CHAPTER 16 -
EVICTION GAMES (Updated 11/08/99)
(Please note,
this is not a complete report.)
Fact #1. Under Washington law, retaliatory evictions are illegal.
Fact #2. Wednesday, September 8, 1999. Tacoma Mayoral Candidate Will Baker
- even though he is current in rent and in full compliance with his rental
agreement - finds an eviction notice taped to the outside of his apartment door
that was dated September 7, 1999 and that purports to terminate his tenancy
effective September 30, 1999.
Fact #3. Will Baker states that this latest eviction attempt - there have
been numerous attempts made during the last three years - is an illegal
retaliatory eviction.
Will Baker states that this eviction attempt is
being made in direct response to both Will's repeated exercise of his First
Amendment - free speech - rights granted under the United States Constitution
to make public complaints about the living conditions and public safety
conditions at the Harvard Apartments and Will's repeated exercise of his rights
as a tenant - granted under the Washington State Landlord Tenant Act - to
refuse to allow Jerry Paulson to violate Will Baker's privacy by entering Will
Baker's home without proper written legal notice.
Fact #4. Will Baker lives in Apartment #306 of the Harvard Apartments
building located at 809 S. I Street, Tacoma, Washington.
(Please Note:
The Harvard Apartments building complex contains 17 apartments in the main
building and 3 apartments in a connected building that is directly behind the
main building.)
Fact #5. Gerald "Jerry" Paulson owns the Harvard Apartments
located 809 S. I Street, Tacoma.
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson also owns the
Parkway Apartments located at 220 North I Street, Tacoma, Washington and the
Berg Apartments located at 1304 Division St, Tacoma.)
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson lives at 517
Monterey Lane, Fircrest, Washington and Jerry's home phone number is
253-564-6838.)
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson was the owner
of Paulson's Appliance Store which used to be located on the corner of S. 11th
St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way - where Rite-Aid is now located.)
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson's brother,
Bob, owns Paulson's Motorcycles which is located at 4402 6th Ave.
S.E., Lacey, Washington. Paulson's
Motorcycles is open Monday - Friday from 10:00am - 7:00pm and is open Saturday
10:00am - 6:00pm. Paulson's Motorcycles phone number is 360-456-0730.)
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson is a
prominent member of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located at 6730 No. 17th
St., Tacoma, Washington.)
(Please Note: Jerry Paulson is on the
board of directors for the Wright's Park Association, which is supposed to be
an anti-crime group.)
Fact #6. There are two Gerald “Jerry” Paulson’s listed in the
Tacoma phone book.
(Please Note: The “evil slumlord” Jerry Paulson is
described in great detail in Fact #5.)
(Please Note:
The “good and kind” Jerry Paulson is a very nice man who does not own any
property other than his own home and works at Washington Floral Service Inc.
which is located at 2701 S. 35th St., Tacoma, Washington.)
(Please Note:
The “good” Jerry Paulson used to own some other property several years ago.
Ironically, when the “good” Jerry Paulson went to sell his other
property, his lending institution told him that there was a lien against his
property
As it
turned out, someone had won a judgment against the “evil” Jerry Paulson and had
then proceeded to mistakenly put a lien on the property of the “good” Jerry
Paulson.
A
comparison of social security numbers quickly resolved this situation for the
“good” Jerry Paulson; however, this situation does serve to illustrate how the
“evil” Jerry Paulson does business.
(Please Note:
The “good” Jerry Paulson-who is not related to the “evil” Jerry Paulson in
any way-and his wife would appreciate it very much if the tenants of the “evil”
Jerry Paulson would stop calling him at his home and demanding to know when the
heat in their apartment is going to be turned back on or when the hot water is
going to be turned back on or when repairs to their apartments are going to be
made.
The
“good” Jerry Paulson doesn’t know the answers to these questions! He’s not that Jerry Paulson!
So
please, if you are calling to complain about the conditions of the apartment or
building you live in, please make sure that you are calling the “evil” Jerry
Paulson and not the “good” Jerry Paulson.
The
“good” Jerry Paulson is innocent!
Really!)
History
Of The “8th and I St” Neighborhood
Fact #7. The “8th and I St” neighborhood and the
Harvard Apartments have had a historically violent reputation.
