The New York owner of an apartment project in Seat Pleasant was arrested in Prince George’s County yesterday for not complying with five citations for housing code violations filed against the project nine months ago.
Fred C. Trump, 70, was taken into custody at Gregory Estates, a 504-unit complex he owns at 6918 George Palmer Highway. Code officials said they surprised Trump with the warrants after he had flown down from New York, ostensibly to discuss the problems concerning his apartment complex.
According to C.H. Bennett, chief of inspection and enforcement for the county housing department, Trump was cited for the violations that include broken windows, “rotted” (defective) rain gutters, and the failure to install fire extinguishers, following a routine inspection last January.
Following a number of telephone discussions with Trump, Bennett said, he decided to sign the warrants, which were served during a scheduled meeting with Trump at Gregory Estates yesterday morning.
Joseph T. Healey, the county’s housing inspector supervisor, said arrests are rarely made for code violations. “We probably haven’t issued four arrest warrants in the past five years,” Healey said. “All we want is compliance ... (and) as long as an effort is being made, we’ll work with the owner.”
Bennett described the New Yorker as “a little upset, to put it mildly,” at the arrest.
Trump was released by sheriff’s deputies on a $1,000 bond and left immediately for New York. He could not be reached.
In a telephone interview yesterday afternoon, Irving Eskinazi, vice president of the “Trump concerns,” in New York, said the company has had “problems” with Gregory Estates for the past five years.
“We bought the project 15 years ago,” Eskinazi said, “and for the first 10 it was extremely successful.” Lately, however, “there has been a very serious change in the area. Low-income people started moving in.”
“We’ve spent a lot of money trying to fix it up, and as soon as we do, it gets ripped up again,” he said. “It’s hearbreaking.”
Trump, Eskinazi said, “is a fine gentleman. He shouldn’t even be going to a project like this.” County officials, he said, should know better than to “try and louse around with Trump’s reputation.”
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