Massachusetts News

March 2--A white tenant, evicted from her South Boston apartment last November by the Boston Housing Authority for allegedly threatening another resident, filed a complaint with the Mass Commission Against Discrimination yesterday, charging the BHA with discrimination against her because she is white. 

Rachel Marshall, a working mother with a six-year-old daughter, insists to this day that she is innocent and that the proceedings against her were unfair and biased from the start. 

"You simply do not understand what my daughter and I have been through in the past month," she wrote in a letter to the mayor, explaining her predicament and seeking his intervention. "We were evicted for a false allegation and have lived at five different addresses since." 

Ironically, Marshall has lived between homelessness and being a transient guest at some of Boston finer hotels, courtesy of the city, before being offered an apartment in Hyde Park. 

Her story has been the subject of articles in both the Boston Globe and Herald. 

The ordeal has shattered both her and her daughter’s lives. "I try my hardest to stay strong for my daughter, Christina, but it is not that easy," she wrote. "If you only knew the life I have already lived, then you would understand how hard this is for me." 

Unfair Judge?

The incident that led to her eviction occurred in May of last year in a hallway outside her apartment at Burke Street, South Boston. There, according to a police report, Rachel stated that the other tenant, Teresa Cortes, "threatened to kill her after pushing her once and offering to fight her in the hallway." 

Cortes denied the allegation and said it was Marshall who "tried to start a fist fight with her." Unable to fix the blame, the Boston police report noted that both parties stated that they intended to report the incident to BHA management. The police report gave no indication of injury.

An investigation of the incident, conducted by BHA civil rights investigators was unable to affix blame. According to Robert Trestan, Director of the BHA’s civil rights unit, the investigators could not conclude that the incident had any racial overtones either. 

Served with an ultimatum to either sign an Agreement for Judgment stating that she would behave in the future, or go to court and risk eviction, Marshall, claiming her innocence, said she’d like to go to court.

That’s when her troubles escalated out of control.

Marshall wanted to appear before a judge, confident that if she told her story, justice would be done and her eviction halted. 

Things didn’t turn out quite as she expected.

After a series of procedural hearings without the benefit of legal counsel, Marshall, who works full time as a secretary, ended up before Judge Jeffrey M. Winik, Associate Justice of the Housing Court. 

The hearing, conducted in September, was brief and unfair, Marshall says. "The judge seemed to listen to the other tenant and ignore everything I said. I didn’t feel that it was a fair hearing at all. The BHA just sat there and let it happen." 

In his judgment, Winik repeated the testimony and allegations of injury made by Cortes, noting that the lease Ms. Marshall signed provided that a tenancy may be "terminated where a resident engages in any criminal or other activity which threatens the health or safety of other residents."

Winik said that he found "the defendant [Marshall] engaged in activity which caused injury to a resident of the BHA and disturbed that resident’s right to peaceful enjoyment of her accommodations."

Marshall says she was stunned and on the verge of tears when she read the order. "I couldn’t believe it. He had the police report. I was the one who filed the complaint with the police and I was being evicted." 

Marshall said she believes it is "because I am white and the other tenant is Hispanic," that the eviction occurred. "What do you expect, the manager is Hispanic, the other tenant is Hispanic, and the administrator is Hispanic. Who do you think they’re going to evict?"

Judge Winik relied on Cortes’ testimony that she had been shoved and suffered an injury to her hand. He held that Marshall’s activity "threatened the health and safety of other residents."

City Council Holds Hearings

It was Marshall’s repeated insistence that this incident never occurred as alleged, however, that spurred the interest of City Council President, James M. Kelly, and other members of the city council and resulted in a hearing before the Boston City Council last December.

The hearing resulted in testimony by BHA officials that was embarrassing and conflicting.

Under intense questioning by the council president, the Director of the Civil Rights Division at BHA, Robert Trestan, admitted that the BHA had no evidence or hospital report that the injury alleged to have occurred was the result of a shoving match. He did acknowledge that Cortes had a prior injury to her hand.

BHA legal counsel, Hollis Young, was equally evasive. 

"You’re familiar with the fact that Ms. Cortes says she was assaulted?" Kelly asked.

"That’s correct and injured as a result," Young responded.

"Do you have a copy of the hospital or doctor’s report indicating that Ms. Cortes suffered a broken hand or broken fingers?"

"I do not believe that there was a hospital report in evidence. She testified that there was an injury and she had a picture which was taken very shortly after the incident."

This testimony was contradicted by Trestan, who said he believed, but was not sure, that he saw evidence.

Kelly persisted.

"Did the manager ask for a copy of the hospital report that the injury she was showing happened the day before, or at what time was she treated at the hospital? I guess if I was the manager, I would ask . . . where’s the evidence that it was wrapped by a doctor. I guess there would be a report available. Would you agree?"

"I would assume so, but I don’t know."

"But he never asked for it."

"I don’t know whether the manager asked."

"We don’t know whether Teresa Cortes is being truthful, do we?" Kelly persisted.

