Merryman routinely harassed, threatened, and refused critical repairs for renters, because of their race and gender – and attacked one woman when she requested such repairs
The Virginia Attorney General’s Office is suing a Newport News landlord to the tune of $8 million for his alleged ‘horrific treatment’ of black, female tenants, through a targeted campaign of ‘abusive, racist and sexist’ behavior.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Newport News Circuit Court by Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring, contends that David Lee Merryman subjected slews of boarders to ‘alarming’ and ‘egregious’ examples of discrimination – and even full-on physical abuse – which only came to light after an extensive investigation by the state’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
Herring alleges that Merryman routinely harassed, threatened, and refused critical repairs for renters, because of their race and gender – and attacked one woman when she requested such repairs.
In one disturbing case detailed in the complaint, the Virginia landlord even threatened the lives of a Black, female tenant and her children, leading the tenant to obtain a restraining order against him.
‘He most definitely was a landlord from hell,’ one tenant told The Daily Beast.
Herring now demands that Merryman, 56, promptly pay at least $8 million in compensation to these tenants, for his ‘willful, wanton and blatant pattern and practice of discriminatory behavior.’
The lawsuit was filed Thursday by Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring, who says he ‘will never tolerate discriminatory landlords in Virginia’
The criminal complaint contends that Merryman often promised tenants – typically Black women with children and on government assistance – to fix properties once they moved in, and would subject them to threats of violence and racial slurs when asked to make good on his word.
Once tenants signed a lease, Merryman would routinely leave them to live in third-world conditions, Herring’s complaint alleges.
Merryman’s properties would often be plagued by plumbing leaks, sewage problems, structural issues, and a lack of ‘basic kitchen elements,’ the suit notes.
What’s more, the homes were even plagued by ‘electrical problems that have resulted in fires.’
In some cases, tenants paid for these repairs out of their own pockets, according to the filing.
In many other instances, however, renters were forced to move out of Merryman’s properties when confronted with such conditions, the lawsuit asserts.
Tenants have called police ‘dozens of times… asking for protection from Merryman,’ the complaint also asserts.
It adds that Merryman once physically assaulted a female tenant who was requesting repairs, and he had to be held back by others as he said, ‘Let me at that b****.’
When that tenant was getting a protective order against Merryman, the complaint says, he removed ‘all her possessions’ from the property.
Other times, the suit says, Merryman had tenants’ cars towed or went into their homes – a direct violation of US landlord-tenant law.
The complaint then adds that when asked to make good on these repairs, Merryman would often threaten these women with physical violence or berate them because of the color of their skin.
‘Tenant requests for repairs are often met with threats of violence, insults and other forms of retaliation,’ the filing attests, adding that city officials and police reports ‘corroborate Merryman’s abusive conduct toward his Black and female tenants.’
The complaint was filed in Newport News Circuit Court Thursday by Herring, and looks to garner more than $8 million in compensation to a multitude of Merryman’s many tenants
Merryman ‘conducts this pattern and practice of housing discrimination by using racial and gender-based epithets against his tenants in a campaign to demean them, all while holding over them the fact that he controls whether they have a roof over their head,’ Herring’s Thursday filing then asserts.
The racially charged language used by the landlord, the complaint maintains, has included the N-word and urging boarders that they should ‘go back to Africa.’
Other examples of Merryman’s derogatory defamation of his tenants include libelous, stereotypical statements like, ‘that’s just how Black people act,’ or, ‘just like every other Black person,’ the filing adds.
What’s more, when the few white tenants living on Merryman’s properties pursued the renter to enquire about paltry living conditions, the landlord informed them that they were ‘acting black.’
Merryman also used racial and gender-based slurs with city employees tasked with inspecting his properties to see if they were up to code after receiving a multitude of complaints, the complaint contends.
‘Everyone deserves to live in safe, healthy housing without the fear of being harassed or discriminated against by their landlord,’ Herring said in a news release last week, declaring that Merryman ‘preyed’ on his tenants because of their financial situations and race.
‘I will never tolerate discriminatory landlords in Virginia, and my heart goes out to the renters who had to endure this alleged disgusting behavior.’
Herring’s suit asks that Merryman to pay $6 million to reimburse tenants for the alleged instances of discrimination, and another $2 million for compensatory damages.
Moreover, it asks that Merryman pay an additional $50,000 for each proven allegation of housing discrimination – so, if convicted, Merryman could be hit with a fine well over the already astronomical $8 million.
The complaint also asks that the ‘victims of Merryman’s unlawful discriminatory housing practices’ be reimbursed financially, and that Merryman be barred from any further race and sex discrimination, as well as threatening his tenants,
The filing also calls for Merryman to step aside from managing his slew of properties situated in Newport News and other nearby communities, requesting that he hire a third party property manager to run his properties ‘for a reasonable period of time,’ at his own expense.
Merryman, who hails from the nearby town of Hampton, owns ‘at least 36 properties’ in Newport News and dozens more in the area, the suit states.
But Merryman argues that he has dozens of eviction hearings scheduled in Newport News General District Court, and says he’s owed ‘more than $1 million’ in back rent from his tenants – with most of that accumulating over the past 18 months, during the coronavirus pandemic.
‘It seems mighty strange that an Attorney General’s Office lawsuit is coming four days before dozens of people are being legally evicted,’ Merryman said Monday in response to the suit filed by Herring last week.
‘Of course the tenants are going to be mad,’ the landlord reasoned.
He asserts that he’s currently boarding renters who have not paid their rent in months – ‘and, in some cases, years.’
In late 2019, Merryman and a Newport News’ building codes official almost came to blows in a racially charged incident at Newport News City Hall.
Merryman was recording with his cellphone when he walked up to codes compliance director Harold Lee Roach Jr. on the steps of City Hall, after an argument over the phone between the men days prior over the condemnation of one of Merryman’s properties.
As he approached Roach, Merryman ridiculed the city official for using a’Black Lives Matter’ logo as his profile picture on his personal Facebook page.
‘What’s up – what you gonna do about it,’ Merryman taunted, ‘Black Lives Matter?’
Over the next several minutes, Merryman repeatedly tried to provoke Roach, while the codes director tried to goad the loud landlord into hitting him.
‘All you have to do is lay your hands on me,’ Roach warned Merryman. ‘You talked a whole lot of stuff on the phone about what you’re going to do to this n*****. This n***** is here. What do you want to do to this n***** now?’
The altercation never got physical.
Roach was disciplined over the videotaped confrontation, with city records indicating his pay was docked for about a month beginning in January 2020.