Buckhead Real Estate Investor Draws Ire of Mayor

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A courtroom showdown between a Buckhead real estate investor accused of being a slumlord and the Mayor of Atlanta could see the investor sent to jail for a history of building code violations.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rick Warren owns around ten percent of the homes in the low-income English Avenue area and is now facing 13 trials for code violations the properties have accrued over the years. Warren is considered a habitual offender and could be jailed for each conviction he receives; the first verdict will be read on June 16.

The home covered in this first trial was burned out by a fire but never torn down, earning Warren citations for the wreckage. Warren’s lawyer contends that he had not officially taken control of the home at the time of the fire and was still not responsible for the property when the code violations were handed down, the AJC said.

The AJC reports that prosecutors produced a witness who said Warren acted as though he was responsible for the property, and prosecutors added that he had submitted a demolition permit on the home days before the code violations were submitted.

The English Avenue homes Warren owns are often run down or abandoned; according to the AJC, the city claims Warren has never tried to rehabilitate any of the homes and continues to let them go to seed, spreading blight in an already underprivileged part of the city.

Mayor Kasim Reed had vowed to see Warren pay for his apparent inaction, and was in court on Wednesday to observe the proceedings, the AJC says.