LEXINGTON, Neb. — A
victory six years in the making, on Tuesday a Dawson County district
court judge ordered Gerald Rich, a landlord in Lexington, to end
discrimination.
Tenants
at Rich's Cottonwood apartment complex accused Rich and his employees
of several acts the tenants felt were discriminatory.
They
say Rich and his employees entered tenants' apartments at inappropriate
times very early in the morning or very late at night, would use racial
slurs when dealing with the tenants, gave unfair fines, and would
maliciously tow tenants' cars from the complex's parking lots.
"Imagine
somebody who is paying you money your rent money and they never get
late not even one time, and when they are paying you tell them to put it
there, you don't want to even touch them, don't say hi to them. And he
doesn't accept a check, he doesn't accept money order it has to be cash.
And it has to be even numbers he wouldn't even accept loose cash," said
Somali Community Chairman Shukri Abdi.
While it took six years
for the verdict to come down, members of the Lexington Somali community
are happy to finally see justice being served.
"I love America I
love the flag, without it I would not get the justice I have today,
today I feel like an American citizen," said Holimo Alas, a tenant at
Rich's complex.
Members of the Somalian community say they are
happy with the verdict, but are ultimately frustrated with how long it
took for a judge to step in and stop the discrimination.
We did reach out to Rich for a comment, but he didn't immediately respond to our call.