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Vacant complex is site of rape
By JEFF TESTERMAN and BABITA PERSAUD
"This is the kind of thing I feared might happen," said a shaken Don Shea, Hillsborough County's director of community improvements, after being told about the rape. Last week, Shea asked the county attorney's office to seek a receiver to secure the apartment property after someone broke into the Amberwood office and took keys to the units in the 212-unit complex. "That gave them access to all the apartments and meant that a vagrant could be inside behind a locked door and we would have no idea someone was in there," Shea said. Amberwood Apartments, west of Interstate 275 near 124th Avenue, made headlines in April after the county found hundreds of code violations and padlocked the complex, sending about 150 tenants scurrying to find new living quarters. Amberwood Realty, the owner of the apartments, is owned by Steven Green, a Yonkers, N.Y., businessman whose companies have a history of real estate code violations in New York. Amberwood became the largest code enforcement case in Hillsborough history after Amberwood Realty failed to make repairs or secure the property. Fines of $5,000 a day, the largest allowed by law, were levied on the apartments. Thursday, with the complex still not secure, the unpaid fines hit $1,013,625. In the wake of Wednesday's rape, county officials hastily asked the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office for stepped-up patrols around the Amberwood complex Thursday afternoon. "The first thing I did was to ask for additional security patrols from the sheriff to prevent a recurrence of this horrible incident," Shea said. The rape occurred at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. The victim was walking in a field on the southwest corner of 127th and Central Avenues, said Hillsborough Sheriff's investigators, when a man wearing a blue and black Orlando Magic jacket attacked her from behind and twisted her arm behind her back. The assailant pushed the woman into the vacant Amberwood Apt. No. 1, at 320 Oak Rose Lane, and raped her, investigators said. Afterward, the woman ran to a nearby business and called 911, officials said. Investigators are looking for a black man between 25 and 32 years old, about 6 feet to 6-feet-2 and weighing 160 to 180 pounds. He was described as thin and muscular, with brown hair, brown eyes and a goatee. He was wearing a red T-shirt, blue jeans and the Orlando Magic jacket. Shea called the sheriff at about 2 p.m. just as Thursday's emergency court hearing on the appointment of the receiver was concluding, and a few minutes after he had learned of the rape from a Times reporter. "If I'd known about (the rape), I would certainly have advised the judge about it," said Margaret Courtney, an assistant county attorney who represented Hillsborough at the court hearing. Courtney said Circuit Judge Perry Little did sign an order sought by Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota and the county for the appointment of a receiver to oversee the Amberwood property. Shea asked for additional sheriff's patrols because it is unclear how long it will take the receiver to take control of the property and hire security personnel. Thursday afternoon, yellow police tape was draped across the balcony of two front apartments at Amberwood. "No Trespassing" signs were affixed to an iron gate at the entrance. Beer cans littered the curb in front of the main gate, scattered around a truck camper top discarded in the driveway. Across the street, two crossing guards wearing orange Hillsborough Sheriff's Office vests shuffled children from Miles Elementary School across Florida Avenue, away from the apartments. "My worst fear," said Shea, "was that some child from the school might become the victim of a crime there." Wells Fargo filed a foreclosure suit on the Amberwood Apartments owner in November, saying Amberwood Realty had made none of the $73,422-a-month mortgage payments since May. The bank is demanding $8.98-million in unpaid principal and $641,387 in interest and has asked a judge to order the apartments sold to satisfy the debt. Green's Pinellas attorney expressed regret about the rape incident Thursday, but said Green is no longer responsible for Amberwood. "Obviously, any crime like this is appalling," said attorney Glenn Goldberg. "The bank has been in control of this property for several months and Mr. Green has stepped aside as the lender and the county negotiate as to the future of the property. "Given the terrible nature of this crime, Mr. Green hopes the bank and the county would expedite their negotiations." Green, 38, the president of Amberwood Realty and the man who signed for the $9.04-million Amberwood Apartments mortgage in 2001, is a former delicatessen worker who made a fortune in real estate in New York but also found his name in a Village Voice listing of the worst landlords in New York in the early 1990s. Since 1991, according to New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development records, the city has sued Green and his realty company more than 40 times in an effort to correct thousands of code violations in 14 residential buildings. In one case, the city forced Green to sell a 90-unit complex of garden apartments in Queens where 1,400 code violations resulted in $1.4-million in fines. Housing spokeswoman Carol Abrams said the city has been unable to collect fines totaling more than $2.27-million from Green. Green's attorneys say they are filing papers contesting the fines. In June, two months after Amberwood was shut down, Green launched a new venture, a Westchester, N.Y. charter airline featuring three passenger jets worth an estimated $5-million. Green says his Green Air company is a "boutique" charter company that caters to movie celebrities and other well-heeled clients from the New York area. -- Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com . Babita Persaud can be reached at (813) 226-3322 or persaud@sptimes.com.
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