"The issue primarily, Mr. President is that … in these situations where we have conflicting testimony, we present the matter to the court so that an independent, objective, highly qualified individual can make a judgment about these matters."

"And the qualified individual being Judge Winik?"

"Yes."

"Did Judge Winik ask for medical evidence indicating that Ms. Cortes suffered injury as a result of being assaulted?"

"Not to my knowledge. I don’t believe so. He accepted …"

"He did not," Kelly shot back.

"Were there witnesses corroborating the statements by Ms. Cortes," he pressed.

"Both Ms. Cortes and Ms. Marshall testified at the trial."

"So the answer is, no."

"Not to my knowledge, no."

"So here is Ms. Cortes, coming in without anyone backing up her statement, claiming that she suffered injury but not having any medical evidence, and this learned judge that we’re talking about is so smart that he can tell who is telling the truth, when it is a ‘he said/she said’ situation."

Concerned with the line of questioning, Sandra Henriquez interrupted and promised that "to the extent there are reports, pictures, and so on, we will make sure that the council has them."

The BHA has yet to produce any evidence of contemporary injury.

Police Report Showed No Injury

What the BHA did have and what was before Judge Winik, however, was a copy of the police report of May 2. The report contains no information about injury or battery, only that Marshall and Cortes each said the other provoked a confrontation. 

Kelly pressed this issue, reading from the report, noting the absence of any mention of injury by the police who investigated the incident.

"What did you find in your investigation that indicated that the BHA was right on target by evicting Rachel Marshall and her six-year-old daughter?" Kelly wanted to know. 

Young said the BHA had nothing but rather relied on the judge’s findings. "We found that there had been an incident in which another tenant had been injured. We presented all the relevant information to the housing court. A judge had made a determination."

"Are you suggesting that Rachel Marshall was convicted of assaulting another tenant?" Kelly pressed.

"That’s a criminal matter."

"I don’t care what kind of a matter it is," Kelly shot back. "I think you just told me that your investigation found that she was guilty of assaulting another tenant."

"No, if I suggested that, that was not my intent, Mr. President. My point is, you asked me when we looked at the case, what we found. And what we found was a judge who had given an opinion that an assault had occurred on another tenant and that was the basis for his opinion, and for granting the BHA … "

"But you investigated the matter," Kelly said. "I know what Judge Winik found, what did Hollis Young find?"

Young remained evasive. "What we found was that an objective third party heard relevant testimony from both of the parties, and found that one of them had committed an assault with resulting injury on the other."

"So that was the extent of your investigation?"

"We looked at the entire history of the case, the record of the civil rights, which Mr. Trestan just reported."

"Mr. Trestan said he looked and found nothing."

"He found no civil rights violation, that’s correct."

"Well, maybe I can ask him what he did find, then." Kelly then turned to Trestan.

"Mr. Trestan, what did you find?"

"Both Ms. Marshall and Ms. Cortes filed incident reports on the May 2 incident that occurred that Sunday. They each gave, there was no agreement. . . [Ms. Cortes] said there was an argument or disagreement in the hallway of the building. . . and that Ms. Marshall had pushed her and that her hand banged into the wall or railing."

"I would assume, then, that you asked for a copy of the medical report?"

"I don’t have it here."

"I am not for a moment doubting that Ms. Cortes may have had an injury when she went to the manager’s office to file a complaint. I want to see when the injury occurred. That’s going to be most interesting to me. I am really surprised that something so important is not forefront in your mind."

"We can’t force residents to provide confidential medical documents," Trestan responded, after admitting that he was not sure exactly what he had reviewed.

"Confidential medical documents? I’m simply asking for verification that she went to the hospital and was treated."

"I’ll be more than happy to check my files, Mr. President on that."

"But you said that you saw it, so I’m assuming that it probably can be faxed over to me by later this afternoon."

"I’m not certain. I will check."

Trestan has yet to respond with the documentation he said would be forthcoming that afternoon in December.

"Did you investigate the other matter?" Kelly wanted to know.

"Yes, members of my staff talked with both Ms. Cortes and Ms. Marshall."

"Did you uncover anything that hasn’t been discussed here today?"

"It wasn’t possible to make a determination by me or my staff what happened in the hallway."

"Would you repeat that please?" Kelly said.

"It wasn’t possible for me to determine exactly what happened."

"You’re not as smart as the judge, huh? He was able to make a determination. You did a thorough investigation and you couldn’t determine what ‘he said/she said,’ but the judge who was supposedly an unbiased person, he was able to make that determination. That’s remarkable."

"Well, that’s what he does every day, Mr. President."

"Hopefully, I’ll never have to appear before him for anything," Kelly responded.

Marshall insists that the BHA is covering up the real reason for her eviction. She said she hopes the MCAD will get to the bottom of the matter, and that she will be allowed back to South Boston. 

"I am a citizen, too," Marshall wrote the mayor. "I have just as much right as anyone else. I deserve to be heard. I never touched that girl and she knows it. I have always taught my daughter to tell the truth. Now I am being punished for it."

The MCAD said it would proceed after it heard from the BHA. 
 

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