Lawsuit accuses College Park officials of collusion to take property

College Park City Council members Joe Carn and Tracie Arnold, along with other city officials, orchestrated a plot to destroy the value of Chelsea Gardens apartments and “steal” it for their own financial gain, according to a lawsuit brought by the property’s former owners.

The Oct. 15 civil complaint, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, alleges violations of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. It also accuses the defendants, including the city of College Park, of underlying offenses, including attempted bribery, extortion and making false statements, though the lawsuit does not specify exactly which actions support each of the alleged offenses.

It says Jerry Silver, a former code enforcement supervisor for the city, identified phony code violations on the property in a warning notice, adding that the defendants and conspirators selectively enforced an inspection rule for vacant apartments.

“This tactic was employed only against targeted properties,” including Chelsea Gardens, the complaint says. “Other vacant apartments in other complexes in the City owned by friends, partners or relatives of City employees and officials were not required to undergo inspections before being leased.”

The same plaintiffs make similar allegations in a separate complaint, filed in December, that names Silver and former City Manager Emmanuel Adediran as defendants.

Arnold’s attorney, Mario Williams, said the allegations are baseless and his client “didn’t collude with anybody” or have anything to do with an alleged “shakedown” described in the lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs were allegedly told they would have to place $3 million in a city-controlled account and use one of the city’s “preferred vendors to fix the alleged violations.”

“Where are the facts to justify that?” Williams asked The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The law requires you to be specific — date, time.”

Carter Augustine, an attorney for Silver, told the AJC the plaintiffs “should have sued the city in the first place, not the hourly employees just doing their jobs.”

Neither the city attorney nor a spokesperson for the city replied to a request for comment. Carn and Cary Wiggins, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment. Adediran could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The new complaint alleges Carn and Arnold directed a scheme of citing the property owners for fake code violations and blocking the owners from filling vacant units in the apartment complex.

The alleged plot forced the owners into foreclosure, after they had invested more than $4 million to renovate Chelsea Gardens and significantly increased its value, according to both lawsuits. The property then passed into the hands of owners who were “favored by city officials” and were aligned with Contour Development and its principal, Pete Dedvukaj.

A phone message left for Dedvukaj at the apartment complex, which was renamed the Ivy at College Park, was not returned.

In January 2024, the city’s chief building official directed city staff in writing — and copied Carn and Adediran — not to issue any business licenses, permits or certificates of occupancy to any multifamily complex without his personal approval, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint says Carn and Arnold were “associated with” the city’s “multifamily enforcement program.”

On Feb. 26, 2024, the chief building official circulated a list of “nuisance apartments,” which included Chelsea Gardens, to the code enforcement staff with Adediran and Carn copied, according to the complaint.

Silver, in October of that year, informed city personnel that a list of complexes, including Chelsea Gardens, were “not authorized to move in any new tenants,” the lawsuit says.

After the plaintiffs contracted to sell the property to an organization that supports affordable housing, the city used its code enforcement powers to “dictate the terms of the sale,” the lawsuit states.

The city, on Nov. 6, 2024, refused the plaintiffs’ request to address squatters on the property and wrote that unless “the point of the discussion is that the new owner is willing to relay some funds of the purchase price into an escrow account for the city to repair all issues cited in Mr. Silver’s report, I don’t see how any meeting will bear fruit,” adding a threat that otherwise the city would “be forced to begin issuing fines,” the lawsuit says.

Arnold was involved in the city’s escrow demand before the plaintiffs’ lender foreclosed on the property in February 2025, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also states that, in April 2025, Carn and Arnold were in a meeting with the new owner and property manager where it was decided Chelsea Gardens would be condemned.

Contour later submitted applications to rehabilitate at least seven buildings at the property, and the city approved them, the lawsuit says.