Chicago Hts. housing bias trial opens

Former Chicago Heights Mayor Charles Panici orchestrated a plan to shut down a 130-unit apartment complex and raze the buildings so blacks would not encroach on the "best" side of town, a lawyer said Monday.

Joseph Duffy contended Panici handpicked city housing inspectors to drum up bogus code violations at the Sunset Apartments because the buildings were located on the west side of town, which had been almost exclusively white for years.

"Mayor Panici summed it up when he said, `The worst part of Chicago Heights is affecting the best,' " Duffy said during opening statements in a civil suit against the former mayor and four city workers.

The 1986 suit alleges that after the Sunset Apartments were declared uninhabitable in 1984, Chicago Heights police officers set fires there to drive blacks out. City officials encouraged vandalism, Duffy said.

More than 100 families lost their homes after all 12 buildings were razed in 1986 under an ordinance orchestrated by Panici, Duffy said. A vacant lot now sits on the two-block site.

Duffy charged that Panici's actions were motivated by "racial animus."

Panici's attorney, James Casey, agreed that "this is a case about color." But, Casey told the jury, "The color is green."

Casey accused building owners Donald Crotty and Donald Schak of receiving housing subsidies, then let the buildings "rot" and tried to deny ownership after Sunset Apartments was cited for code violations.

Casey said violations followed a crackdown by the mayor after Panici became concerned that "more and more absentee landlords were getting Section 8 (housing subsidy) rents and not improving their buildings."

Casey listed such violations as roof holes, missing bricks and collapsed ceilings. But Duffy charged the violations were concocted or petty. Some apartments were cited for missing storm windows when they had been installed a few days before, Duffy said.

Other housing inspectors had complimented the owners on the complex, Duffy said, while the "mayor's special team" suddenly found 4,300 violations in one summer.

One inspector, defendants John Hogensen, allegedly bragged that he was "out there cleaning out the niggers, Mexicans and Section 8's," Duffy said.

Also on trial are city administrator Enrico Doggett; housing code officer J.A. Melei; housing inspector Jack Cripe; and the City of Chicago Heights. Panici is awaiting trial on criminal charges of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars while serving as mayor from 1975 to 1991