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September 15, 1993

Women sue 2 apartment complexes Crime victims allege properties not kept safe

By Lucy Soto

Two metro Atlanta women who were victims of crime filed separate lawsuits Tuesday against apartment complexes they contend were not kept safe.

Both cases were filed in Fulton County Superior Court, although one occurred in College Park, the other in DeKalb County.

An 18-year-old woman raped by a burglar this summer sued the apartment complex in which she was living, saying it could have helped prevent the crime by fixing a faulty security pin on a sliding glass door.

An intruder entered the woman's home at Cedarwood Apartments in College Park June 19, stole money and a pistol, then raped and sodomized her at gunpoint, said lawyer Gilbert Deitch, who filed both suits.

A month before the attack, the suit alleges, a burglar broke into that same apartment through the glass doors. The woman's roommate told the apartment managers that a securing pin was dislodged, the suit says.

The apartment operators, LEDIC Management Group of Georgia, did not return telephone calls.

"The common denominator with these cases is they've got an obligation to keep these properties safe," said Deitch, who estimates he has handled about 50 apartment liability cases. "As long as they are haphazardly doing what they are doing, I'm going to keep filing these lawsuits."

The second lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Shoals Crossing apartment complex in DeKalb County. It contends the owners failed to keep the property safe for Denise Anderson, 27, whose ex-boyfriend entered her apartment in August 1991, shot Kenneth Abraham Roberts and tried to abduct her.

Roberts died two weeks later. His mother, Melvie Roberts, also is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Donald Carl Bankhead was arrested on charges of murder, aggravated assault, burglary and kidnapping. He later pleaded guilty to lesser charges and is in jail.
Shoals Crossing apartment managers could not be reached for comment.