Following the first complaint by Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray about a squatter occupying the house of an active-duty Army soldier, Channel 2 Action News is seeing progress a week later.
The squatter is in jail, and Army Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure is back in control of her Dekalb County house.
Usually, homeowners are instructed to go to court and have the squatter removed, which might take several months.
However, the Dekalb County Sheriff’s office contacted Daure after our Channel 2 Action News report aired last week and said they would skip that procedure by using something called an intruder affidavit.
Daure stated, “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Channel 2, Justin Gray, and I’m sincerely appreciative.
As Vincent Simon was being evicted from the Ellenwood residence by Dekalb Sheriff’s officers and Dekalb Marshalls on Thursday, a Channel 2 Action News photojournalist was on the scene with a camera rolling.
Even though the suspected squatter had only been living there since the beginning of May, truckloads of belongings, including a gun safe and two dogs, were removed.
“You lazily moved in like it’s your home just as I completed the renovations. Daure said, “No, I wasn’t going to let that go.
Dahlia Daure initially got in touch with Channel 2 Action New a week ago.
While Simon was stationed in Chicago on Army active service, she had listed her house for sale.
The convicted felon put up ‘Beware of Dog’ signs, installed cameras, and boarded up the windows.
Simon said that he had a lease and had paid $19,000 in advance for a period of six months.
“The police dial the number on the lease,” someone said. It’s nonexistent,” said Daure.
Daure was informed that it was a civil issue when she went to the police.
Simon received notice of eviction from her.
“I felt raped and was beyond myself. Daure said to Gray last week, “I would have been at my house if I weren’t serving my country.
Daure, though, saw Simon leave the home this week while being restrained.
According to Major Manuel Sanchez of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s office, “It feels good when you can return the home to the homeowner.”
Sheriff’s officers and Marshalls were able to evict Simon without a drawn-out judicial procedure by delivering the invader affidavit.
In the house, police discovered a revolver and perhaps some ecstasy.
Simon cannot lawfully possess a gun since he was convicted of a crime.
He made an effort to demonstrate the lease. The law forbids such, according to Sanchez.
Usually, proving a false lease or even simply asserting that you have one is enough to send a squatter case into a protracted legal struggle.
John Ernst, an attorney, said: “You want to have protections for tenants, but you don’t want protection for squatters.”
Since February, Ernst has been representing a client in a similar squatter issue, and he claims that these proceedings often drag on for months due to delays with the marshals and courts.
His customer has yet to return to his house.
“It has been months since they moved in, and we’ll probably have another month, month and a half, before they are out,” Ernst added.
Daure now owns her home again as a result of the Sheriff’s office avoiding that eviction procedure.
“I came here with a mission in mind to get him out of my house and put him in jail where he belongs,” stated Daure.
Ernst, who is also the mayor of Brookhaven, claims he has been considering ways to improve the eviction process from a public policy standpoint as well.
