Norwich woman evades arrest as she fights enforcement and foreclosure of event venues
Jun. 11—NORWICH — The embattled owner of several short-term rentals and large event venues that the city says are illegal is fighting multiple mortgage foreclosures and attempts by police to arrest her.
Huey "Natalie" Min Lee has warned city and state officials she plans to sue them for violating her property and constitutional rights.
Lee's Renaissance Quest LLC has lost the Lathrop Manor house at 380 Washington St. to a court-ordered foreclosure, which she is attempting to challenge.
A New London Superior Court judge has ordered a mortgage foreclosure auction for July 15 on a house at 138 Mediterranean Lane, also owned by Renaissance Quest. Large events there have prompted neighbors' complaints to city officials, the latest held on May 20.
Mortgage foreclosure action also is underway against a third property, Lee's Mount Crescent House, an ornate mansion at 270 Broadway. The house initially was approved as a bed and breakfast, but Lee has failed to obtain final permits, and city officials have repeatedly cited her for failing to correct fire code violations, which she claims would destroy the historic character of the house.
Lee has defied city violation orders to stop renting her residential properties for large, commercial events and has disregarded cease and desist orders and court rulings in the city's favor.
Lee has sent numerous emails to city officials, the latest on June 2, warning them she will seek federal racketeering charges against city officials she accuses of conspiring to violate her rights.
Lee has included The Day as a recipient in many of the emails, which include more than a dozen Freedom of Information requests for city documents ranging from oaths of office for city officials, copies of city tax records and correspondence among agencies.
Lee was arrested in May 2022 on a charge of failure to abate a fire hazard. She then failed to appear for her court appearance. Attempts to arrest her for failure to appear in court have been unsuccessful. Lee described one encounter with police in an email to city officials, addressed to "My dear low-IQ Public Servants," on May 26.
"Norwich Chief of Police Patrick J Daley and Deputy Chief of Police Corey (Poore) dared to send 3 police officers criminally trespassing my property at 138 Mediterranean Ln this morning at 10:20 and attempted to arrest me under the stupid 'arrest warrant,'" Lee wrote on May 26. "I told them to get the hell out of my property."
She continued in the email saying police supervisors "will be the ones arrested and put behind bars."
Throughout the legal battles, including her eviction from the Lathrop Manor at 380 Washington St. ordered through state housing court in May, Lee has continued to rent the properties for events.
Mediterranean Lane resident John Paul Mereen filed a complaint with city leaders and zoning officials May 20 with photos of a large event tent and cars parked at 138 Mediterranean Lane, a narrow residential street in Norwichtown.
"So it seems the Zoning Regulations within the City of Norwich are UNENFORCEABLE," Mereen wrote. "PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THIS WOMAN HAS NOT BEEN ARRESTED! Really? How much longer is this going to go on? I'm begging you. Do something."
The city prevailed in June 2021 in a civil lawsuit in New London Superior Court seeking an injunction against Lee's event venues at 138 Mediterranean, 270 Broadway and 380 Washington St. The court ruled in favor of city zoning officials and ordered Lee to pay the city's legal costs. But enforcement remains elusive, and Lee continues to call the city's action "extremely stupid."
Mortgage foreclosure action against Lee's properties have progressed more steadily, with action concluded against the Lathrop Manor at 380 Washington St. on Dec. 22, although Lee is continuing her objections to the court order and continued to rent the house in May.
Fortune Mortgage Co., Inc. filed foreclosure action on Oct. 16, 2020, for nonpayment of an original mortgage of $487,750 on 380 Washington St. The mortgage changed hands, eventually being assigned to Wilmington Savings Society FSB listed as the entity eligible to foreclose. The court ordered a judgment of strict foreclosure on Dec. 22, 2022.
Lee filed objections and unsuccessfully requested that the judge vacate the judgment. She argued that Wilmington Savings lacked standing, because the entity "has never been the real party of interest in the Mortgaged Premises." After the judge denied her motion to vacate the foreclosure judgment, Lee in March filed a motion for clarification of that denial. The judge has not yet responded to her request.
Wilmington took ownership of 380 Washington St. in the city land records on Jan. 17 and transferred ownership to IRP REO II LLC on Feb. 16.
But in an email to city officials objecting to state marshals' efforts to evict her and remove her possessions, Lee called the foreclosure a "theft" of her property, a "fraudulent strict foreclosure" and a "stolen title by quit-claim deed" to IRP REO II LLC.
The eviction went through state housing court, which listed Lee and four anonymous occupants. In an email to the city on May 16, Lee demanded the state marshals cease and desist "the fraudulent eviction action."
In the same email Lee wrote the guests at Lathrop Manor from May 16 to 18 had booked the house a year earlier to attend their daughter's graduation at the Coast Guard Academy in New London.
She wrote that they had paid the 15% state occupancy tax and the VRBO listing service fee, "which means this reservation was a 4-party contract binding the renter, the host Renaissance Quest LLC, VRBO and the State of Connecticut."
She pledged to file state and federal civil and criminal prosecution against the eviction, which went forward.
In a separate foreclosure action against Renaissance Quest on the house at 138 Mediterranean Lane, Lee has failed to file an appearance. The judge granted mortgage company Noah Bank's motion for default against Lee for failure to appear in the case.
With a total debt of $617,857 and the property appraised at $675,000, the court has ordered a foreclosure auction sale for noon on Saturday, July 15 on the premises.
