Will Sherard, one of Milwaukee's most notorious inner city landlords, has long taken advantage of the system by routinely paying the bare minimum on fines for hundreds of building code violations, even as he pays cash to acquire new properties.
That game may be ending.
City attorneys have asked the Municipal Court to make Sherard prove he cannot afford to pay his fines, including $48,800 that was due last week. Presiding Municipal Court Judge Philip Chavez scheduled a hearing on the matter for next week. The city took the step after a Journal Sentinel investigation exposed ways that landlords, including Sherard, game the legal system.
The Journal Sentinel investigation found that Chavez and other municipal court judges have allowed landlords — who in some cases owe tens of thousands of dollars in fines — to take advantage of payment plans that allow them to pay as little as $100 every three months. In Sherard's case, it would take him between 17 and 25 years at the current pace to pay his largest fines of $10,000 each.
In the wake of the Journal Sentinel investigation, Mayor Tom Barrett and other officials said they would be cracking down on the practice. Officials from the City Attorney's Office said they had filed a standing objection to challenge payment plans sought by landlords hit with fines for code violations.
'Our office has met with Chavez ... to lodge a standing objection on a going-forward basis to installment plans and (is) asking for hearings if that's going to happen,' veteran assistant city attorney Gregg Hagopian said during an April 25 interview, in which he was joined by Barrett.
Deputy City Attorney Adam Stephens, who oversees building code enforcement matters, confirmed later that day that a standing objection to the payment plans had been made.
But no such motion had been filed until Thursday — the day Sherard's bill came due.
Chavez, for his part, said he met with Stephens several weeks ago and the subject of objecting to payment plans came up, although nothing was filed and no firm request was made. The judge added that he was unsure whether it was even feasible for the court to approve a standing objection to all payment plan requests.
Thus the city now plans to focus on about a dozen landlords with the most in outstanding fines and file motions on their individual cases.
City Attorney Grant Langley did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Stephens said seeking payment hearings is one of several steps the city will be taking to crack down on landlords who do not pay fines.
Sherard and other landlords have long taken advantage of the Municipal Court's walk-in policy. The court allows people who are cited with municipal ordinance violations to come to court and deal with certain matters without an appointment — and without a prosecutor in attendance. For example, scheduling a hearing date or seeking an extension to pay fines may be dealt with during the walk-in periods.
The policy is designed to help people with busy schedules appear before a judge, but the Journal Sentinel investigation showed Sherard has used it to repeatedly get more time to pay his fines.
On Oct. 25, 2011, Chavez fined Sherard $45,184 for about 100 building code violations on six properties he owns. Since then, Sherard has come to court every 60 to 90 days when the fines were due, paid $100 on each of six fines and asked Chavez for payment extension — a request that has been routinely approved.
As a result, Sherard has paid only $5,584 on those fines without ever being considered delinquent.
During the same period, Sherard or his Morocco Investments LLC has paid $636,000 in cash to buy 63 houses at weekly sheriff's sales. Sherard has been a landlord for a half-century and has twice been convicted of misdemeanor unfair rental practices. Records show he or Morocco owns more than 100 Milwaukee rental properties.
In 2011, Sherard came up with $700,000 in one week when a federal judge jailed him for contempt after he repeatedly failed to produce the cash needed for lead paint abatement on his properties. Last year, in a separate matter, instead of seizing 31 properties on which Sherard owed delinquent taxes, the city sued him in Milwaukee County Circuit Court and won a $119,429 judgment.
The suit was filed because city officials said some landlords buy properties on the cheap — often at weekly sheriff's sales of properties foreclosed when borrowers fail to pay their mortgages. When buyers don't pay property taxes, the city typically seizes the homes after three years. That erases the owner's debt and sticks taxpayers with the deed to an often dilapidated property.
Chavez has said he hasn't considered how much in assets Sherard — or other landlords who seek extensions — have because city prosecutors have never brought the matter up. The judge has said he can only consider the evidence before him.
City attorneys have said they don't present the evidence because they never know when a defendant will appear to seek an extension due to the walk-in policy.
The practice has been going on for decades, said David Halbrooks, who was an assistant city attorney in the 1990s and then served briefly as a municipal judge.
'It was frequently frustrating because defendants would be able to come in on their own without the city being represented,' Halbrooks said.
As a result, 'the payment plan would become a legal strategy,' he said.
He noted that instead of payment hearings after the fact, 'it might be more efficient to have the discussion regarding a payment plan at the time of sentencing' when the fine is imposed and a when a prosecutor is present.
On Thursday, the day that 14 of Sherard's fines — including the six spotlighted in the Journal Sentinel story — came due, the city filed a motion asking to be notified so it could object to a new extension.
'We don't want any more partial payments,' said Patrick Leigl, the assistant city attorney who filed the objection.
The motion cites 22 Sherard or Morocco cases with fines totaling nearly $70,000. Sherard 'has surpassed a reasonable time to satisfy the total forfeiture judgment,' Leigl wrote in the motion. The fines cover infractions dating to 2009.
Although the fines were due Thursday, the Municipal Court automatically grants defendants a 10-day grace period before enforcement action is taken. Enforcement steps can include sending the debt to collection, issuing warrants or imposing property liens.
Sherard came to the walk-in court Monday, presumably to make nominal payments and seek a new extension to pay his fines. Instead, he was greeted by the city motion.
Chavez ordered a hearing for June 3, rejecting requests by Sherard — who frequently represents himself — for more time to prepare a case.
'I don't know what that means,' Sherard said, referring to the city's action.
Sherard complained that the city and court were taking the actions because of the Journal Sentinel stories.
Sherard rushed out of the courtroom after the Monday court session. Reached by phone Tuesday, Sherard told a reporter 'let me get back to you.' He has not called back.
To read the Journal Sentinel's investigation into how landlords have been gaming the system when it comes to paying fines, go to jsonline.com/landlordgames.