Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Staff report
WARREN
Warren officials have filed a misdemeanor criminal charge against state Rep. Tom Letson of Warren over allegations that a house he owns on Foster Street Northeast violates city zoning laws.
The Warren Law Department and city building official Chris Tanneyhill filed the charge in Warren Municipal Court Monday.
Letson, D-64th, in his fourth term in the Statehouse, challenged a violation notice he received in July for a house he owns at 3171 Foster.
The notice alleged the home was being used as a rooming house, in violation of the single-family zoning there.
Letson said he inherited the house from his parents and leased it to two men who turned it into a “sober house” for recovering alcoholics.
But at a hearing last week, neighbors complained that the smell of marijuana was coming from the home in July, and people appeared to be intoxicated.
Warren Law Director Greg Hicks said after the hearing that Letson, an attorney, failed to present evidence at the hearing to indicate that the home deserves an exemption under the Americans With Disabilities Act, according to The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, WFMJ-TV 21.
“There’s no activity there that is questionable according to what the house rules are or they would no longer be living there,” Letson said last week.
Letson will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Sept. 4 in Warren Municipal Court.