(Please Note: On Tuesday, October 5, 1993. The “Tribune” printed a story titled;
“Hilltop residents ponder response to crime”.
The “Tribune”
reported,
“Lousy landlords, drug dealing, harassment, and speeding cars helped
bring nearly 70 hilltop residents together Monday night for a community
meeting.
The people said they wanted to take the first steps to reclaim
their streets from the crime and violence that have become all too
routine....’If we want to look out to see kids playing and trees growing, then
we have to do something’, organizer Judy Quackenbush said.… Many were concerned
about the drug dealing at South 8th and South I streets.…A major
problem on the Hilltop, everyone agreed, was tenants who either peddle or abuse
drugs in apartment buildings.
Tacoma police will offer a
seminar in November for property owners and apartment managers who want to
learn more about eviction laws, Gainey said.”)
(Tacoma News Tribune
10/05/93 Page #B-4)
(Please Note: While “organizer Judy Quackenbush” does own
a four-plex boarding house located at 910 South 8th street, Tacoma,
Washington, she does not live in the
“8th and I street” neighborhood, or in the Hilltop, or in Tacoma, or
in Pierce County. Judy Quackenbush
lives in Woodinville, Washington.)
(Please Note:
Tuesday, October 5, 1993 – March ’94.
Judy Quackenbush, several anti-crime groups and some other individuals
got a lot of newspaper attention by declaring that they were going to improve
the neighborhood by doing four things:
1.
Organize
a block-watch in the neighborhood.
2.
Turn
an overgrown lot on the corner of 8th & I street into a park.
3.
Get
a surveillance camera installed on the corner of 8th & I street.
4.
Put
pressure on landlords of apartment buildings where a lot of drug activity was
taking place to clean up their buildings.)
(Please Note:
Judy Quackenbush named the new "Block-Watch" the 8th &
I Street Neighborhood Association.)
Since that time, a lot of different “anti-crime”
groups have gotten a lot of press by coming to the lot on the corner of 8th
& I Street and giving great speeches about “neighborhood healing” and
“little miracles” and how the community is coming together.
Unfortunately, if one takes
a closer look at these “accomplishments”, you will find a lot of “sizzle”, but
very little steak.
Let’s examine some of the
best known “success stories”.
Fact #8. In the past, Will Baker has gone as an observer to
many “block-watch” type meetings of the 8th & I Street
Neighborhood Association. Once in
awhile, Will Baker will observe up to 20 people at these meetings. However, usually there are only about 10
people present at these meetings, and two of them will be Judy Quackenbush and
Officer Greg Hopkins. Judy Quackenbush
and Officer Hopkins do not live in this neighborhood.
As a result, it is kind of
difficult to keep an eye on each other’s homes as the other ½-dozen regular
members of the 8th & I Street Neighborhood Association, while
living in the neighborhood, do not have visual contact with each other’s homes
from their own homes.
Reality:
For all intents and purposes, you don’t have a block-watch program.
Reality:
At the numerous 8th & I Street Neighborhood Association
meetings, you have a monthly recitation of the same problems coming from the
same buildings.
Tacoma Police Officer Greg
Hopkins is the liaison officer from the TPD to the Wright’s Park Association
and the 8th & I Street Neighborhood Association.
It is fairly standard
procedure for the Tacoma Police Department (TPD) to assign a liaison officer to
various block watch groups.
TPD
has stated that the official purpose of assigning liaison officers to block
watch groups to open up lines of communication between the citizens living in a
neighborhood and the police department so that they can work together to
successfully lower crime in the neighborhood.
It
is also fairly standard procedure for liaison officers at block watch meeting
to give a neighborhood status report detailing where the problem spots are and
what TPD is doing to clean up the problem areas.
Will
Baker observed that Officer Hopkins never mentioned Jerry Paulson or the
Harvard Apartments in his neighbor status reports, despite the presence of
numerous drug houses and a registered sex offender operating/living in the
building.
Will
Baker also learned that Off. Hopkins was leaving Paulson’s name and his
apartment building off of the status reports he was giving to the Wright’s Park
Association as well.
