Federal Prosecutors: Landlord Grossly ‘Took Advantage’ of Female Tenants
Investigation: Civil Rights Violated Through Unwanted Sexual Advances
By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi Territory
SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI — U.S. prosecutors say they have sued a Springfield, Mo. landlord who “repeatedly took advantage of his tenants” while managing over 100 properties in that area, a government news release states.
Financial damages are being sought in federal court in Missouri’s Western U.S. Court District.
The federal lawsuit identifies Bell as the trustee of Second Bell Trust, which owned many of the properties he managed.
Federal prosecutors also cited Fourth Bell LLC in the lawsuit.
This constitutes a “gross violation of his position and of the Fair Housing Act,” the release adds.
Jimmie Bell sexually harassed female tenants, officials say, adding that this is a violation of the Fair Housing Act.
Moreover, legal authorities say Bell used “his position as leverage to egregiously violate their civil rights.”
They added that the driving force behind Fair Housing Act-based litigation against Bell is to “protect victims” of unwanted sexual intrusions into their lives and to hold accountable “abusers.”
The lawsuit charges that Bell harassed multiple tenants by “making unwelcome sexual advances, offering to reduce rent or make needed repairs in exchange for engaging in sex acts, subjecting female tenants to unwelcome sexual touching and initiating eviction actions against female tenants who refused his sexual advances.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is quoted in the news release asserting, “No one should ever be subjected to sexual harassment and degradation simply to keep a roof over their head. Sexual harassment in residential settings is uniquely abhorrent because one’s home should be a place of refuge.”
The Justice Department is highly vigilant when it comes to “enforcing the Fair Housing Act’s protections against sexual harassment and holding landlords and housing providers accountable when they engage in this abhorrent conduct,” Clarke noted.
“This Springfield landlord repeatedly took advantage of his tenants by using his position as leverage to egregiously violate their civil rights,” said U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore for the Western District of Missouri.
The lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Authority received a complaint that Bell violated the Fair Housing Act by “sexually harassing a female tenant and retaliating against her when she rejected his sexual advances.”
Bell opted for a federal court trial venue after the HUD investigation found discrimination had occurred against the alleged female victim. The case was referred to the Department of Justice, which continued the investigation and identified additional female tenants whom Bell sexually harassed,” the release adds.
