NW Houston apartment complex plagued by mold

khou.com

Posted on October 26, 2012 at 11:41 PM

Updated Saturday, Oct 27 at 12:00 AM

HOUSTON—An apartment complex infested with mold and mildew has angry residents blaming, not just the landlords, but city officials as well.

“There’s so much mold and mildew inside this apartment,” said Charles Warren as he walked through his second floor unit at the Pines at Northwest Crossing Apartments in northwest Houston.

He said the unit’s roof is riddled with holes.

“It’s embarrassing to even have company,” he added.  “When it rains, I have to line my floor with buckets.”

Warren’s neighbors shared similar complaints.

Hanniffa Allen said her ceiling also leaks, and blamed the landlords for ignoring her complaints.

“If you care about your property, you’re going to fix it,” said Allen.  “They’re not fixing it.”

Houston’s code enforcement inspectors have cited the property numerous times for various violations, but in April they declared the place fit for occupancy.

The owners live in Los Angeles.

One of their representatives said they’re working hard to make the needed repairs but blamed the poor economy for setting the company back.

He said they’re trying to come up with a million dollars, the amount of money it will take to fix what’s wrong.

Recently, city inspectors cited the property again, ordering repairs to the leaky roofs.

The action comes too late to appease a former tenant, who said he moved out of his apartment when doctors discovered mold in his baby’s lungs.

“It was bad,” said Jimmy Guajardo.  “Actually, I stopped paying the rent after that happened to my son.  I said, I’m not paying the rent anymore.”

Unless conditions improve soon, some current tenants said they might also stop paying rent.

“We pay our rent on time but we never get anything accomplished,” added Warren.  “We never get anything done.

Public asked to help find suspect who killed war vet

Harris County homicide investigators need the public's help to track down a suspect who fatally shot an Iraq war veteran during a robbery Aug. 6.

The suspect has been identified as Keith Dewayne Dillingham, 28, who has been charged with capital murder, investigators said. A judge has denied bail.

The victim, Alexander Segura, 28, was shot while he chased two thieves who had robbed him and a woman as they sat in a vehicle at an apartment complex at 9001 Jones Road in northwest Harris County.

Segura was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, where he later died, investigators said.

Detectives learned that two men were wearing dark clothing and hoodies when they robbed Segura and his friend, and Dillingham's name surfaced as one of the suspects.

Anyone with information about the suspect's whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (8477), or submit a tip online at www.crime-stoppers.org.

Tips can also be sent by text message. Text TIP610 plus your tip to CRIMES (274637).

Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest and charges in the case. All tipsters remain anonymous.

Dillingham has a criminal history dating to 2005 that includes convictions for delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, unauthorized use of a vehicle, deadly conduct, burglary of a vehicle, trespassing and assault on a family member, court records show.

Segura leaves behind his wife and 2-year old son.

Texas says it's too costly to keep sex offender registry

HOUSTON — Texas is one of five states to shun a national sex offender registry created in 2006, citing cost concerns. The Houston Chronicle reported Saturday that officials say it would take an estimated $38 million to modify the state's existing registry program.

Therefore, the state is willing to risk losing about $1.4 million in grant money to help local agencies enforce the law, they say. "We couldn't afford the national program," Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, told the newspaper. Members of the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee made the decision to not participate in the registry following an interim meeting two years ago. Local law enforcement officials have testified that complying with the program would add more sex offenders to the state's already extensive registry.

Nearly three dozen states have failed to meet all conditions of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act because of concerns about how it works and how much it costs. Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, California and Nebraska have not taken part in the national registry.

 About 70,000 sex offenders were registered in Texas as of August, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice. The Adam Walsh law, named for a boy who was kidnapped from a Florida mall and killed in 1981, aimed to create a uniform way to register and track sex offenders around the country. But since its creation, many states realized they would have to overhaul their sex offender registration programs to comply, according to the Chronicle. States were required to comply by 2009, but the U.S. attorney general offered an extension until July 2011 after many objected to a requirement that all juveniles 14 and older who had committed aggravated sexual assaults register for 25 years.

The penalty for not complying is losing 10 percent of grant funding given to law enforcement agencies for crime prevention. But states not honoring the law still have the option to reapply for withheld money. Meanwhile, 29 states that are in partial compliance have asked to have their withheld money released to help them meet conditions of the law, the Chronicle reported. The newspaper says Texas juveniles are required to register for 10 years after they leave the juvenile system. The state, however, gives judges discretion to waive or remove a juvenile from the registry.

They also can defer a decision until after the juvenile successfully completes therapy. Those options would be removed under the federal law, according to the Chronicle. Also, to comply, Texas would have to add certain offenses that require registration under the federal law.

The state also would have to eliminate its use assessment to determine each offender's risk to the community. Currently, offenders are registered as low, moderate or high risk. Proponents of the federal law had hoped it would reduce the risk that states with less-strict registration could become havens for sex offenders. Whitmire told the Chronicle that Texas' system is effective, but said lawmakers will need to figure out how to ensure that only the most dangerous offenders are on the list. Many offenders are registered because they had consensual sex with a minor, he said. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-shuns-national-sex-offender-registry-article-1.1177458#ixzz28k5rplMu