GROTON — A landlord at the center of recent controversies in the Village of Groton has filed a lawsuit, and his lawyer says lawmakers have been quiet through the whole process.
For months, residents have been expressing concerns about growing drug and property problems. Village officials filed a complaint in September against Norfe Pirro, a landlord whose properties has received dozens of nuisance violations. Pirro is now filing his own lawsuit.
The Building and Property Nuisance law sets up a point system to track the number of violations that have happened at properties, which include offenses ranging from property damage to criminal activity.
Lawyer Russ Maines is representing Pirro. He says officials haven’t been open with his client about how to fix problems at his properties.
“There’s nothing in the law that says what a person can do to rid themselves of points. We’ve evicted tenants, and [they’re] still coming after us. We don’t know what to do. Help us, help you. We are trying to work with the Village of Groton, but they are not being communicative,” he said.
Some of the tenants, as cited in the petition, were evicted after incidents where police were called for domestic violence disputes and an attempt at suicide. Maines says the landlord doesn’t want people who have been charged for criminal activities in his properties, and says they have evicted.
Maines says village officials are violating his client’s rights.
“The village has acted as judge, jury and executioner. They have accused my client of having nuisances. They have not given him an opportunity to be heard on that. They’ve gone to court without so much as picking up the telephone and they’re trying to kick him at the knee caps. It’s frankly un-American,” he said.
Maines says this is “unconstitutional” because nuisance offenses are usually handled in state courts, but this law allows the village to hold their own hearings.
A tentative court date has been set for the middle of December.
For more information about nuisance law violations in the Village of Groton, check out WHCU’s Special Report “Growing problems on Main Street: drug, property violations in the Village of Groton.”
