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Woman says she was jailed over basketball hoop in yard

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A mother said she was arrested for having a basketball goal in the yard, but police said there's more to the story.
 
Jordan Jackson loves basketball. The 12-year-old wants to play in the professional leagues. That's why her mother set up a basketball goal in her driveway so she could practice. Little did her mother know that would end up getting her arrested.
 
"Now if this was something I did criminal that I deserve to go to be in jail, then OK. But I don't feel I deserve to be in jail over a basketball goal," said Dana Briggs Jackson.
 
Jail is exactly where deputies took Jackson.
 
"It was just the worst day of my life," Jackson said.
 
Clayton County Code Enforcement officials said Jackson was arrested not over the basketball goal, but because she didn't show up for court after she was cited for having the basketball goal in a public right of way.
 
Jackson said she never knew about a court date and she said paperwork left at her home indicated a lien would be placed on her property if she didn't remove the goal.
 
"That wasn't done. I was taken to jail," Jackson said.
 
"It was kind of sad. I thought it was my fault," Jordan Jackson said.
 
Jordan watched deputies arrest her mother.
 
The ordinance said the goal must be moved out of sight if it isn't being used. Jackson says it's too heavy to move with her bad back. And she said others in the neighborhood keep theirs out without getting cited.
 
Now it's in the backyard for good.
 
Code Enforcement officials said the rules are in place for a reason.
 
Jackson says the county needs to lighten up.
 
"It's ridiculous," Jackson said.
 
Jackson is consulting an attorney and plans to fight this.