Sheriff Dart Sued To Enforce Evictions

2008_10_09_rdart.jpgCook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who made waves by announcing Wednesday he wouldn't enforce evictions of rent-paying tenants when the evictions were aimed at indebted landlords, was sued yesterday by Accredited Home Lenders so as to enforce Dart to move forward with such evictions. In a statement by attorneys, Accredited Home Lenders said:

Sheriff Dart may have concerns about the orders that he is charged with enforcing, but he simply cannot refuse to carry them out. The orders of the court must be enforced. This lawsuit is necessary to ensure that.

Also on Thursday, Dart met with Cook County Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to discuss Dart's new policy.

At that meeting, Dart told Kinnaird that too often his deputies are evicting renters who have not been given notice the property is in foreclosure. The sheriff suggested Kinnaird require banks to file an affidavit saying the homeowner and potential renters all have been given notice of the pending eviction before calling on deputies to evict residents.

For now, Dart will continue his new practice of not enforcing the evictions. Neither Dart nor his spokesman Steve Patterson had any comment on the lawsuit.

Photo of Sheriff Dart from the Cook County Sheriff Home Page

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