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RICHARD RAEKEThe landlord claims it's a simple case of unpaid rent. A disputed letter and the ACLU are now involved in the legal fray.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Stephen Stoltz says he's being evicted from his New Port Richey home because he has AIDS. That's illegal. He's got state statute, federal law and the American Civil Liberties Union on his side.
Stoltz also has a smoking gun. It's a letter signed by his landlord, he says.
"I do not want anybody with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome living in any of my properties...," it reads.
To the ACLU, the case is simple.
"It's sad that even in today's day and age that we see this type of blatant, illegal discrimination against people with AIDS," Tampa attorney Paul Rebein said in an ACLU news release issued late Wednesday afternoon.
But the case may not be so simple.
The landlord didn't write the incriminating letter.
The tenant did.
"Oh jeez, I didn't even know about this," Alessandra Soler Meetze, the communications director for the ACLU in Florida, said Wednesday evening. "This is the first I've heard about it."
The ACLU got involved in the case two weeks ago, when it received a complaint from Stoltz, she said. It filed suit on his behalf Wednesday in Pasco County.
In its news release announcing its involvement, the ACLU quoted liberally from the letter.
But there's another letter written by the tenant in December. In it, Stoltz announces that he would withhold rent until repairs were made to the house.
Stoltz owes $2,200 in back rent, landlord Henry Javer said.
It's a classic landlord-tenant dispute. On Jan. 27 Javer and his wife sent Stoltz a letter.
"We have done everything to help you and satisfy you," it reads. "This is to notify you that if we do not receive your rent of $2,200 owed us by February 1, 2004, we will continue with your eviction! Please let us hear from you!"
That's the reason for the eviction, the Javers say. In fact, Henry Javer, an 83-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor who speaks in a thick accent, says he didn't sign the AIDS letter.
His wife, Lorraine Javer, said they did not know Stoltz had AIDS. Stoltz did send them a note, telling them he was sick and asking for some help with the rent, she said.
But they would not evict Stoltz, 35, because of his illness, she added. "We would never do such a thing to anybody. Isn't that terrible? We're from New York and we knew all kinds of sick people," she said.
Stoltz, through his attorney Rebein, admits that he wrote the AIDS letter. He says he read it aloud to Henry Javer and asked him to sign it. It is typed on Javer's letterhead.
Stoltz has two witnesses to the letter signing, said Rebein, who volunteered to take on the case for the ACLU. But he admits that Stoltz was withholding rent until repairs were made.
Asked how his landlords learned of his illness, Stoltz said through Rebein that he believes a workman at the house recognized his prescriptions for treating AIDS. And the Javers subsequently wouldn't do any work on the house because of his illness, he added.
But Lorraine Javer said they made improvements, put in a drain field and helped Stoltz apply for assistance from Catholic Charities.
"We tried to help him."
- Richard Raeke covers courts in west Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6236. His e-mail address is rraeke@sptimes.com