Big Country Chateau case faces a delay

Environmental court resets code violations sentencing

Sentencing in Little Rock environmental court for code violations at the apartment complex known as the Big Country Chateau is now expected to take place on Feb. 23, per a judge’s decision during a hearing on Monday.

The absence of a defense witness — an on-site manager of the apartment complex named Aaron Healey — contributed to the delay.

At the hearing for sentencing and a report later this month, two additional witnesses for the city are expected to testify. Little Rock District Judge Mark Leverett also intends to hear from the complex’s new court-ordered receiver, who was likewise absent Monday.

Leverett on Monday took witness testimony from two current Big Country Chateau tenants, as well as one who recently moved.

Leverett also heard from two city officials with regard to the conditions at the complex.

Marz Cranford said she had to move because of water issues. Next month would have marked two years at the complex, she said.

Cranford testified that the conditions left a mental toll. She recalled hearing gunfire and suggested at one point that Big Country Chateau ought to be bulldozed.

Phillip Harris, a Big Country Chateau resident of a year and a half who shares a unit with his common-law wife, answered no when asked whether the complex was a safe place to live.

Kendall Foreman, a tenant since December 2021, described the current conditions at Big Country Chateau as a “free-for-all.” All three witnesses acknowledged that it had been months since they paid their rent.

The case in environmental court began in 2019 amid a gas shutoff.

Sentencing later this month will concern more than two dozen code violations tied to a July city inspection of the complex. Big Country Chateau entered no-contest pleas to the code violations in October.

Following reports of an imminent shutoff of utilities — the second such threat to come down in less than a year due to Big Country Chateau’s nonpayment of bills — code enforcement officials did another mass inspection of the 151-unit complex last week based on an administrative warrant.

Shortly thereafter, the city pledged to help tenants move into a hotel room or a

new apartment.

Brian Contino, division manager for Little Rock’s Code Enforcement Division, on Monday told the judge that the latest inspection yielded issues that had not been corrected since the previous inspection in July.

Contino mentioned sewage issues, as well as animal feces in common areas.

The proceedings in environmental court are happening amid new developments in the Arkansas attorney general’s lawsuit against Big Country Chateau.

Last August, then-Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sued three corporate entities tied to the complex in Pulaski County Circuit Court over alleged violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cara Connors recently ordered that the complex go into receivership and imposed other stipulations on the defendants, including the asset freeze.

However, Connors on Friday agreed to drop one defendant — Apex Equity Group, LLC — from the asset-freeze element of her order.

Though an order formally naming him has yet to be issued, the receiver is expected to be Sal Thomas, a senior official at a Texas-based real estate firm and the government’s preferred person to oversee the complex at 6200 Colonel Glenn Road.

In the courtroom and while speaking to reporters after the hearing, Big Country Chateau’s attorney Sylvester Smith suggested that Connors’ decision to send the complex into receivership and to freeze assets had complicated the situation.

Asked about the manager’s absence, Smith told reporters that “most people, when they have a job, if they’re not able to be paid, they typically don’t show up for the job,” referring to the effect of an asset freeze on making payroll.

“We’re hopeful that Judge Leverett will hand down us a sentence that’s equitable, that takes [into] consideration the fact that we owned up to the issues at the property. We didn’t force the city to take us to trial. We pled guilty and said, ‘Yes, there are some issues,’” Smith said.

(In an email exchange after the hearing, Little Rock Deputy City Attorney Alan Jones said that a no-contest plea has the same effect as a guilty plea.)

Noting that an apartment complex is “not just a piece of property, it’s a business enterprise,” Smith expressed hope that the court will consider mitigating factors, such as a regulatory interpretation on gas that he claimed contributed to tenants not paying rent and his clients finding themselves without the capital to make up the gap.

“That happens in America sometimes,” he said.