A New York landlord was arrested after he allegedly performed an illegal eviction by kidnapping two tenants at gunpoint and leaving them tied up in a secluded cemetery.
48-year-old Shawn Douglas lives in Albany in one of the units at the Grandview Terrance. Douglas has been the owner of the property since 2006, and he is the landlord.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has left many people with financial struggles, several states, including New York, have implemented a halt on evictions.
The police arrested a registered sex offender after they alleged that he was recording and storing footage of tenants renting rooms in his home while they were in the middle of private acts.
69-year-old Larry Phillips owns a residence in Salt Lake City, and he attends college at the University of Utah. He is a registered sex offender due to incidents that occurred in 2002 and 2006; the first for forcible sexual abuse, and the second for offensive touching.
Phillips has extra bedrooms in his house, and he shares his residence by renting them out to tenants.
Idaho resident Ashley Nicole Vidrine has been accused of fraudulently advertising a rental property and accepting money from interested prospective tenants while having no intention of renting to them.
Though Vidrine and her husband reside in the townhouse she had listed as available for rent, police estimated she allegedly accepted down payments for the property nearing $3000 since the start of their investigation in early September. When would-be tenants who paid her went to view the property they found no one available, and Vidrine was unable to be reached by telephone. It is unknown at this time whether or not her husband was also a part of the hoax.
Police took 25-year-old Vidrine into custody on Thursday and she faces multiple charges including felony grand theft by deception, and felony computer crime for “Use of a computer or network to obtain money by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises or committing theft.” In addition, Vidrine is charged with one count of misdemeanor petty theft. She is being held in Madison County Jail on a $50,000 bond.
The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog