Landlord assaulted tenants with chainsaw, shovel and stole their money, feds say
A Virginia landlord threatened and physically assaulted tenants who asked him to make reasonable repairs, including attacking one with a chainsaw and hitting another in the face with a shovel, federal prosecutors said.
David L. Merryman, 58, the owner of more than 60 rental properties in Hampton and Newport News, is accused of extreme harassment against tenants — and of stealing their money in a 51-page indictment filed Jan. 17.
The harassment included threatening to kill and hurt tenants, hurling graphic racist slurs toward those who were Black and making repeated references to slavery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a Jan. 18 news release.
Merryman is also accused of mocking the Black Lives Matter movement in comments to tenants.
In addition to threats, racial harassment and physical assault, the indictment details how Merryman defrauded victims of their money, stole their identities to cash in on rent relief benefits and evicted them in retaliation.
A warrant was issued for his arrest Jan. 17, court records show.
Information regarding his legal representation wasn’t immediately available Jan. 18.
The indictment charges Merryman with 30 counts, including:
10 counts of wire fraud
Four counts of interfering with housing rights
Two counts of interstate communications with threats to injure
Six counts of theft of government money
Four counts of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Four counts of aggravated identity theft
Alongside tenants, prosecutors said Merryman’s victims also included a businessman and a Newport News city official.
Landlord threatens, hits tenant with shovel
When a renter moved into a single-family home owned by Merryman in June 2018, the property was missing doors, had a broken water heater and an air conditioner that didn’t work, according to the indictment.
The man, who is Black, paid Merryman $10,000 as a prepayment for 10 months’ rent before moving in, the indictment says.
Merryman promised the tenant he’d make repairs or compensate him for any repairs the tenant made — but he didn’t make good on those promises, according to the indictment.
After the man asked Merryman for reimbursement for repairs he’d hired a contractor for, Merryman began barging into his home unannounced.
The landlord refused to fix the air conditioner in the man’s home and told him “y’all should be used to that…you’re Black. You can take the heat a little bit,” the indictment says.
In August 2018, the man asked Merryman to leave when he showed up unannounced to his house again, according to the indictment.
Merryman “became enraged and swung a lawn mower at (the tenant). Merryman then picked up a shovel, and while calling (the man) a (racial slur), hit (him) in the face with the shovel,” the indictment says.
Merryman ultimately evicted the man by lying and claiming he’d never paid rent, which the man didn’t have documentation to disprove, according to the indictment.
Tenant beaten with chainsaw
In September 2022, a tenant moved into a single-family home owned by Merryman and found it was infested with cockroaches, lacked a stove or refrigerator, and had filthy carpets and black mold, the indictment says.
Merryman became violent after receiving repair requests from this tenant, a Puerto Rican man who identifies as Hispanic and is married to a Black woman, according to the indictment.
In December 2022, Merryman cursed at him, threw a wrench toward the man and picked up a chainsaw after the man asked him to fix the water heater, the indictment says.
Merryman cranked the chainsaw and hit the man four times with the blade, which wasn’t turned on, while calling him racist slurs, according to the indictment.
Tenants and government defrauded
Merryman lied about the condition of his rental homes to obtain housing assistance payments from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to prosecutors.
He also lied about “whether he was receiving other payments that would be duplicative of federally funded rental assistance,” prosecutors said.
In addition to this, Merryman stole his tenants’ identities and faked their signatures while fraudulently applying for rent-relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to prosecutors.
He “obtained significant sums of rent relief without telling the tenants, all the while evicting, or seeking to evict, the tenants for unpaid rent,” officials said.
Merryman made multiple false promises to tenants about repairing his rental homes to steal their money, according to prosecutors.
He caused them to pay upfront fees “for neglected, even uninhabitable properties” that he had no plans of fixing, officials said.
“He would demand significant initial fees or deposits from prospective renters and then subject those same tenants to racist and discriminatory practices, in part so they would leave the property, which would allow Merryman to start the cycle again with new tenants,” prosecutors said.
Merryman also owns a landscaping business, Merryman Grounds Maintenance, Inc., according to the indictment.
McClatchy News couldn’t reach the business Jan. 18, as its phone number was out of service.
In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor announced U.S. Marshals arrested Merryman for not complying with federal court orders in relation to not paying his employees.
Merryman was ordered to pay employees $45,846 in back wages after an investigation of Merryman Grounds Maintenance, according to labor officials.
He was taken into custody for violating court orders, the Department of Labor said. It’s unclear if he’s still in custody in connection with that case.
For the current case, Merryman is scheduled to appear in court at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 18, court records show.
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