I Am A Victim of A Serious Civil Rights Violation and An Apartment Lease Violation

Some months ago, at approximately 9:50 PM, I went to the front entrance of my apartment building - Hanover Square at 1 W. Conway St. in Baltimore - to accept a food delivery. That entrance is supposed to be locked 24/7. I was seriously dismayed to see that the door's push bar lock release was held open by plastic ties. Another resident of the building came home, and he also was shocked to see our front door unlocked. The other resident and I didn't know if we should cut the ties and lock the door or not. Other residents came in and out, and they too were upset to see our building being accessible to anyone. I called the emergency maintenance phone number and left a message saying I did not know if I should remove the ties or not.

After waiting awhile and having intense discussion about it with the other resident, I cut the ties. That one other resident and I pushed the bar open and stepped outside of the door. We wanted to check it to make sure our electronic sensor key fobs would let us in. The sensor responded correctly to the key fobs, then a large button on the wall is depressed to electronically unlock the door. The lock responded to the push button opener by making a clicking try, but the door lock was jammed. It was out of alignment somehow, and that requires the door vendor's workers to make the adjustments.

I called the emergency maintenance phone number and told them the door can't be unlocked from the outside.

We waited for maintenance or for someone to come out of the building and let us in. Someone did, then I had that other resident stay at the door while I went to my apartment and got some tape then used it to replace the plastic ties. That other resident went to his place, and I stayed to wait for maintenance to come and to let residents coming by know that maintenance is on the way. I worked several security jobs in my past, and I wasn't accepting the anxiety of leaving that door unsecured.

There should be video of this, because at least one video surveillance security camera was pointed at the inside door area where all this occurred.

Keith, the maintenance man who lives on the first floor, comes stomping down the hall past me and then he stopped at the taped door. He was huffin' his chest all up tight and psychologically steaming and glaring at me with raging anger and calls me a "MOTHER FUCKER." Then he says, "no, you know what your are? YOU'RE A MONKEY BUTT MOTHER FUCKER."

I told him to,"Never speak to me that way again."

He, self righteously, replied back at me with, "Don't you ever speak to me like that again."

Next insult came when he viciously told me to, "Get on back upstairs where you belong."

I had instantly realized that Keith was pissed off & scared because my phone calls to emergency maintenance had accidentally notified his superiors that he - and possibly some management persons - that 1 W Conway employees had left the entrance door unsecured. I say that Keith should have stayed up all night guarding the door entrance or a temporary security guard service hired.

I use a cane to walk. Keith has seen me walking in the building and outside walking by many times and is fully aware that I have painful, life limiting, physical disabilities. I suffer arthritic knees, but more often crippling to me is my degenerative back disease. I normally walk with my back straight up, but, on one occasion, when my back was painfully-involuntarily bent over, he and I spoke about it being worse than most days, because the day before I had stood too long & walked too much at the Baltimore Book Festival. He is fully aware that the only way I'd be able to fend off a physical attack by him - or to attack him and prevail - is to use a weapon.

The next month after that, verbally abusive, civil rights violation incident, I had to pay management a $25 Lock Out Fee. Management had to hide their violation of building security by handling the situation as me having called because I had lost my keys and was locked out by a door lock that works.

If I had gone into building manager Maggie's office and protested that illegal $25 fine, she would have made it into a huge argument. She doesn't care - at all - about the building's residents, doesn't like anyone here, is not known to speak pleasantly to people, usually ignores any resident she passes in the building corridors and elevators, is rarely seen in the common areas and spends most of her time sitting behind the large desk in her office. She radiates negativity at 1 W. Conway St., Baltimore, Md..

Had I engaged in serious discussion about the bogus, cover up, illegal $25 fine, Keith might have come in and backed her up extremely angrily & desperately to save his current lifestyle of a job with an apartment as a benefit. He may not have been close by, in case of which, he probably would then have come looking to start some serious trouble with me. His job and home were in jeopardy because he screwed up, and he knows he is guilty of leaving the door unsecured. Some of management know they are also guilty of that. Along with Lock Out Fees only being legal when the door lock works.

Management and maintenance have round-the-clock access to the apartment I lived in. Leaving a resident with little-to-no protection from them - should they chose to do something illegal in retaliation to anything.

Eventually, after months of deep, debilitating depression, I had to move from the residence, or continue my daily concerns of the possibilities of me being further mistreated by maintenance and management and loosing my temper then engaging in a heated argument with management and/or maintenance or even a physical altercation with Keith.

Plus, leaving the apartment building's front door unlocked is a violation of the leases with every resident. Therefore, every resident deserves something in return.