/a>. \u201cIt means more to me than you will ever know,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt has honestly saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Alabama man who was arrested earlier this year for placing boxes of flowers on his fianc\u200b\u200b\u00e9\u200b\u200be\u2019s grave has been found guilty of criminal littering. Winston \u201cWinchester\u201d Hagans was brought to Auburn Municipal Court by his would-be father-in-law, Rev. Tom Ford, father of the late Hannah Ford, reported KIRO 7. Rev. Ford filed a complaint &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":856,"featured_media":1514055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1513869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1513869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1513869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1513869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1513869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}