December 31, 2024
Merryman owned over 60 properties and was charged wire fraud, aggravated identification theft, and race-based interference with housing and employment
David Merryman, a 59-year-old Virginia man, has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in jail for harassing Black tenants with racial slurs once they lived in his properties and continuing to steal their identities to money and make requests for COVID aid funds.
Merryman has been sentenced to 17 years in jail on the fees of wire fraud, aggravated identification theft, and race-based interference with housing and employment for his habits at over 60 completely different rental properties within the Newport and Hampton space.
In keeping with prosecutors, Merryman “fraudulently obtained giant preliminary funds within the type of safety deposits, pay as you go lease, and different charges for rental houses that had been in poor restore” between 2019 and January of this yr. After acquiring details about the tenants and stealing their funds, he would try to evict them rapidly to get in new tenants to rip-off.
Whereas his scheme ran in the course of the pandemic, Merryman went so far as to forge the signatures of a few of his tenants, all whereas threatening to evict them, when the federal and state governments systemically launched aid funds for renters.
The renter’s properties that Merryman focused had been deliberately positioned in low-income areas, and he largely centered on poor Black tenants who had been susceptible to his schemes as they’d nowhere else to dwell. The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Jap District of Virginia reported that lots of the houses had been in abysmal situation and infrequently had holes within the ceiling, leaks, and rodents or pests within the residence.
Whereas committing fraud on completely different households, Merryman, who’s a white man, additionally racially harassed his Black tenants and compelled them to pay repeated and constructed safety deposits underneath the pretense of creating repairs that he by no means accomplished.
As reported by Regulation and Crime, in October 2022, Merryman rented a house that had no working range or fridge to a Black man and charged an “preliminary deposit of $1,000 and a move-in deposit of $1,600 about two weeks later,” promising to repair it. He later ordered the tenant to pay over $1,000 at a later time, however when the tenant lastly requested Merryman to come back and make the promised repairs, the Virginian man mentioned, “You individuals, man, it’s all the time the Black ones that bought to have the issue shifting in.”
In one other newer incident, Merryman and a bunch of a number of different males walked onto a tenant’s property uninvited. When the renting tenant exited the house to confront the owner, Merryman threatened them with a brick and doubtlessly a firearm. Whereas the incident occurred, Merryman known as the tenant a “Black motherf***** and a “f***ing n******” repeatedly.
U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of Virginia, Jessica Aber, said in a press launch, “David Merryman intentionally focused households of colour with restricted means and housing choices. Landlords have a accountability underneath the legislation to uphold housing rights and shield the human dignity of the individuals to whom they lease. Mr. Merryman did not uphold that accountability and is paying a heavy worth for his racial discrimination and fraud.”
RELATED CONTENT: Nick Cannon Opens Up About Narcissistic Persona Dysfunction Prognosis, Highlights Psychological Well being Advocacy