Real Estate/Development
Aug. 8, 2002
Tenants Get $355,000 in Bias Case
RIVERSIDE - In what is being called one of the "more egregious" violations of the Fair Housing Act, the Department of Justice has reached a $390,000 settlement with a pair of Riverside apartment complex owners accused of harassing female tenants and discriminating against minorities.
William David Wingo and Karen Wingo Cipriano, owners of Las Casitas Apartments and former owners of Rio Palmas Apartments, will pay a $35,000 civil penalty to the United States and $355,000 to more than a dozen former and current tenants affected by discrimination and other unlawful acts at the complexes, officials said.
The Department of Justice said the complex owners referred to African-American tenants with racial slurs, threw away rental applications by African-Americans and Latinos, refused to let tenants have minority guests and evicted minorities based on race.
The former manager of the two complexes, Vincent Stancyk, repeatedly harassed female tenants, including telling women he would rent to them only if they performed sexual acts on him, the department's complaint alleged.
Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd Jr., in a statement, called the case an "egregious" one that required "strong remedies."
"This agreement makes it clear that individuals who engage in unlawful housing discrimination, and the people who employ them, will be held accountable for the harm they cause," Boyd said.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana in April 2001, alleged that Stancyk harassed African-American tenants at Rio Palmas by labeling them with racial epithets, shouting at them and threatening them with eviction. He allegedly offered female tenants "privileges related to their tenancy in exchange for engaging in or procuring sexual acts."
Meanwhile, according to the lawsuit, Wingo and Cipriano knew about Stancyk's behavior but did nothing to stop him.
The offenses took place between "at least" January 1997 and May 1999, according to the complaint.
According to Herlinda Gonzalez, program manager with the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, three African-American residents of Rio Palmas Apartments first contacted her agency in early 1999, saying the complex manager and owners discriminated against them.
After the residents - Cynthia Barros, Roger Barros and Lori Dillard - filed a complaint with the council, the agency referred it to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The department referred the complaint to the Department of Justice, which filed its lawsuit in April 2001, Gonzalez said.
Four other Rio Palmas residents alleged discrimination at the complex during the Department of Justice's investigation, Gonzalez said.
A visit to the apartment complexes Tuesday revealed anything but luxury.
Rio Palmas, an aging beige-and-green 31-unit complex with peeling paint, a cracked pool and overgrown grass, is about a mile from Las Casitas in one of Riverside's lower-middle-class neighborhoods. Las Casitas isn't in much better shape. Some of its 70 units facing the street have bars on the windows; the paint and plaster is cracked and faded; and patches of dirt and grass near the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are packed with an assortment of basketball hoops and other children's toys.
Rents at the complexes range from $700 for a one-bedroom unit to $950 for a three-bedroom apartment.
According to the consent decree publicized Thursday, Wingo and Cipriano sold Rio Palmas in May 1999. The pair still owns Las Casitas, and according to court documents, owns and manages several other properties in the Riverside area.
As part of the settlement, Wingo, Cipriano and Stancyk denied all allegations that they engaged in unlawful conduct. Stancyk, 62, agreed to stay out of the rental management industry.
Robert Walker, a Riverside lawyer representing Stancyk, said his client "adamantly" disagrees with the allegations against him.
"He was severely wounded by the allegations made about him," Walker said. "He worked extremely hard to make the apartment complex a decent place to live. There were lots of tenants who were supportive of him - people of both genders and different ethnicities."
Wingo and Cipriano, according to the settlement, must repair the credit histories of tenants who were wrongfully evicted and remove judgment liens against them. Among other things, they must establish a nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy and complaint procedure at complexes they own and manage, and mandate employee training on the Fair Housing Act, according to the settlement.
Thomas B. Cummings, counsel for Wingo and Cipriano, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kasey Stavropoulos said the complaint involving the Riverside apartment complexes is one of dozens involving similar issues the department files each year.
She said the facts of the case were "unusual." But Stavropoulos declined to comment on the monetary size of the settlement in comparison to other cases. The amounts and terms of settlements in Fair Housing Act cases "vary from case to case, depending on the circumstances," Stavropoulos said.
The complex owners were accused of violating the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 3601, which makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including sexual harassment), disability and familial status.
Jason Armstrong & Sean Windle
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