Judge Polly Sizemore dismissed a request by the city of Greensboro for a temporary restraining order against a local property management company to prevent the eviction of a public housing tenant this morning. The lawyers for the city and the property management company agreed to review the judge’s order and return to court on Friday morning.
That at least buys tenant LaTonya Stimpson three more days before she can be put out of her home at JT Hairston Memorial Apartments. The public housing community is managed by Westminster Properties and owned by a nonprofit associated with Shiloh Baptist Church.
“What I want you to do is continue to be a mom, be a good tenant, stay below the radar if you can and let us continue to do what we do,” Assistant City Attorney Jamiah Waterman told Stimpson. “Between now and Friday nothing is going to change.”
Waterman said the city would consider the judge’s order “and make the appropriate decision.” Waterman planned to inform Human Relations Director Anthony Wade of the morning’s developments. Wade is attending a Housing Summit cosponsored by the city at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center today.
Following her conference with the city’s lawyer, a frustrated and defiant Stimpson confronted two Greensboro undercover police officers who had been in the courtroom during the hearing. One of the officers denied being a “cop” when asked by one of Stimpson’s supporters, a local revolutionary communist named Tim Hopkins.
“Just hanging out,” the undercover officer told Stimpson. “Students of the law.”
With her 6-month old baby on her arm, Stimpson walked over and started taking photographs of the officers with a small digital camera.
“Put me in jail, sir,” she said. “I’m no longer scared anymore.”
The city had argued in a complaint for temporary restraining order that the enforcement of an eviction order against Stimpson would make it more difficult for the human relations department to investigate a discrimination complaint filed by the tenant, and that her “eviction may tend to have a chilling effect on other residents of JT Hairston Memorial Apartments from seeking the vindication of their rights under the Greensboro Fair Housing Ordinance.”
Judge Sizemore rejected that argument.
“You cannot file a standalone temporary restraining order that does not have a cause of action attached,” Sizemore said, adding that her ruling did address the merits of the tenant’s allegation of discrimination against Westminster Properties.
Outside of the courtroom, Stimpson told reporters: “It’s only one plan and one goal. We need a revolution. One plan, one goal. There is no justice in America, whatsoever.”
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