Evicted Tenant attempting to blackmail landlord.

[Barbara Cook]

I am helping out elderly relatives, whom I live with and take care of two apartment complexes they own in Oregon. We have been having trouble with a tenant for the past year and finally decided to just evict him and get rid of the problem. We gave him a 60 day no cause eviction July 22nd. He responded by writing what amounts to a blackmail letter, which did not bother me because his claims are false. Anyway, we have no fear of being arrested or losing anything based on his ridiculous blackmail claims, only of the inconvenience and hassle he could cause us. Luckily the police and DA agreed with us and arrested him yesterday and charged him with Extortion for his attempt to blackmail us into revoking the eviction notice and not raise his rent in exchange for him not filing his false reports against us.

MY QUESTION: Do we, the Landlords, now have reasonable cause to evict the tenant with a 24 hour notice for Outrageous conduct based on his arrest for attempt to blackmail us?

The DA says they may add the additional charges for Blackmail and think they can add a charge of trespassing against him because the police failed to previously charge him with trespassing on our other properties that he was repeatedly given written notice not to enter and he was caught on security cameras again walking right past several no trespassing signs to let his dog poop on the property and not clean it up. Instead of arresting him, which we had enough evidence to do, they chose to give him their written no trespassing notice instead and said if he did it again then they would consider arresting him. Our local police like to call everything a "Civil matter" even when its a crime. The DA has asked me to complete the Stalking Protection Order I picked up last week when I filed a report with the police department against this same tenant because I was tired of being stalked. At the time they told me it was not illegal to follow us or video tape us through windows and open doors in various units all the time because he had not threatened us. I'm sorry, I felt threatened. He had blocked my path several times trapping me and refusing to move or let me pass "unless I talked to him", he has yelled at me and was stalking me. I fear he is unstable and am afraid of what he will do, especially now that he has been arrested and knows we are not going to revoke out eviction.I imagine I can evict him with 24 hours notice if I obtain the Stalking Protection order but can we evict him for the Extortion? I just want him gone and I imagine he will fight the Stalking Order, which would mean I have to go to court and my PTSD is such I would have to get a lawyer to go with me and argue the case for me. I hate to go through more upset then necessary, I already have to go to the Grand Jury on the Extortion case next week, so if I can give him a 24 hour eviction for the Extortion I won't have to procrastinate over the Stalking Protection Order any more, which would be a relief.

[Hattie Dizmond]

@Barbara Cook Unless someone on here is an Oregon lawyer, I don't believe any of us are qualified to weigh in on this matter. Since you're already working with the DA, perhaps that office can help with your question. Either way, you need legal advice, licensed legal advice. This sort of craziness doesn't generally go on down here in Texas. People get a little concerned about causing others to feel threatened, because we are probably armed, and Castle Doctrine & Stand Your Ground means we are inclined to shoot the person doing the threatening. This situation you've described is a mess. Good luck.

[Matt K.]

I'd start w/ a lawyer and ask them about this

https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/90.396

Oregon

Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 90.396, 90.403

24 hours

Violence or threats of violence by tenant or a guest; intentionally causing substantial property damage; giving false information on an application within the past year regarding a criminal conviction (landlord must terminate within 30 days of discovering the falsity); committing any act “outrageous in the extreme” (see statute); intentionally or recklessly injuring someone (or placing them in fear of imminent danger) because of the tenant’s perception of the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation; second failure to remove a pet that has caused substantial damage

[Jim K.]

@Barbara Cook

I got halfway through the first paragraph before it was obvious the advice you need is to pony up and get a local experienced real estate lawyer.

It's going to cost money and you're going to have to look at it as a major business expense, very simply.

[Mike McCarthy]

It sounds like an eviction is in order - but I’d agree with the others, talk to an attorney. You’ll probably want their help with an eviction anyway as there are too many things someone who’s not versed in it can do wrong and delay the process.

[Barbara Cook]

UPDATE: The tenant was released from jail the following day but has not been seen at the complex at all since. The DA had a temporary restraining order placed on the tenant to stay away from My family and I, which apparently extends to coming back to the complex, even though we do not live there, we are just Interim Management and work there several days a week.

Thanks for the advice, I just needed to know if the attempted blackmail was enough reason to evict for Outrageous conduct. I can do the eviction myself, it is not that complicated to evict someone, as long as you give them the correct notice. I guess I will have to call a lawyer if I want him out sooner then September 22nd.

