Resident Against Resident Criminal Act

This happened at a friend's community last week. I was in her office visiting when the resident came in to discuss the situation. He agreed to let me stay and listen, so I got the information first hand.

Resident "A" exposed himself to 2 other residents and their guest. They all live in the same hall. Resident A was arrested then got out on bond. There is a "no contact" order on him.

It is a family-owned community run by three brothers. When the owners were asked what they plan to do about Resident A, the initial decision was nothing. The victim was very upset about this decision and was expressing his concern to my friend, who is the manager with very limited decision making.

I thought about what I might do if this were my property. Resident A is innocent until proven guilty, but there is overwhelming evidence against him. He's never been in trouble before, lived in the community a very long time and always pays his rent on time. A great tenant until this incident. These people are living right outside of each other's door. There will be some sort of contact between them.

What do you think about this situation? :blush:

I would consider the evidence and truth of the matter. I am a little amiss that the owners would not want to act on this. You say the resident was arrested and bonded out? That act alone would be grounds for eviction as far as I am concerned. Your entire property is at stake if no action is taken. This is a very very sick sexual crime against innocent tenants. Sorrowfully, it is on the increase in all of our properties and private homes and neighborhoods.
If you watch the 5:00 and 6:00 news nightly, you will see the stories lined up, see the terrible looking accused in their orange jail suits and flipflops standing in front of the judge, or their photo on the news. This is getting far out of hand.
It is happening everywhere. There MUST be a consequence for doing this sort of thing. If to other adults, it is horrible, but to a child it could be life long and lasting. On this particular crime (even more than drugs) I am for putting myself back in the torch bearing vigilante crowd. Especially in a community where people are trying to live a normal life. Yes, I have seen the same thing. I have run off child abusers and people who sat naked in their windows so people could see them as they walked by. I do not pretend to be someone who can explain why people would do something like this. I WOULD be one who would lock them away.
I say tell him to go to the grocery store and get boxes, because he is going to be moving, and pack it quick!!!! I would do a cease to enter on the property as soon as his three days or whatever the law gives him to move.
I would have NO, and I mean NO tolerance for this. Also if his photo and story was in the newspaper, post it all over your laundry, office, and community room.

I think Herb is right. You gotta let him go. While it may seem minor it could be the beginnings of something really bad. My lease states being charged with a crime will result in an eviction. Suppose the owner allows him to stay and god forbid he becomes more agressive. That could really be bad for everyone!

Every now and again I see news reports warning against flashers. Never happened to me, but I imagine I would probably fall on the ground in a fit of giggles. But that's just me, it's understandable that some would be extremly bothered by this, and there's no question it would be horrible for a child.

A "rent paying" pervert is still a pervert by any other definition. I know that an empty apartment is a bad apartment. I have been there. In most of my properties, however, there was plenty of waiting listed people to fill any empties. These were the subsidized ones as you have already guessed. On the elderly/disabled properties, something like described by the OP was extremely rare. There were plenty of troubles in the senior/disabled but not of the criminal nature. I did have a complex that was a market rate, and it was absolutely the worst of the lot. I had some $800.00 two bedroom townhouses that seemed to attract drug deals. I had a lot of fighting and blue lights on the property at that one.
In retrospect, some of the older single men can be pretty strange as well, and those lived in the elderly properties. I think older folks get a tad "whacked" as they age, and it is not always Altizmers. However you just cannot keep them in the units when they do something like the exposing themselves thing.
I had an old guy who NEVER put his blinds closed and sat usually with the window open and in his boxers in the living room. I repeatedly told him he could not do that, as it was bordering on indecent exposure. Finally I told him to clean up his act or he was gone. At least close the blinds. I don't think he thought he was doing anything wrong. On some maintenance inspections however, I found a LOT of sexual materials (books, DVD, etc) on all kinds of weird sexual themes. Nothing child, or I would have run him out on a rail.
I could not stick him with an eviction and survive it legally, but I put enough pressure on him on housekeeping to finally get rid of him.
You have to get rid of them.

Sandy, I would first have your friend check the verbiage in the Lease both Residents signed for some direction. A lot of times, there is language that states one can be evicted for criminal activity but that is certainly vague language and depending on the Judge it might not stand up under that Judge's scrutiny if you try to evict just on an accusation.

Second, the Manager must now get a copy of the No Contact Order. Third, the Manager must meet/discuss the issue with the Accused Resident. It is entirely possible this Resident experienced a beginning mental health episode, early stages of dimentia, or an alcoholic episode, or a TIA (mini stroke), which could be a one-time only thing or the beginning of a nightmare. The Manager might contact the local police department and ask the Officer about the nature of the case, too, to get the actual facts and the Police Report.

