Editor's note: This story includes graphic details of the alleged threats and an image of the alleged perpetrator.
Two families living at The Landings at Morrison, an apartment complex in Gresham, Oregon, have filed a lawsuit alleging that the property owners, manager and police failed to act on their multiple complaints that two of their neighbors, a father and son, were threatening them, according to documents filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on June 27.
The parties named as defendants include:
- The manager, Apartment Management Consultants LLC.
- The owners, JSP Avalon I, II and III LLC and PLRA Gresham LLC.
- The city of Gresham.
The plaintiffs allege that they made a total of 19 reports to the apartment manager and seven to police regarding the neighbors’ behavior, starting in late June 2023, and that none of the defendants took action to mitigate the threat until the son’s arrest that September, according to the lawsuit. They are now seeking $6 million in damages for this period of inaction.
The reports occurred over the course of several incidents in the summer of 2023, during which the plaintiffs allege that a then-19-year-old man approached their front doors with a knife, attempted to enter their units, yelled racist and misogynistic slurs and threatened to rape, paralyze or murder them. The man’s father allegedly made similar threats, sprayed an unknown liquid on a plaintiff’s door and removed a hallway fire extinguisher. A number of these events were recorded on Ring doorbell cameras.
The Landings at Morrison’s owners are all identified as Delaware companies, according to court documents. Apartment Management Consultants is a nationwide third-party apartment management firm based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. AMC did not respond to a request for comment from Multifamily Dive, and no contact information could be found for the owners.
The lawsuit notes that leases at The Landings at Morrison contain a clause that allows the property to immediately terminate a rental agreement “if a resident seriously threatens to inflict substantial personal injury or commits any act that is outrageous in the extreme,” whether or not the act violates any laws.
The property served the 19-year-old man and his father with eviction papers on Sept. 8, 2023, over two months after the first report, directing them to move out by Sept. 13. The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs were not notified that this action was being taken, and that the defendants knew, or should have known, that the threatening and dangerous behaviors could escalate.
Police responded to a call from one of the plaintiffs on Sept. 15, but made no arrests, despite the son’s violation of a stalking order taken out against him, according to the lawsuit. The neighbors remained in the unit until at least Sept. 19, when the son was arrested after slashing a knife at a plaintiff’s door.
While no plaintiffs were physically harmed, one of them, who was pregnant at the time of the incidents, reported to property management that she feared she would go into early labor due to stress.
The plaintiffs seek damages of $1.5 million each, for a total of $6 million, and intend to add claims for punitive damages. The lawsuit states that the property defendants were negligent in failing to evict the father and son for their threats against the safety of other tenants, as well as failing to maintain the safety of the public common areas, and that the city of Gresham failed to adequately investigate or respond to the situation.
The father and son are not listed as defendants in the lawsuit. The son’s criminal case is on hold as he undergoes mental health treatment, according to a report from local news outlet The Oregonian, and the father has not been charged with any crime.
