Church-going Slumlord loses $5m, tenants get last Laugh

A comrade from the Campaign for Renters Rights called us today to let us know that a major adversary of ours has just suffered a huge defeat.
About five years ago we received a call from a tenant who had left his apartment explaining that his old landlord, Richard Thomas, was refusing to give him his security deposit back. Not only that, but he was claiming that the tenant owed him money for the poor condition he left the apartment in. The tenant had photos, the apartment was immaculate.
Nothing out of the ordinary, until we started picketing the landlord's office and flyering the landlord's other buildings. We were flooded with stories of former tenants who had been ripped off by him. One former tenant said that when they attempted to get their security deposit back that the landlord threatened to counter sue the tenant in Superior Court (requires a paid-for lawyer) because, he claimed she had dyed the color of the carpet a different color than when she moved in! Crazy, but absolutely true.
To cut a long story short, we collected the names of 23 cases (some single people, some families) who collectively were owed $39,000 in Security deposits by this slumlord and they were also collectively being counter-sued by him for up to $50,000.
What did we do? The Campaign for Renters Rights with up to 30 tenants occupied the Mayor's Office, occupied the City Attorney's office and forced them to pay attention. We christmas-carolled, anti-slumlord songs outside the slumlord's house. We twice picketed Thomas' church, where he was a Deacon (this hurt him badly!) He put 3 resraining orders out against our members.
Our efforts forced him to slow down and stop keeping people's security deposits. Meanwhile a couple of lawyers took up a class action lawsuit against the bastard. Today Richard Thomas, a scumbag to beat all scumbags, lost that 3-year court saga and owes his tenants $5.5 million in damages.
I will probably call him tonight to get the last laugh.
Fight to Win with Direct Action
Rob
Campaign for Renters Rights/Hands Off Our Homes 510 595-5545