Thread: Lawsuit alleges Lake Worth code evictions targeted Latinos

Lawsuit alleges Lake Worth code evictions targeted Latinos
By Sally Apgar | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
July 1, 2008
West Palm Beach - It was just getting dark on the night of the March 8, 2006, raid.

Elena Diego was cooking dinner in the three-bedroom apartment she shared with her husband and five children in Lake Worth. There was loud pounding on the door and suddenly several uniformed men swarmed into her kitchen: At least two were Lake Worth police officers and two were city code enforcers who started snapping photos.

In federal court documents, Diego said her family was told to wait in the parking lot, where they found about 100 of their neighbors waiting while their apartments also were being inspected. Diego testified that a voice announced through a police car loudspeaker that they had 30 minutes to leave their homes and that the city was shutting off the electricity and water. Anyone who stayed behind would be arrested.

There was no other explanation.



Diego said in court documents that the men did not tell them they "had the right to refuse entry and they did not tell us what it was they were inspecting."

The Diegos are one of seven families who filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lake Worth for violating their constitutional rights and federal fair housing laws for the "discriminatory conduct" and "selective use of code enforcement procedures" against Latino and Guatemalan neighborhoods to force people to evacuate their homes. It also said the city used "police officers to coerce or intimidate" people to leave "with little or no notice."

Last week, the families and the city met in closed-door mediation sessions ordered by the court to avert trial. But the two sides were unable to reach an agreement in the dispute, filed in December 2006. A trial in federal court is now scheduled for September.

"The city strongly denies any discrimination," said James Williams, an attorney representing the city. He said he could not comment on the confidential mediation.

"The heart of this lawsuit is that the city fire marshal was concerned about overcrowding and life safety issues for these people. There were numerous life safety violations and issues," he said.

Lisa Carmona, an attorney with the Florida Equal Justice Center, one of three nonprofit organizations representing the families said, "Our clients are disappointed they weren't able to work things out with the city."

Carmona said the suit, which claims unidentified damages and attorneys fees, isn't about money. She said the families don't want such evictions to happen to others. Carmona said some of those evicted, including Diego's mother, who lived in another apartment in the same complex, were "traumatized" by the raid because it brought back their terrors of the Guatemalan-Maya civil war when guerrillas or government militias raided their villages nightly. That conflict, which ended with a 1996 accord, claimed the lives of 100,000 people over 35 years.

The Diegos were snagged in a series of raids conducted by the city's Community Action Teams, which were organized in 2002 to conduct night inspections focused on "overcrowding codes," according to the depositions of city officials in the case.

On March 8, 2006, about 125 people were ordered to evacuate 18 rental apartments in buildings at 1754 and 1760 Third Ave. North that night in units that permitted only 50 people, according to court documents.

In court documents, Armand Harnois, the city's code enforcement director, testified that overcrowding was "one of the more significant issues" in the city because of "life safety issues."

Diego was lucky. Her family had a van and a place to go: the floor of her sister's living room, where the family spent the next three weeks.

The lawsuit said the families were not given written "notice or an opportunity for a hearing." According to the lawsuit, the only notice the families were given was a small sign posted on one of the buildings by the fire department declaring the site "unsafe." Another notice from the city's code enforcement division said "unfit for occupancy."

The lawsuit said the city maintained "a practice of intentionally and aggressively targeting residential dwellings occupied mainly by Latino residents for code enforcement. Other residential dwellings occupied by non-Latino residents within the city limits with the same or similar alleged code violations have not been aggressively targeted."

Sally Apgar can be reached at sapgar@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5506

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 5057.story

The lawsuit said the families were not given written "notice or an opportunity for a hearing." According to the lawsuit, the only notice the families were given was a small sign posted on one of the buildings by the fire department declaring the site "unsafe." Another notice from the city's code enforcement division said "unfit for occupancy."

The lawsuit said the city maintained "a practice of intentionally and aggressively targeting residential dwellings occupied mainly by Latino residents for code enforcement. Other residential dwellings occupied by non-Latino residents within the city limits with the same or similar alleged code violations have not been aggressively targeted."

1. Apparently multiple violations were found and the buidlings were deemed unfit for occupancy. The health dept. was within its rights, they are supposed to shut down any code violations.

2. Maybe the "other" resident dwellings didn't have overcrowding or other safety issues to warrant being deemed unfit for occupancy. Specific buildings were cited and shut down because of specific violations.

3. These tenants should be suing the landlord, not the town. If illegal, they shouldn't be allowed to sue at all and be deported.

The Diegos may not have been overcrowded in their 3-bedroom apartment (7 people), but were other violations found? The landlord would be charged with the violations. Doesn't say anything in this article that the police were looking for illegal aliens. Would the Diegos want to live in an apartment building that was a fire hazard? Who would they have sued if a fire had killed people in their building? They would have sued the town/fire marshall for not doing their job! Ohhh the irony!

Where / are they Illegal ? Legal ? Citizens ? What ?