‘We Failed You’: Victim Of Landlord-Tenant Officer Shooting Files Lawsuit As Legislators Step Up Pressure

After three shootings in four months, the pressure continues to mount on Philadelphia Municipal Court to change how it handles evictions.

Feldman Shepherd attorneys Bethany Nikitenko and Alan Feldman held a press conference Tuesday announcing that Angel Davis, the 35-year-old woman who was shot in the head by a private contractor while being evicted from her apartment in March, is suing the companies and private sector individuals involved.

Earlier Tuesday, Nikitenko and Feldman filed a lawsuit on behalf of Davis naming Marisa Shuter, the lawyer who serves as the court’s landlord-tenant officer; Lamont Daniels, the contractor who shot Davis; Protective Force and Fugitive Recovery, Daniels’ employer; Girard Court LLC, the apartment building’s owner; and Odin Properties, the building’s manager, as defendants.

“I did not know the identity of the man banging on my door [that day],” Davis said in a brief statement she read at the podium, speaking slowly and quietly. “I did nothing that should warrant being shot in the head. I have struggled with symptoms of a traumatic brain injury … It is my hope that we can come together to fix a broken system.”

Philly-based members of both state houses also spoke at the press conference to highlight efforts they are making to end the city's reliance on the private sector to lock out tenants with eviction judgments handed down by municipal court judges. LTO voluntarily paused carrying out evictions after the third shooting, though nothing technically bars them from resuming at any time.

“[Shuter’s] office has vehemently opposed any efforts at reform through the courts,” state Sen. Nikil Saval said at the event. “One shooting is too many. This many in just a few months clearly shows that LTOs cannot be tasked with evictions in Philadelphia. The legislation that my colleagues and I are committed to passing mandates this.”

Shuter didn't directly respond to requests for comment by phone, email and social media, though Shuter spokesman Mike Neilon provided Bisnow with a statement underlining the LTO and municipal court "cannot comment on any open investigations or pending lawsuits."

Neilon said no LTO officers involved in pending investigations are now working, adding that no evictions are currently scheduled or taking place "pursuant to court order."

Bisnow has verified that no such court order exists and the pause on LTO operations was voluntary.

"To be clear, the LTO was created by state law and has operated for more than 40 years in an efficient and lawful manner to provide critically needed support for court-ordered evictions," Neilon said in the statement.

"Plans are being developed to restart evictions in a safe, effective and reasonable manner. And, once a plan is in place and approved by the President Judge of the Municipal Court, details can be shared regarding how the office will be proceeding."

‘A Better, Safer Process’

The bill introduced in April by Saval and fellow state Sen. Sharif Street banning municipalities from outsourcing evictions has been referred to the body’s judiciary committee. State Rep. Rick Krajewski introduced mirroring legislation in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on July 20, two days after another tenant was shot and a day after Shuter agreed to pause all evictions by her office until her employees and contractors could receive up-to-date training on de-escalation and conflict resolution.

The pause only came about after District 3 Councilmember Jamie Gauthier and Councilmember at Large Kendra Brooks asked Patrick Dugan, the court’s president judge, and Judge Matthew Wolf, who supervises the court’s Civil Division, to step in, Justice For Angel Davis Now Campaign organizer Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture told Bisnow after the press conference. 

The Justice For Angel Davis Now Campaign is a grassroots organization that formed hours after Davis was shot and has organized fundraising efforts to assist her with medical bills and housing.

Gauthier and Brooks held a city council hearing on June 20 in which they lambasted the LTO’s lack of transparency and accountability regarding policies and personnel. Gauthier and Brooks joined Saval and state Reps. Tarik Khan and Morgan Cephas at the press conference, which was held at Feldman Shepherd’s Rittenhouse Square office.

Though Gauthier and Brooks gave impassioned statements to the assembled press demanding more accountability and transparency from the LTO, they have not disclosed any legislative efforts to that effect.

“Locally, we’ve been working with the court to develop a better and safer process,” Gauthier said. “We have been in contact with Judge Dugan and Judge Wolf about ceasing LTO operations and what we demand to see before restarting evictions.”

The sheriff’s office continues to carry out evictions for cases that don’t involve landlord-tenant disputes, and has always been an option for the same cases handled by the LTO. The latter is the more common choice of landlords for being cheaper and faster, but that speed is part of the concern for Nikitenko and Davis’ supporters.

Unlike the sheriff, the LTO does not provide advance notice of lockouts, which is how the LTO’s agent came to surprise Davis with a writ of possession at 7 a.m. four months ago. And despite the Philadelphia Police Department treating the incident as an officer-involved shooting, there is no legal process for addressing grievances outside of civil lawsuits, like the one filed on behalf of Davis.

“We failed you, your city has failed you and your state has failed you,” Khan said to Davis at the press conference. “If you’re going to be evicted, there’s going to be a standard for notification of eviction, so that no one can just show up and say, ‘You have 10 minutes to get your shit and get out.’”

‘Shrouded In Secrecy’

Nothing about the arrangement between the LTO and municipal court is formalized as no written contract even exists in the public record, Nikitenko said. In addition to Shuter’s husband, David Shuter, currently serving as a municipal court judge, Shuter’s father, Alan Silberstein, is himself a former president judge.

“Not only was there no process for evaluating and selecting the most qualified candidate for the job, Shuter was selected despite possessing no apparent qualifications for the job,” Nikitenko said.

In the lawsuit, Nikitenko and Feldman argue that Odin Properties and Girard Court LLC knew or should have known that Shuter was unqualified to oversee armed private security contractors, thereby endangering their tenants by opting to use the LTO and not the sheriff’s office in the name of cost savings and expediency.

After Shuter initially agreed to only pause lockouts for a week, Dugan and Wolf convinced her to extend it until the contractors she deputized receive updated de-escalation training, Feinman said. 

“This is not binding or a matter of law,” Feldman said. “It’s an interim deal that was reached and it’s clearly insufficient to protect tenants in the future.”

Though Shuter’s threshold for achieving that training benchmark has not been disclosed and nothing legally prevents Shuter from simply deciding to restart evictions, the fact that Shuter is married to a municipal court judge could mean there is open communication between the courts and her office, Feinman said.

Shuter’s relationship with the court also presents a conflict of interest if her husband financially benefits from the service of writs he has the power to grant, Nkrumah-Ture said.

When the attorneys and legislators who spoke Tuesday afternoon were asked if they have had any direct contact with Shuter herself, they all silently shook their heads before Gauthier spoke up.

“She has not made herself available, and as far as we know, there have not been any inquiries,” she said.

LTO's voicemail message does alert callers that no new evictions are being scheduled as of July 19, but it goes on to say that “all writs of possession are being served.”

Shuter’s office is still accepting new contracts and payment, the message said. The office’s phone does not accept voicemail messages.

Though Davis’ lawsuit was the occasion for the press conference, two more landlord-tenant deputies have fired weapons since Davis was shot. The 33-year-old victim of the July 18 incident in Kensington, who suffered a leg wound, is also a Black woman, Brooks said. The Justice For Angel Davis Now Campaign identified and reached out to the woman to lend assistance, but has yet to make direct contact, Nkrumah-Ture told Bisnow.

“These shootings are not isolated incidents,” Brooks said. “We have taken this harmful system and put it into the hands of a private, for-profit law firm. Any time we take public responsibility and put it in the hands of for-profit entities, we should expect disaster. And that’s what we have.”