WASHINGTON -- D.C. landlord, Alicia Hines, was arrested Monday afternoon for violating five different housing code violations including, working without a permit and violating a stop work order.
The unprecedented move comes after WUSA9's year-long investigation into DCRA, the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. We exposed cracks in the system that are putting residents at risk including dangerous elevators and illegal construction.
We highlighted this landlord after her tenant, Glen McFadden, told WUSA9's Delia Gonçalves, DCRA and the D.C. City Council that she was intentionally tampering with his utilities, including shutting off his gas and electric, to push him out of his Trinidad apartment.
He believed the landlord, who had already begun renovating the adjacent units, was trying to push him out so she can flip the property.
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"In my 25 years of working in housing law, I have never seen a landlord act in such an egregious manner," said the tenant’s attorney Paul Strauss.
DCRA cited the landlord for numerous violations. The Attorney General's office requested an arrest warrant for Alicia Hines several months ago. They finally caught up with her Monday when she showed up to Housing Court and arrested her outside the courtroom.
"She's spending the night in jail, but guess what: She has heat - at the taxpayers' expense," said Attorney Strauss. "Unlike an elderly tenant in that same building who has no heat or hot water."
The landlord was taking the other tenant, Glenn McFadden, to court for alleged back rent. However, he is suing her for making the apartment "unsafe and unsanitary." DCRA removed him from the apartment. After the landlord refused to make repairs, DCRA put McFadden up in a hotel and repaired his apartment.
The total cost? $35,000. Paid for by D.C. taxpayers.
"I hope this is a lesson to her and any other slumlord in town," said Attorney Strauss. "If you violate the law you are going to get arrested and locked up."
