Universally despised Ypsilanti landlord, David Kircher, has been sentenced to serve five years in jail and fined one million dollars for his role in pumping 25,000 to 100,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Huron River in 2004.
One wonders what happens to Kircher’s 23 remaining properties when he goes up-river, and how long it takes before his long-suffering tenants start tearing apart his house and digging up his lawn looking for his millions.
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I have friends that live next door to a Kircher house that had no running water. The tenants who last lived there were in the practice of shitting on the ground in the backyard…. Hopefully that will give you some idea as to the kind of landlord that he is.
Note that Kircher’s conviction is for the Eastern Highlands sewage dumping; the Highlands are in the Township, so it wasn’t even the City that got him.
If you want something done right, take it to the Township. That’s what I always say.
I predict that he will raise an army in prison and come back to destroy us all.
Well, I’m usually sympathetic, rather than vindictive, but I have to say, it’s good to see a person like that punished.
According to his blog roll, we are next:
“Ypsilanti Bloggers
Ypsi~Dixit
Trusty Getto
Mark Maynard
Leighton Rhymes With Satan”
Wonder if he’ll blog (“hog”?) from the Hogback Hotel?
As the only person who ever commented on Kircher’s blog, I, for one, am deeply confused, disturbed and disappointed with the fact that he never added a sidebar link to my site.
David’s lawyer is making an appeal …
As Ypsi-Dixit published … cities, various municipalities, water treatment plants, other large organizations have been dumping raw or untreated sewage into Michigan rivers, lakes and streams for years without issue or with a slap on the wrist. Why prosecute David? Why for only a few hundred thousand gallons? Poor David … sob! Victim of (sic) targeted persecution … even the Exxon Valdez punitive damages award was cut in half this week.
I wanna know if he’ll take his retinue of eye-shaddowy, leather-encrusted “honies” with him … the ones who hang on him at public meetings, like banshees waiting to exact his every dream.
Perhaps he’ll serve time … perhaps not.
Let’s see if and how the appeal process proceeds.
Cities dump sewage into rivers only when their alternative is to let it fill their citizens’ basements (which is both a greater public health risk and exposes them to lawsuits). Kircher dumped sewage because he was unwilling to pay a plumber.
I could add many stories to the Kircher mythology; I’ll limit myself to one. I have a friend that used to serve eviction notices for him. She walked off the job after she delivered notice to a single mom of three kids on third floor apartment in February. Some of the knee-level windows in the apartment had no glass. He kept the security deposit, which I’ve been told by several, is how he liked to double his money. Rent to the vunerable, kick them out a month later, keep the deposit, and start again.
Besides the township, Kircher really fucked-up by messing with the MDEQ/EPA who have the resources to match his.
I do feel some empathy for the old man who could, in theory, now die in prison. I’d rather that he simply lost all of his properties (i.e., power to abuse) and pay restitution to the hundreds of folks he’s screwed. But, he’s manipulated the letter of the law until today. Now the letter is being manipulated on him. Not perfect, but it is, at least, some dull shadow of justice.
Prisons are a terrible, terrible institution, and mostly they do no good whatsoever in America. But surely there is no better function for a Michigan prison than to be the place where this corrupt, selfish, mean, violent (in the broad social sense of violence) miserable excuse for a human being, dies.
My Ypsilanti landlord (Ken Sharrock) still has my security deposit. I even won a judgment against him for double that amount which comes out to over $1600. Sharrock didn’t show up for the hearing.
Collecting is another matter entirely.
Jack Bauer could get your money back for you.
Collection agent? What kinda percentage are we talking about?
I saw a guy on Michigan Avenue the other day with a sign that said, “Will shatter kneecaps for a pack of smokes.”
OK, it wasn’t so much a sign as it was a vibe that I got, but I’m pretty good when it comes to that kind of stuff.
And do it goes – our first local blogger goes to prison.
http://www.state.mi.us/mdoc/asp/otis2profile.asp?mdocNumber=624025
Sounds like the residents were also dumping sewage.