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Blighted properties draw Atlanta mayor’s attention

MAY 18, 2015 ATLANTA Rick Warren leaves court following the hearing. Warren, the Buckhead investor who has bought up some 10 percent of Atlanta’s English Avenue neighborhood, appears before Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Crystal Gaines, Monday, May 18, 2015. His trial was continued to May 27, over objections by the city solicitors office, due to a substitution issue with his new defense attorney, George Lawson. Warren now faces17 charges. As a habitual offender, a conviction would mean jail time. In this most recent case, code enforcement officers say he left a burnt-out house open, vacant and overgrown. He owns at least 100 properties through a half-dozen or more LLCs, many of them crumbling under his ownership. KENT D. JOHNSON /KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM
MAY 18, 2015 ATLANTA Rick Warren leaves court following the hearing. Warren, the Buckhead investor who has bought up some 10 percent of Atlanta’s English Avenue neighborhood, appears before Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Crystal Gaines, Monday, May 18, 2015. His trial was continued to May 27, over objections by the city solicitors office, due to a substitution issue with his new defense attorney, George Lawson. Warren now faces17 charges. As a habitual offender, a conviction would mean jail time. In this most recent case, code enforcement officers say he left a burnt-out house open, vacant and overgrown. He owns at least 100 properties through a half-dozen or more LLCs, many of them crumbling under his ownership. KENT D. JOHNSON /KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM
By
May 18, 2015

A Buckhead investor facing charges that he left houses in an impoverished west Atlanta neighborhood in dangerous conditions had his trial delayed this morning, despite arguments from prosecutors that he was using legal maneuvers to game the court system.

Mayor Kasim Reed was in attendance as attorneys for Rick Warren argued that they were not ready to proceed because one of them was only hired on Friday. Warren now faces 17 counts of housing code violations. If found guilty, he could do jail time.

Reed vowed afterward to attend each hearing until Warren is brought to justice.

“I intend to be here until the last minute, the last hour, the last day until this is over,” he said.

About the Author

Willoughby Mariano is an investigative reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she focuses on housing and criminal justice issues. She previously worked for the AJC's PolitiFact Georgia, where she fact checked the claims of elected officials, and at the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered crime and breaking news.

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