Kensington property maintenance worker sues former landlord tenant officer over 2023 eviction-related assault
The for-profit office that executed evictions in Philadelphia shut down. But it’s facing a new lawsuit over eviction-related violence.
The Landlord Tenant Office, a for-profit firm that once executed evictions in Philadelphia, shut down last fall — but the fallout from a string of violent incidents involving its officers continues.
Philadelphia’s former landlord tenant officer, Marisa Shuter, is facing a second lawsuit related to a July 2023 eviction that ended with the assault of a property management worker and the shooting of a tenant.
The violent encounter in Kensington contributed to the demise of the office, unique to Philadelphia, in which contractors enforced eviction orders under the supervision of Shuter, a private, court-appointed lawyer.
» READ MORE: Explaining deputy landlord-tenant officers, who carry out evictions in Philly
On July 18, 2023, Angelize Rodriguez, a maintenance administrator at the Grace Townhomes on the 2200 block of East Auburn Street, was instructed by her supervisor to meet a “sheriff” who arrived to evict a tenant, according to the complaint she filed last month in Common Pleas Court.
The administrator and four of her colleagues met Vincent Tabita, a retired Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office deputy who had worked for Shuter for more than a decade. He wasn’t there as a sheriff’s deputy, but as a “deputy landlord-tenant officer” who just looked the part, the suit says, wearing a bulletproof vest and a badge, despite not being a law enforcement officer employed by the city.
The door to tenant Latese Bethea’s unit was locked from the inside by a chain, so Tabita instructed the maintenance supervisor to break the front door, the suit contends.
The situation got heated quickly. Bethea, who was in the unit’s second floor, yelled down that Tabita had “no right to be in the house” and called him a “fake cop,” according to the complaint.
At this point, Rodriguez’s complaint alleges, Tabita should have known that the eviction could escalate and “called the police for backup, terminated the eviction, and vacated the premises” until police officers arrived, the complaint says.
Instead, the suit says, Tabita told Bethea to come downstairs and handed her the court order. The tenant tossed the piece of paper and continued yelling. Tabita then called his office to ask for police assistance.
That’s when Bethea turned to Rodriguez and attacked her, “violently beating her in the head until Ms. Rodriguez was rendered unconscious,” the complaint contends.
Bethea tackled Rodriguez, pulled her hair, and punched her repeatedly, according to a 2024 criminal complaint filed over the incident. Bethea also told her to “count your days,” adding an expletive, according to the same complaint.
Before the eviction was over, Bethea had been shot in the leg, according to a police report following the incident. An August 2023 lawsuit filed by Bethea against Shuter and Tabita, among other defendants, alleged that the contractor shot her. Bethea said that her daughter, 8 years old at the time, was in the unit and witnessed the shooting. The lawsuit is stayed pending the resolution of the criminal case against Bethea.
Rodriguez’s lawsuit accuses Tabita of exposing her to “significant and unreasonable risk of injury.” It further says that Shuter “was woefully unqualified to operate a security company” and had no formal hiring criteria for deputies, had no written policies or procedures, and provided no training on de-escalation.
William Leonard, an Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel attorney representing Shuter, said that Tabita is a victim of Bethea’s actions, along with Rodriguez. He added that Shuter and her office complied with all rules governing the service of eviction orders.
Jahlee J. Hatchett, a Marshall Dennehy attorney representing Tabita, declined to comment.
Shuter’s attorneys formally responded to the complaint earlier this month, denying the notion that her office had “no policies or procedures” broadly.
But in the court filing, lawyers admitted “that Shuter does not have written policies or procedures for performing a safe and lawful eviction.”
The July 2023 eviction and shooting came at a time when Philadelphia’s for-profit eviction system was under intense scrutiny following other eviction-related shootings, and years of complaints by tenant advocates.
Bethea was the second tenant shot by a contractor serving eviction orders during a lockout in 2023, following the March shooting of Angel Davis at a complex in North Philly. (An officer employed by Shuter also opened fire on a tenant’s dog during a third incident.)
In the face of new regulatory proposals from City Council, Shuter’s office suspended operations last October, citing her inability to find an insurance provider.
The work of eviction service in Philadelphia has since defaulted to the city’s sheriff’s office.