"Hothead" landlord piles up violations while tenants pay the price



MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- He is one of Milwaukee's most prominent inner city landlords -- and a FOX6 investigation has found the system that's supposed to hold him accountable is falling short. FOX6's investigation has found the king of this rental empire is both elusive and abusive -- and some of the city's poorest residents are paying the price.

Many of the people who rent homes or apartments from Elijah Mohammad Rashaed have never met their landlord. When they find their homes infested with bed bugs or in desperate need of repairs, some say it's virtually impossible to get their security deposits back -- even when a judge orders him to pay.

If you rent an apartment in Milwaukee's inner city there's a decent chance Elijah Mohammed Rashaed is your landlord.

He's also known as Elijah Rashaed. Elijah Mohammad. Mohammad Ross. Mohammed Rashada.

According to a criminal complaint for soliciting a prostitute in 2011, he's formerly known as Dennis Bell.

Rashaed leaves small claims court after a judge denies his motion to reopen a case.



He owns or operates an array of Limited Liability Companies -- or LLCs -- under names like First Property Development, Second Property Development, Third Property Development, Fourth Property Development, M&R Properties, Atlas of America, Matric Rental, and many more.

"Just playing a shell game and getting money and not doing anything," said Darneisha Pilcher, a former tenant.

Rashaed and his companies own more than 200 rental properties in Milwaukee.  Many of them are what city officials call distressed real estate. A FOX6 investigation has found those buildings have tallied more than 10,000 code violations since 2009. As of September 2014, more than a thousand of the violations were listed as "unabated" -- meaning they're still not fixed.

"Nobody wants to stay somewhere for $600 with roaches, bed bugs, leaking ceilings, mold, your house smelling like a sewer," Pilcher said.

"My ceilings were caving in," said Felicia Reed, another former tenant.

"The water, the plaster from the ceiling, everything just fell in on us,"  said yet another former tenant, Melena Torrence.

Last fall, a balcony collapsed on one of Rashaed's buildings and a man fell four stories.

In May, FOX6 News found mushrooms literally growing in the hallways of another building.

Building inspectors know Rashaed well. Seven years ago, he was convicted for punching an inspector in the face.

In May, FOX 6 News and city inspectors found mushrooms growing in a common area hallway in one of Rashaed's properties.



"I've been clear with him that he's never to lay a hand on any of my employees," said Art Dahlberg, Commissioner of the city of Milwaukee's Department of Neighborhood Services.

Dahlberg said Rashaed's attack prompted a change in state law that made assaulting a code enforcement official its very own crime. For years Rashaed's been on the city's so-called "Special Enforcement" list.  The list consists of a select group of landlords with so many violations, they're assigned their own inspector.

"We start sorting through those violations and figuring out which ones are critical to get fixed first," Dahlberg said.

While the most serious violations have made Rashaed a familiar name on the news, he rarely gives interviews.

"Often we're portrayed as horrible landlords and that's not the case," Rashaed said in one of those rare interviews, after one of his buildings had been suddenly deemed uninhabitable.

During the interview, he hugged a displaced tenant.

"We'll find her a place, you know what I'm sayin'?" Rashaed said.

Christine Donahoe, Legal Action of Wisconsin



When tenants try to get their security deposits back, Attorney Christine Donahoe says it's a much different story.

"He is taking advantage of clients to whom $500 is a huge amount of money,"  Donahoe said.

Donahoe is an attorney for Legal Action of Wisconsin and provides free legal services to low income people like Dorothy Warne, who moved into an apartment and discovered she had unwanted roommates.

"I seen all the bed bugs coming out the walls and out the wood work," Warne said.

"She spent one night in the property and had to move and she was already out $1,000, over $1,000," Donahoe said.

Warne sued. Rashaed failed to show -- and a judge granted a judgment in Warne's favor. But instead of paying her what he owed, Rashaed tried to reopen the case.

"He wants to collect our rent and security, but when it comes back to him paying us back he doesn't want to do that," Warne said.

Rashaed told the judge he'd been in the hospital with a sprained leg.

In 2013, a balcony collapsed at one of Rashaed's properties and a worker fell four stories. The worker was injured, but survived the fall.



"You don't have the documentation?" Judge Glenn Yamahiro asked.

"No, no, no sir. I do have it," Rashaed replied. "But I don't have it here with me."

He said he was out of town when the notice came in the mail.

"People steal your mail?" the Judge asked.

"No, I haven't received it, you know," Rashaed said.

He also claimed he had no idea who Dorothy Warne is.

"I did not rent to this tenant," he argued. "Never seen this tenant before."

"It's as if he is making this stuff up as it comes to him," Donahoe said.

The judge awarded Warne twice the amount of her security deposit plus additional costs and fees for a total of $5,600. But collecting it will be another battle. The FOX6 Investigators have found that Rashaed and his companies owe more than $110,000 in unpaid judgments.

"Makes sense for him to set up a bunch of shell LLCs and run through them. If they get judgments against them and he has to fold one of his companies, no big deal. He can open up another one," Donahoe said.

"I'm going to pursue this until I'm 80 if I have to," said Melena Torrence, who has been trying to collect a judgment from Rashaed for three years.

Rashaed told FOX6 News he didn't remember who she was. He eventually hung up on her.



former tenant

"We deal primarily with building conditions, not behavioral conditions," Dahlberg said.

In other words, the city can't stop a landlord from pushing people around -- and if they want to fight back, they might just be on their own.

"He thought he could bully me and I'm not easily bullied at all," Torrence said.

Before FOX6 ever tried approaching Mr. Rashaed with a camera rolling, we approached him once in person and called him multiple times on the phone, offering an on-camera interview. He declined. Since he shoved FOX6 News out of his office on North Martin Luther King Drive, he's called FOX6 on the phone several times.

In the most recent call, he said, " I don't believe I'm above the law." He said he's having financial issues and can't pay all of his judgments at this time. He says many of his properties are in foreclosure and that he is downsizing his operation so he can take better care of the properties he still has.

Commissioner Dahlberg says if that's true, that's a good thing.

UPDATE: FOX6 News first broadcast this story in late October. More than two months have passed, but none of the former tenants interviewed have collected a dine from Rashaed.

FOX6 News called Rashaed to ask whether anything has changed these past few months -- or if there was anything he wanted to add. He said "no sir," and wished our Bryan Polcyn a good day.

City of Milwaukee officials say nothing has changed on their end.