Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed arrived in court Monday trailed by aides. The city’s top prosecutor stood before the judge. Fifteen witnesses crowded the jury box.
The accused: A Buckhead real estate investor.
The charges: Housing code violations.
Typically, housing court is a humble affair. Convictions usually result in a few hundred dollars in fines and fees. But Reed made clear in municipal court Monday that he has trained his sights on businessman Rick Warren.
“He is not an investor. He is a predator,” Reed said.
However, the mayor, City Solicitor Raines Carter and the witnesses will have to wait another day for the court to decide if Warren is responsible for hazardous conditions at a burned-out house or other properties owned by his companies. Judge Crystal Gaines granted Warren’s request for a delay — his second this month. Trial was re-set for May 27.
Warren was hauled into housing court as a repeat offender. Last year, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found that Warren and his business partners purchased some 10 percent of an impoverished neighborhood just west of the $1 billion construction of a new Falcons' stadium. Residents complained of filth and crime at the investor's derelict properties, and the AJC found that Warren knew how to do just enough to slide by the city's overwhelmed code enforcement office.
When his trial first came up May 4, Warren came to court represented only by a civil real estate attorney. Judge Crystal Gaines gave the investor two weeks to add a criminal lawyer to his team.
Monday, Warren pleaded not guilty and declined a plea offer. His new attorney, George Lawson, asked for a delay, saying he wasn’t hired until Friday and had only received the housing code citations at issue that day. And Warren’s civil counsel, Stephen Rothman, did not appear in court until an hour after the hearing was set to begin. Rothman told the judge he thought he did not need to come because Warren had hired a new attorney, and that as a civil attorney, he could not give Warren adequate representation.
“I am not competent to go to trial and I’m not ready to go to trial at all,” Rothman said. “I’m surprised that all of these people are here.”
Carter decried the switch as a “ruse” to delay proceedings and asked that the trial begin immediately. Deputy Solicitor Erika Smith asked all 15 of the witnesses called to testify in the case to rise to their feet. She added that one of them had to take unpaid time off from work to be there.
“I just want the court to know that this is an inconvenience — not just to the City of Atlanta, not just to this witness, but to the whole community,” Smith said.
Gaines said she had no choice, though, but to grant the delay.
“You all have the court in a corner. I don’t want to be overturned in superior court because people tell me over and over that they’re not prepared,” she said.
The investor did not comment after the hearing, but previously he told the AJC that vandals, copper thieves and illegal dumpers undermine his attempts at keeping his properties clear of violations.
Yet Warren admitted separately in sworn testimony that he knew that criminals had taken over some of the houses, and he had no plans to evict them or make repairs.
If convicted, Warren faces a mandatory sentence as a repeat offender of at least 30 days in jail on each count.
If he’s not, Warren has more charges to contend with. An additional 16 violations are pending in municipal court, and Reed said Monday that the city is looking into 81 more.
The mayor vowed to attend each hearing until justice is served.
“He is going to be held fully accountable for this and every single case in the City of Atlanta,” Reed said.
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