Fact #9. On Tuesday,
November 9, 1993, barely one month after the “community meeting” to reclaim the
neighborhood from drug dealers, the “Tribune” printed a story titled “Man gunned
down in high crime area”.
The
“Tribune” reported,
“A 24-year-old Tacoma man was shot to death Monday morning near one of
the city’s most crime-riddled intersections.
Eugene Glaude died at 1:50
a.m. at The Harvard Apartments, 809 S. I St., Tacoma police Sgt. Sam Thrall
said. Glaude, who was shot five times,
was pronounced dead at the scene.
Neighbors said the Hilltop
apartment was used for smoking crack cocaine, Thrall said.
Gerald Paulson, owner of The
Harvard Apartments, said he gave the woman who rented the apartment a three-day
eviction notice late last week.”
(Personal Response by Will Baker: Sure he did! And if you believe this,
then
Jerry Paulson has some ocean view apartments in Arizona that he would like
to
rent to you.)
(Political Analysis By Will Baker: It is
far more likely that the truth is Jerry Paulson was willingly and knowingly
renting apartments to drug dealers and as a direct result a man was killed in
Jerry’s building, so Jerry lied to cover his tushy by falsely claiming that he
was beginning to evict the drug dealers just before the shooting happened and
the “Tribune” was only too happy to publish Jerry’s lie.)
(Please Note:
This is the last article that the “Tribune” ever printed that reported about
violence in the Harvard Apartments.)
(Please Note:
The “Tribune” has consistently portrayed Jerry Paulson as a upstanding
businessman from a prominent long-time local family who is greatly concerned
with cleaning up and revitalizing the Hilltop area.)
The
“Tribune” further reported,
“The shooting took place
near South 8th and I streets, which police said has become an
increasingly dangerous corner.
‘At South Eighth and I it
comes in waves,’ Mann said. ‘That’s
just a reality with violent crime and drug-related crime.’
Timothy Barnes, a Lakewood
mortician, was shot repeatedly in the head September 26 and found dead near
that intersection. Investigators said
Barnes, who had just moved to the Hilltop, appeared to be an innocent victim.
On Oct. 25, a 23-year-old
man standing at the same corner was shot in both thighs by a stranger, police
said.
More than 70 Hilltop
residents gathered Oct. 4 to reclaim their streets from the crime and
violence. Many at the meeting said they
were concerned about the drug dealing at South Eighth and I streets.”)
(Tacoma News Tribune 11/09/93 Page #B-4)
Fact #10. After the Tuesday, November 9, 1993 killing, several members of the Wright’s Park
Association and the 8th & I Street Neighborhood Association,
including, among others, Judy Quackenbush and former Tacoma City Councilmember
Tom Stenger, told Jerry Paulson that it didn’t look right for him to be a
sitting member on the board of the Wright’s Park Association and a landlord of
a building that was a place of major drug activity.
Eventually, Jerry Paulson promised to do three
things to clean up his building:
1.
Put
a security door on his building.
2.
Hire
an on-site manager.
3.
Start
screening his tenants.
Paulson handled the situation by placing a sign that
said “Manager” on the apartment door of his janitor, David Hill, and then kept
on renting to anyone with cash.
Paulson
did put a security door on the building.
However, since Jerry routinely gives convicted felons, drug dealers and
registered sex offenders keys to the building when they pay rent, the only
people who are denied immediate access to the building are the police. (When you call 911 for the police, 911 will
call you back when the police arrive so that you can let them in.)
Because of the press due to premature victory
pronouncements, the Stengers and the Quackenbush’s are decidedly unwilling to
admit that they were “suckered” by Jerry Paulson.
You also have the police department, led by Officer
Greg Hopkins, working double-overtime to protect Paulson from discovery.
This is why former Harvard Apartment tenant, Bob
Keeler, asked Will Baker to move into the Harvard Apartment Building.
Fact #11. November
’94. Bob Keeler – the tenant in Apt.
#306 of the Harvard Apartment building located at 809 S. I St., Tacoma, Washington
– asked Will Baker to move into Apt. #306 to help organize to exert pressure on
the landlord, Jerry Paulson, to fix the apartments and to evict the drug
dealers that were living in the building.
