Update: (Even) More Legal Woes for Drug Kingpin and Slumlord Milton Tillman

According to a source, two homes owned by Milton Tillman’s New Trend Development Company were raided by police a total of three times in the summer of 2009.  A large quantity of drugs was found in 2628 McElderry Street, and drugs were also found in 515 N. Streeper Street.

More Legal Woes for Drug Kingpin and Slumlord Milton Tillman

Milton Tillman is back in court again, and this time his legal woes have nothing to do with his drug dealing in Baltimore City.  Apparently being a drug kingpin isn’t as lucrative as it once may have been, and he’s now the defendant in multiple foreclosure lawsuits filed by a Mr. David Cohen of the law firm Cohen & Forman, LLC.

Case Number 24O09003503:  Total debt $875,981.55

The affected properties are as follows:

• 1509 E. 28th Street
• 2932 McElderry Street
• 401 N. Rose Street
• 5201 Invahoe Avenue
• 623 Melville Avenue
• 515 N. Streeper Street
• 707 N. Lakewood Avenue
• 317 N. Gilmor Street
• 2628 McElderry Street
• 3002 McElderry Street
• 506 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 530 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 607 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 742 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 740 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 1053 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 2607 E. Chase Street
• 2816 E. Chase Street
• 2114 E. Hoffman Street
• 623 N. Curley Street
• 605 N. Curley Street
• 415 N. Belnord Avenue
• 2022 Robb Street
• 742 Bartlett Avenue
• 2421 E. Madison Street
• 1607 Riggs Avenue
• 928 N. Collington Avenue
• 2718 Ashland Avenue

Case Number 24O09003452:  Total debt is $69,458.08

• 819 E. Lakewood Avenue

Case Number 24O09003449:  Total debt is $29,007.13

• 2114 E. Federal Street

Maryland Homestead Tax Fraud and Other News

We often wondered how many of our city’s non-resident property owners were taking the Maryland Homestead Tax Credit and claiming their property as “owner-occupied”.  We figured there had to be a few tax cheats out there, right? There were more than a few.  One of our readers found 384 of them, in fact.  Out of 1000+ vacant homes our reader found in the city’s database that were possibly not owner-occupied, over one-third of the owners are definitely cheating the state (and you, if you’re a resident of Maryland) out of thousands of dollars per year. Maryland is hardly in the position of letting that kind of cash fly out of the State House windows.  As usual, we’re going to dig deeper and see what we can find out about some of these property owners. Stay tuned.  Baltimore Sun blogger Jamie Smith Hopkins is also on top of this — if you haven’t bookmarked her blog, you should.

In other news, it seems that Baltimore’s favorite drug lord, Milton Tillman III, is feeling the pinch of the bad economy.  Thirty-five of his properties went into foreclosure last week.  His property at 116 N. Curley Street is currently under contract — maybe that will bring in some much-needed cash.

The City Paper ran an expose on the Baltimore vs. Wells Fargo lawsuit — turns out many of the “victims” were less than stellar citizens, and one “victim” may not even exist.  We have to wonder if this is worth the cost of a lengthy trial.  How about revamping the City’s housing policies instead, to prevent future disasters?

Correction:  Our reader found 1,148 vacant homes that were listed as “Owner-Occupied”.  For 384 of them, our reader was able to track the owner’s true address.

702 N. Curley Street

Property address:  702 N. Curley Street, Baltimore, MD 21205

Property owner:  702 N. Curley, LLC, 6409 Belair Road, 21206

Owner of 702 N. Curley, LLC:  Russell A. Frost, 824 Eastern Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21221

City Council District and contact:  District 13, Warren Branch

You may remember Russell Frost (aka “Dr. Rex Frost”) from our post about 1135 and 1137 Nanticoke Street. Mr. Frost is part of the same slumlord stew that involves the usual players — people from the Sun’s Ground Rent series (including local attorney Heidi Kenny) and other slumlords we’ve written about here, as well as drug kingpin Milton Tillman.

702 N. Curley Street

Rear of 702 N. Curley.

A Pastor, A Drug Dealer, and a Slumlord Walk Into Court…

…and all legal hell breaks loose, according to court records.

Disgraced pastor Kevin Pushia, accused of hiring someone to kill a blind and disabled man with church funds, is also involved in a legal tussle with Baltimore’s most notorious drug kingpin and Baltimore’s most notorious slumlord, according to court records.  In 2007, Pushia filed suit (Foreclosure Rights of Redemption) in Baltimore City Circuit Court against nine corporations owned by Stanley Rochkind, and one owned by Milton Tillman.  Rochkind and Tillman are no strangers to the court system, as Rochkind has been involved in 400+ lawsuits in Baltimore City — all of them centered around his substandard and dilapidated properties.  He also paid stiff fines for multiple lead paint violations found by the Maryland Department of the Environment.  Mr. Tillman’s drug activities have been well documented not only in the courts, but by the Baltimore City Paper as well.

The property in question, 2634 McElderry Street, is currently owned by a Tillman-controlled corporation — M&S Associates, Inc.  It was sold to Tillman by N.B.S. Inc., a Rochkind-controlled company.  The other Rochkind-controlled companies named in the lawsuit are:  JAM #6 Corporation, JAM #7 Corporation, JAM 23 Corporation, JAM 26 Corporation, Best Investment, Inc., KGB #16 Corporation, Uptown Realty Corporation, and Dana #5 Corporation.  Also named in the lawsuit are the City of Baltimore, Director of Finance and The Mayor and City Council.

The property is located in City Council District 13.