A Buckhead real estate investor facing jail time over blighted Atlanta properties is responsible for hazardous conditions there, even if his name isn’t on the deeds, prosecutors argued in municipal court Tuesday.
The prosecutors’ arguments were the latest chapter in a slow-running court drama over whether developer Rick Warren should face jail time for failing to maintain derelict properties in an intown neighborhood near the new Atlanta Falcons stadium.
Warren’s defense has centered on claims that he is not the actual owner of the properties.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said Warren previously signed his name as president of West Star Holdings, which was listed as owner of the Rome Drive house for which he stood trial. Code enforcement officers testified that Warren said he owned it and other West Star properties. He even cleaned them up after he was cited.
And when West Star tried to sell its properties this spring, Warren did the talking, an attorney involved in their failed sale testified. He even signed documents on its behalf.
“His finger prints are all over it, your honor,” deputy solicitor Taylor told Municipal Judge Crystal Gaines during closing arguments. Warren’s attorney George Lawson stressed that his client was often listed as “manager” of West Star on property and corporate records, and said that city code only applied to owners or operators. He made no closing arguments.
Warren, who is white, faces trial for conditions at more than a dozen homes in and around English Avenue, which has been predominantly black for decades and is one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. A 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found that companies tied to him purchased some 10 percent of the homes there, and residents complained that filth and crime there are overwhelming their attempts to revive the area.
“The community is dying as a result of the control the defendant has,” Taylor said.
The neighborhood is just west of the construction of a new $1.4 billion Falcons stadium and east of the planned path for the Beltline. Speculators have been snapping up properties there and letting them crumble.
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