(Please Note: At the time that Will Baker moved into apartment #306,
it was not uncommon for drug dealers who were living in the building to force
their way into the apartments of the older tenants and then steal from them. Bob Keeler knew that Will Baker had been instrumental in
closing down a slum-lord where Bob and Will had been neighbors previously.)
Fact #12.
When Will Baker approached Jerry Paulson about the drug-houses in
Paulson’s apartment building, Jerry Paulson denied that he was aware of the
drug dealing, and he stated that he would take care of it. Then Jerry Paulson would do nothing and repeat this
scenario over and over again each month.
Fact #13. Will Baker did have some success when he first moved in at
getting Jerry Paulson to make repairs to the apartment; however, when Jerry
Paulson finally started to fix the apartment, in the true Paulson fashion he
didn’t do it legally. You see, Jerry
Paulson doesn’t believe in the Landlord Tenant Act. This means that on
those rare occasions when Jerry Paulson did decide to make a repair to a tenants
apartment, Jerry Paulson didn’t/doesn’t feel the need to give a written notice
48 hours in advance, he simply walks in.
Fact #14. While Bob Keeler was happy that a few repairs to the apartment
were being made, Bob became afraid of retaliation from the drug dealers when
Will Baker was not around and therefore Bob decided to move out.
Lease Agreement - February 8, 1995
Fact #15.
February 8, 1995. After Bob
Keeler moved out of apartment #306; Will Baker went to see Jerry Paulson to
inform Paulson that Bob had moved out and that since Will’s name was not on the rental lease, Paulson would
not be receiving any rent unless he wanted to give Will a lease agreement.
Fact #16.
February 8, 1995. Jerry Paulson
quickly agreed to lease apartment #306 to Will Baker.
Fact #17.
February 8, 1995. Will Baker
then proceeded to tell Jerry Paulson that due to the incredibly poor condition
of the apartment Will would not be willing to pay the normal rent.
Fact #18.
February 8, 1995. Will Baker the
told Jerry Paulson that he would be willing to pay a reduced rent until the
apartment was fixed and that after the apartment was fixed he would then be
willing to pay a normal rent.
Fact #19. February 8, 1995. Jerry Paulson quickly agreed to Will
Baker’s conditions. Jerry Paulson and
Will Baker agreed that Will could rent apartment #306 for $150.00 per month
until apartment #306 was fixed and that after apartment #306 was fixed Will
would then pay $325.00 per month rent.
Fact #20. February 8, 1995. Will Baker then told Jerry Paulson that
Paulson needed to put the conditions of their agreement in writing in the
rental agreement.
Fact #21. February 8, 1995. Jerry Paulson told Will Baker that it would
not be necessary to write Will’s terms into the rental agreement because Jerry
Paulson is a man of his word and therefore Will could just accept Jerry’s word
about the agreement.
Fact #22. February 8, 1995. Will Baker told Jerry Paulson No Way! Will told Paulson that if Paulson would not write Will Baker’s terms
into the rental agreement then there would be no agreement and that Jerry would
get nothing for the apartment in the condition it was in.
Fact #23. February 8, 1995. Jerry Paulson then decided to write the
agreed upon terms into the rental agreement.
Fact #24. February 8, 1995. Jerry Paulson wrote that rent would be
“$150.00 per month until apt fixed - 325.00 After apt. Repaired.”
Fact #25. February 8, 1995.
After Jerry Paulson amended in writing the lease agreement to include
the rental terms that Jerry Paulson and Will Baker had both agreed to, both
Jerry Paulson and Will Baker proceeded to sign the rental agreement.
The Landlord Tenant Act recognizes the rights of owner's of
rental property to try to keep their financial investments/property in good
condition when RCW 59.18.150(1) state:
"The tenant shall not
unreasonably withhold consent to the landlord to enter into the dwelling unit
in order to inspect the premises, make necessary or agreed repairs,
alterations, or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or exhibit
the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants,
workmen, or contractors."
The Landlord-Tenant Act also recognizes the rights of tenants to
retain some measure of privacy and security in their home when RCW 59.18.150(3)
states:
“ The landlord shall not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant.
Except in the case of emergency or if it is impracticable to do so, the
landlord shall give the tenant at least two days' notice of his intent to enter
and shall enter only at reasonable times.”