I understand the feeling of issuing an immediate eviction notice, but that really depends on the Lease provisions and state, local, federal laws. If it turns out the lease allows action for this offense, then the Manager should do this and should not delay it. This can cost those three Owners some big money should they allow this person to stay if he reoffends in the meantime.

I have had to deal with this onsite in differing degrees of offense. It isn't fun, but the rights of all residents should, one would think, outweigh the rights of a single individual when it comes to exposing himself to others. Since it appears it happened right there on the property in a common area hallway, it is our duty to protect the neighbors as best we can in every way possible.

I know I had a young lady (and I use the term loosely) who had a boyfriend who was a convicted sexual deviant. She did not seem to understand why, when I found this out from a neighbor, that I forbid him from being on the property (and she had a baby daughter.) He was accused and convicted of sexual contact with a twelve-year old. I can't say who (wink, wink) posted the photo of the guy, or who sent this info to the elementary school across the street, but I can tell you I trespassed him off the property. When I SAW him there a couple of days later, I called the police. It was not the usual officers I worked with who responded to the call. It was very clear, the Officer did not take my complaint seriously. So, after he left my office to go to the unit, I grabbed the unit keys and followed. The guy would not answer the door. (The resident was not home at the time. She was at work.) The cops were going to leave, so I beat down the door and told the guy to open the door. He reluctantly did and I told him to step out of the apartment. He was there to "babysit" the resident's daughter. Oh, hell no. I MADE the police arrest him and remove him from the premises and I called the mother and told her she had five minutes to get to the property or I was calling CPS to remove the baby. She arrived on site, saw her boyfriend in the back of the police car and insisted she had no knowledge of the boyfriend being a sexual predator. Finally, after I point blank told her she needed to face the truth, she said, "Oh, that girl let him have sex with her. Y'all just don't know what it was like. She came on to him!" Yeah. Right. I gave her her Notice that evening and she left voluntarily although she threatened all kinds of legal action against me and threatened me physically.

Sandy, your friend has to take this situation seriously and insist that her property's Owners take it seriously, too. Better to be cautious and approach the situation as to the lease language first, but the Owners need to follow through with action. I do feel it is within the property's best interest to insist that, due to the nature of the charges, this gentleman at least make other living arrangements until the charges are sustained or dropped (especially if there is no specific language in the lease regarding criminal activity.) If the guy has a contact info release form, I would call his family and let them know what is going on as well, so that he could stay with them. The Complaining Resident would then feel safer. They deserve that. Of course, you and I both know the entire community by now knows all about what happened and that will always negatively impact the Owner, Manager and community.

I want to say, that even though we would not like to have any conduct as such, we want to ensure that the individuals rights are not taken away either. I am going on the information given and there was no prior history of such.

There have been times when I have seen people not like someone because they think they are weird and have joined together to do things which are not true in order to get someone out of the area for whatever reason.

As soon as we say flasher, immediate things come to mind and some right away say tar and feather. I would bring the individual in after getting a copy of the restraining order to go over it and let them know where as you are not convicting them as guilty, but you have a responsibility to the community. You have the restraining order and if there are any other problems then you would have to take action within the bounds of the law to protect the safety of the other residents. Now, having given my two cents here before doing so ensure you talk to your lawyer and ensure you are not placing your management company or the owners in any legal issues here by also violating anyone's rights.

We would like to think not, but I have seen people band together to get this or that person gone because that person does not live up to what they think are the right kind of folks to have as neighbors. So, at the same time you want to ensure your tenant is not being mobbed! We know our prisons have held people accused of rape, just to find out years later through DNA tests that it was not the accused. Do not get me wrong as there are cases as well where it was for sure a case of rape and they had the right person. My position is to ensure we honor the law and until proven guilty also protect the individual.

Sometimes doing the right thing is not the most popular stance!

I agree with most of what has been said on this matter; however most cases we need to abide by the innocent until proven guilty thought, BUT this is a case where you need to document everything:

Get copies of booking information (usually available online in many jurisdictions).
Have the resident get a restraining order against the neighbor and provide you a copy.
Consult your attorney for advice. Does your crime/drug free clause (or preferably addendum) include any CHARGE of an illegal act as cause to evict? Does this clause specify whether or not the act must have occurred on property?

Particularly in the case of a minor being the victim, you need to act in the best interest of the child, if the person is a member of the same household, you need to report anonymously to CPS.

Update...

The owner filed an eviction. Upon service of the papers, the tenant will have 10 days to ask for a hearing with the judge.

If he does, the judge might throw the eviction out.

Will let you know what happens.