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Jury selection starts in Orkin trial

Owners of a Clearwater apartment complex say the company faked termite treatments.

TAMPA - A trial pitting the owners of a local apartment complex against the Orkin pest extermination company began Monday with jury selection.

The owners of the Coachman Crossing Apartments in Clearwater claim in a $6.7-million lawsuit that Orkin purposefully faked termite treatments, an allegation repeated in several other lawsuits filed against the company throughout the Southeast.

As a result, the apartment complex has been left with crumbling balconies, doors and other fixtures, owners argue.

In the past few years, several Orkin employees have told stories about the company not providing the treatments it promised. They also have described numerous occasions during which they said customers' signatures were forged to cover up the activity.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Claudia Isom, who is overseeing the Coachman Crossing Apartments trial, has indicated that she will allow evidence from former Orkin workers describing the practice as widespread.

Kelly Smith-Kerr, who became manager of the 218-unit apartment complex about a decade ago, said she discovered that Orkin exterminators didn't do the treatment properly, or possibly at all. By 1998, the complex was literally falling apart in some places because of termite damage, she said.

Repairing just one corner of a building costs about $10,000.

Orkin, which is based in Atlanta, operates 400 offices nationwide and has 7,500 employees. Company officials would not comment on the allegations.

In a statement released Friday, the company said, "Because this case is pending and the trial has not even begun yet, we think it would be highly inappropriate to characterize the allegations or evidence or to otherwise comment on the trial at this time."

Jury selection is expected to continue today.

The trial could last several weeks.

- The Associated Press and Times news researcher John Martin contributed to this report.