A Beaufort County mother is suing the Hilton Head Gardens apartments after her 14-year-old daughter was reportedly attacked by a tenant in the parking lot, alleging that the leasing company’s negligent screening practices contributed to the 2020 assault and other violent crimes at the property.
Court documents say the 14-year-old girl was visiting a friend at the Gardens Apartments on December 30, 2020 when she stopped to socialize with tenant Katara Greene, 26, in the parking lot. Greene suddenly became “confrontational and verbally abusive” towards the girl, knocking her to the ground and causing her head to hit the concrete.
The teen suffered a concussion and now deals with “debilitating” and “persistent” post-concussion headaches, leaving her bedridden several days a month, according to the court summons.
Court documents claim that Hilton Head Gardens enabled the attack by negligently renting an apartment to Greene, despite his long criminal history. Court records show Greene had previously been convicted of third-degree assault and battery, credit card fraud, failure to report a crime, giving false information to police, a drug charge and various traffic violations.
Hilton Head Gardens evicted Greene from the complex in November 2021, court records show.
Filed Thursday in Beaufort County civil court, the lawsuit alleges that Hilton Head Gardens has been “riddled with violent crime” for the past decade, citing several other incidents that took place at the resort: an August 2020 shooting that left a person hospitalized, the murder of a Bluffton teenager in December 2018 or a little boy being shot in broad daylight on August 21, 2017.
Calls and emails seeking comment were made Thursday to representatives of Hilton Head Gardens and the property’s parent companies: Hilton Head Investment Properties, LP, Frye Properties, Inc. and Frye-HH, LLC. There were no responses before the Friday deadline.
Bryan Schivera, a Savannah attorney representing the injured girl’s mother, declined to comment on the lawsuit.