Philadelphia property management worker files suit over assault during 2023 eviction

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Marisa Shuter, the former head of Philadelphia’s for-profit eviction system, is facing a second lawsuit in connection with an attempted lockout in July 2023 that landed a property management worker and a tenant in the hospital.

Angelize Rodriguez, then a maintenance administrator at Grace Townhomes in Port Richmond, is also suing Vincente Tabita, a private contractor Shuter hired to perform evictions before she was forced to shut down her business following a string of high-profile shootings.

The complaint, filed last month in Common Pleas Court, blames Shuter and Tabita’s “negligent and reckless conduct” for saddling Rodriguez with post-concussion syndrome, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rodriguez was “knocked unconscious” during the violent incident, according to the suit, and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $50,000.

Attorneys for Shuter and Tabita did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit comes nearly two years after the tenant, Latese Bethea, filed her own complaint against Shuter and the Landlord and Tenant Office. During the attempted lockout on July 18, 2023, a deputy landlord-tenant officer allegedly shot Bethea in the leg in front of her 8-year-old daughter, according to the suit.

The incident was the second time in four months that a tenant had been wounded by one of Shuter’s armed contractors during an eviction. Less than 24 hours later, amid renewed outrage from housing advocates, Shuter agreed to temporarily stop performing evictions until she was confident all of her deputies were “appropriately trained in de-escalation and use of force.”

That March, Angel Davis was allegedly shot in the head by a deputy landlord-tenant officer sent to evict Davis and her partner. Davis is also suing Shuter for negligence.

The Landlord and Tenant Office, which performed the majority of the city’s evictions, later resumed operations but was eventually shuttered after Shuter was unable to secure new liability insurance. Under legislation passed by City Council last June, all eviction officers in Philadelphia were now required to have liability insurance of $2 million per incident and $4 million per year.

The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office is now the only entity performing evictions in the city.

Rodriguez’s lawsuit is the latest fallout from the shootings.

On July 18, 2023, she and four co-workers were instructed to meet with the “sheriff,” who was sent to Grace Townhomes to evict Bethea after she failed to pay water and sewer fees, according to Bethea’s lawsuit.

Instead, they met Tabita, a deputy landlord-tenant officer wearing a bulletproof vest and badge. While Rodriguez believed he was with the sheriff’s office, Tabita was a private contractor and not sworn law enforcement.

According to Rodriguez’s lawsuit, Tabita instructed the property’s maintenance supervisor to break down Bethea’s front door because it was chained shut from the inside. The supervisor first tried opening the door with a master key.

Almost immediately after the group entered the townhome, the suit alleges that Bethea became “hostile” and “aggressive,” yelling from the top of the stairs that Tabita “had no right to be in the house” and that he was a “fake cop.”

Tabita then handed Bethea a writ of possession, which she tossed to the floor before telling the group to leave her apartment. The court order, issued after a landlord wins an eviction case against a tenant, warns tenants that a lockout is coming.

Tabita and the employees remained. Bethea then attacked Rodriguez, “violently beating her in the head” until she was “rendered unconscious,” the suit says. Bethea had to be “forcibly removed” from Rodriguez by her co-workers.

After regaining consciousness, Rodriguez left the apartment. She was later transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

During the incident, Bethea was shot in the leg and taken to Temple University Hospital, according to her lawsuit.

Rodriguez’s attorneys say Tabita should have known their client and her co-workers would be at “significant risk of injury” if they joined him while he was performing the eviction. They say he should have told Rodriguez to leave the apartment so she could protect herself.

The complaint also maintains that Shuter was “woefully unqualified” to lead the city’s for-profit eviction system, in part because she did not train her deputies on how to de-escalate conflicts with tenants and had no written policies and procedures for performing evictions, including who should be present while a lockout is being performed.