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Housing Authority may evict activist

By JAMIE THOMPSON
Published April 29, 2005

TAMPA - For the second time, the Tampa Housing Authority won the right to evict community activist Connie Burton from her four-bedroom apartment at the Robles Park public housing complex.

An all-white jury spent about an hour deliberating Thursday before returning their verdict, the culmination of a legal battle that began in 1999 after Burton's son, Narada, was charged with marijuana possession. Under a one-strike law, public housing tenants can be evicted if anyone on their lease is arrested. Burton said her son was not living with her and that she did not condone his drug use. She said the authority was retaliating against her because of outspoken criticism of the agency.

Police said they had seen her son around the complex and that Burton was uncooperative during their investigation.

A jury in 2002 gave the authority the right to evict Burton, but County Judge Eric Myers ordered a new trial, saying a juror had slept through much of the first one.

Burton said she was not surprised by the verdict on Thursday.

"I didn't have a jury of my peers," she said. "They were of a different race, a different economic status, different political beliefs."

Burton, who has lived at the complex since the 1980s, doesn't know where she will go, or whether she will appeal. She is raising her son's daughter and will need a place for them both.

A Housing Authority spokeswoman said the agency will present an order to a judge today, then will serve Burton with an eviction notice. It could order her out in as little as 24 hours, but may give her 48 to 72 hours.

No matter what, Burton said, she will continue speaking out. She said the executive director of the Housing Authority, Jerome Ryans, shouldn't get too comfortable.

"I guess Mr. Ryans is home sipping champagne," she said. "I would only caution him not to drink the whole bottle just yet."

[Last modified April 29, 2005, 00:33:10]