The Landlord-Tenant Act also recognizes that landlords and tenants
may disagree on what is reasonable access when RCW 59.18.150(4) states:
“The landlord has no other right of access except by court order, arbitrator or by consent of the tenant.”
I complained about the
officer’s behavior to Councilman Steve Kirby.
On April 12, 1996, Kirby wrote a letter to Corpuz about this
incident. A copy of the letter is
attached. The police responded to this
letter through the City Manager’s Office on May 1, 1996. A copy of that letter is attached.
On
May 9, 1996, at an afternoon meeting of the TPD Liaison Officer and members of
the 8th & I Neighborhood Association, Officer Hopkins said that
he had just had a meeting with Jerry Paulson on how to evict tenants using a
20-day no cause eviction notice. A
couple of hours later, eviction notices were placed on the doors of Ms. Garza
and myself.
I
immediately contacted Councilman Kirby about this. On May 20,1996, Mr. Kirby again wrote to City Manager Corpuz
about this attempted eviction. A copy
of that letter is attached. Within two
days Paulson backed off of following through with both evictions, having
received a letter from the Northwest Justice Project. A copy of that letter is attached.
Unfortunately,
although Officer Hopkins had assured Kirby that Ms. Garza had been removed, she
had not. She was arrested for assault
of two tenants. A copy of Mr. Kirby’s
letter of July 7, 1996 is attached.
The
next eviction attempt was made approximately May 9, 1997. I had become involved in issues dealing with
election security and began attending city council meetings to bring this to
the attention of the City Council and the citizens of Tacoma about what was
happening in the elections being run by the County Auditor for the City. On April 29, 1997 I was arrested at the City
Council meeting and went to jail. I
started a hunger strike to call attention to my concerns. I was paid up in rent, but I was still in
jail when the rent came due. On May 6,
1997, a three-day pay or vacate notice was brought to me in my cell. I called Paulson and told him that I was
going to talk to KING 5 TV about this.
Mr. Paulson told me that the notice was a mistake, and he orally
rescinded his notice. The matter was
finally scheduled for trial on October 2, 1999.
On
May 10, 1999 Paulson again started to try and evict me. This was shortly after I had been
instrumental in having another tenant arrested for assault, had the Humane
Society contact Paulson about a dangerous dog loose on the premises, and
insisting that Paulson give me proper notice to enter my apartment which had
upset him very much. This alleged
20-day notice was tacked on my door while I was in the apartment, and no
attempt had been made to talk to me directly.
I discovered it the following morning when I left my apartment. The notice was sent by mail with a May 12,
1999 postmark. Paulson did not follow
through with this after a letter from my attorney.
Although
the City was resisting the October trial during the election campaign, I was
insisting upon the trial. It was part
of my campaign strategy to have my opponent for Mayor, Brian Ebersole, on the
witness stand before the election. The
Assistant City Attorney pre-assigned to my case simply didn’t show up for the
pre-trial conference on September 2, forcing a continuance to September 9. On September 8, I received the Notice To
Terminate Tenancy, which is the subject of this matter. I consented to a delay of the trial until
January 2000 to begin to deal with this.
I also had a number of other matters in court dealing with my arrests
for exercising my First Amendment rights.
During
the course of my tenancy at Harvard Apartments, Paulson and I had been at odds
over his attempts to enter my apartment without proper notice. Sometimes I have returned to my apartment,
and it was clear to me that someone had accessed my apartment, which could have
only been authorized by Paulson or persons working on his behalf. One time I came home and found my door
unlocked and the back of the apartment entry door had been painted. Paulson denied that anyone had been in my
apartment. When I discovered who had
been in my apartment, the individual admitted to the police that Mr. Paulson
had granted him access. He had left the entire building unlocked.
Since
this action has been commenced, Paulson has again attempted to enter my apartment
with invalid notices. One was given for
the purposes of inspecting the premises during a 14-hour period. On October 18, 1999 I received three
different notices to make an inspection as well as make “necessary repairs
and/or maintenance to the property.” A
copy of two of the notices is attached.
These attempts constitute continued harassment. They were particularly aggravating because I
was attempting to run a campaign. All
of these things diverted my attention from the election.