News

Shutting down Fifth Avenue ‘drug house’ required patience, coordination of agencies

Police shut down a house at 1014 Fifth Avenue West after complaints of drug use and fights.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 5, 2017

It took months of investigation and a special overtime patrol before city police, with help from the district attorney, could shut down a bungalow on Fifth Avenue West that neighbors called “the drug house.”

Neighbors, who met at City Hall to complain about the drug activity, expressed impatience with the time it took. But given property rights and the need to build a solid case to declare a private a home a nuisance, the authorities acted as fast as they could, police, city officials and the district attorney said.
On April 17, finally armed with the legal paperwork they needed, city police descended on the house at 1014 Fifth Avenue West, made sure no one was inside and locked it up at last, ending months of frustration by neighbors who had come to fear for their safety.
“The action that occurred really was the culmination of several months of work between the police department, the state agencies and the D.A.’s office and frankly a local private attorney who was working with the property owner,” City Manager John Connet said. Behind the scenes, the district attorney and a private attorney, Ron Justice, had been working with the homeowner to get the legal authority to evict the vagrants and shut down the house.
The house was originally owned by Bob Kauss, who is in the Henderson County jail awaiting trial on multiple drug related felonies. When Kauss turned ownership over to his father, who lives in California, the city finally had the break it needed.
“Ron Justice received the necessary power of attorney to execute the paperwork in the police department to go and evict everyone and post a no-trespass sign on the property,” Connet said. “The patrol side had been working with the attorney and the detectives had been working with the ALE (the state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents) on nuisance and abatement.”
Connet knew first-hand that getting a judge to OK a petition to declare private property a nuisance was not easy. With hundreds of calls about drugs and violence at the Alpine Woods trailer park, city and county attorneys presented a detailed petition in 2015 asking a Superior Court judge to declare the property a nuisance and appoint a special master to run it. The judge said no.
“Judges and D.A.s typically do not take that action without extensive evidence that it is a nuisance,” Connet said.
Councilman Jeff Miller, who got involved the day the police shut down the house, shared the neighbors’ impatience over the pace of the investigation.
“You can’t always trust the system to move as fast as you want it to,” he said. “I’ve got to give them credit. The police were working on it. The D.A. was working on it. They got it together.”
Private property rights
While Newman was telling residents what they didn’t want to hear — that the drug house could not be shut down immediately — he was working behind the scenes to make that happen.
“I facilitated the son deeding the house over to his mother and father,” he said. “I was able to get him brought over from the jail so the lawyer for the father could get that done immediately.”
With the signed affidavit in hand, Justice accompanied police officers to the house around noon. They tacked the notice on the door that declared the house off-limits and threatened arrest of anyone caught trespassing.
“That’s the only way it could have been done,” Newman said. “I appreciate the city police. None of us want to live in a place where our police are kicking in doors and taking people’s property without the proper evidence."
Aggressive about patrolling the street, the city was also cautious about trampling on property rights of the absentee owner.
“You can have anybody you want in your house,” police Capt. Bruce Simonds. “We had zoning go out and look at it on a couple of occasions. For three weeks in a row we had extra patrols set up out of our budget for four hours a night. That’s an extra expense but we did it just to make sure the neighbors knew we were serious about shutting down that house because we knew what a problem was.”
“We understand the frustration that the neighbors had,” Simonds said. “We completely understand.”
Chief Herbert Blake also said the city acted as fast as it could.
“We were aware of the problems. We made them aware we were working on it but we had to do it the right way,” he said. “We can’t just go into a home and remove the occupants because of their lifestyle. ... During the process we made the decision to find money and pay overtime for several weeks for several officers to frequent that area just to increase our presence,” Blake said. “We do know that it made a significant difference in the reduction of calls and complaints from people in the community.”
Renters with leases have renters’ rights. Squatters who pay nothing don’t, Newman said.
“Those people have no rights,” he said. “They would have rights if they had a signed contract but none of these people had that. In fact, what I was told that in exchange for drugs they could stay there or in exchange for various other illegal and nefarious activity they could stay there.”
Newman said he still wants the house cleaned up and sold.
“If it’s not cleaned up and sold I’m going to consider it a nuisance, the end result of which I can ask the court to divest him of that property,” he said. “I’m not trying to be heavy-handed. I am trying to strongly encourage some movement here. … I want him to understand that he can’t just dilly dally around and not have anything happen here. An abandoned house is not good either. We hope we can put him in contact with an interested buyer.”
“It’s a good lesson. It’s a great older neighborhood. I think people have a had a real life experience about what drug activity can do to an area. If you allow that type of activity it can impact an entire neighborhood and it can do so quickly. People think these are victimless crimes and nothing could be further from the truth.”