I just hate to spend company funds on a Lawyer, if I could obtain reliable information elsewhere, since they have had some financial difficulties this past year, after discovering their on-site maintenance person (and his live-in girlfriend) embezzled nearly $200k from them and did not do any of the work he was paid to preform. He actually purchased the materials to do the work and sold them to local businesses and residence! The buildings and properties are in horrible disrepair and is taking every dime we can get to make much needed repairs. It's a long, ugly story. Needless to say, if a Jared Charles Dippre or Melissa "Missy" Crook ever apply for work or to rent from any of you, I would tell them absolutely NOT and immediately trespass them from the properties!  First we discovered the embezzlement and started investigating that, gave him an opportunity to come clean and start paying the money back, but he just kept lying, so we fired him. Then we discovered they had been illegally manufacturing hash oil in the garages. They were manufacturing it in the garage with oxygen and acetylene tanks and dozens of other flammable chemicals. They could have blown up the entire complex and killed everyone! We turned all their manufacturing equipment, multiple bags of marijuana and used heroin syringes and spoons over to the police. The police refused to arrest claiming they had been locked out of the area for 2 weeks and we could not prove the items belonged to Jared & Missy! We asked "what about finger prints" and they laughed at us. Later we realized the police did not give us an evidence receipt, which is extremely suspicious to say the least. Then we discovered they had been pilfering tenant units for heaters and stole plug-ins off the back of multiple ranges and had built two illegal marijuana grow operations on the property., one in the attic of their apartment and the other in a metal storage shed on the back of the property. Of course the plants had all been removed by the time we discovered them. But even after they cut the locks off the Office/shop and garage a few weeks later and stole almost every tool the company owned and were caught with the stolen property, then they broke into the personal storage units under the building and stole the owners personal property and files, that they were later caught selling some of the items in a local resell store the police still did not arrested them. First the police claimed it was a "civil matter" because Jared is the owners grandson and used to work for the company, even though we had written proof they were allowed months to remove their personal property from any company area and legally trespassed from the property once we evicted them from their unit. After much complaining and public pressure the DA finally looked into the case. It's been nearly a year later now and we are still waiting for an indictment against them. When Jared Dippre and Missy Crook do get arrested they say they can double their prison sentences by, not only combining all the crimes together (rather the them getting a dozen separate smaller crimes where they would receive a slap on the wrist individually) but they figure they can get a minimum of 15-25 years in prison each by showing they are habitual criminals with absolutely no conscience whose exploitation of the Elderly was so extreme that Jared's 84 year old Grandfather was unable to afford in-home care because of what Jared and Missy stole from them. Plus all the repairs and maintenance that now needs done, that Jared never actually preformed, is a huge stress on his Grandmother and the rest of the family. There is a special charge for exploration of the elderly, I just can't think of it at the moment. If Jared and Missy ask for a jury trial we are told that they will likely receive the maximum sentences, because juries tend to vote with their hearts and recommend maximum sentences when the elderly are taken advantage of and given Jared was their trusted Grandson who stole from them for at least 5 of the 7 years he was employed and Missy was illegally using the company charge accounts (she was not an employee) and the information they stole from their personal storage units has been used in over a half a dozen attempted fraud cases, opening credit card and Paypal accounts and someone in another state was caught working under one family members social security number, these two could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Sorry, but it makes me giddy to think of these two scumbags spending the rest of their lives in prison after what we had to go through taking care of his grandfather all those years, believing that we would be able to hire help when he needed it and instead his wife and other family members had to struggle to take care of him, changing his diapers and such and were forced to put him in a facility, where he died three days later, alone! Long story short, Jared's mother, Debi, admitted to knowing about the illegal manufacturing and "some" of the embezzlement but did not tell us until after the fact and still refuses to give us any details. Her daughter, Jared's sister, had stayed with her grandparents for a few months back before her Grandfather became bed ridden, until they discovered she was sneaking her boyfriend into the house at night and they had stolen tens of thousands of dollars worth of coins, tools and equipment. Basically we have lost that entire branch of the family and haven't heard from any of them since the Grandfather died, and then they only wanted to know what they inherited. What a laugh. Jared was the only one of that clan that was still in the Will and given he would have received only if his Grandmother and their other daughter were both dead, he got nothing and has since been completely removed from the Will. 

[Matthew Paul]

Sounds simple enough to me , now ,who was on first again ?