Church Fines Evictee For Talking

A Fair Haven church began evicting a tenant in a building it owns — then slapped the tenant with $2,260 in legal fees, in large part because he dared to speak publicly about the case.

Since the start of the pandemic, the church, Iglesia Cristiana Estrella Resplandeciente De Jacob, has made multiple attempts to evict Luis Ramos Cruz, Angelica Velez, and the six-month-old in their care from a Chapel Street apartment that the church owns. Rent has gone unpaid, and the lease doesn’t allow more than one tenant.

The case is in mediation.

Meanwhile, as part of a series of stories on New Haveners experiencing eviction, the Independent contacted Ramos Cruz, who agreed to respond to questions about his case.

Now, Estrella Resplandeciente De Jacob’s attorneys in the case — the Milford-based Landlord Law Firm — are charging Ramos Cruz with $2,260 in legal fees, well beyond the typical range of fees that evicted tenants are charged for their landlords’ legal representation.

According to Yonatan Zamir, the legal aid attorney representing Ramos Cruz and Velez, landlords’ legal expenses in eviction cases usually range from $500 to $900.

Landlord Law Firm attorney Jeff Mastrianni offered an explanation for those charges in an email to Zamir: ​“A decent portion of that is because the tenants decided to go to the press and we had to consult [our client] on handling that experience.”

Those consultations on how to respond to press inquiries, which appear to have cost over $1,000? They amounted to ​“no comment” from either representatives of Estrella Resplandeciente De Jacob or the church’s attorneys, all of whom decided not to respond to the Independent’s repeated efforts to hear the church’s side of the story.

They refused again to offer comment for this story about the fees.

"Open Your Mouth" Penalty

Zamir called the charges ​“way off-the-charts bonkers,” comparing them to saying: ​“You’re gonna pay for opening your mouth.”

“It’s not illegal to speak out, and it’s not illegal to charge someone for the cost of it. But I think these charges are completely out of the norm,” Zamir said.

The question is whether the fees are ​“reasonable.” Zamir added that if the tenants had not secured legal representation, they might not have realized that the $2,260 fee was significantly higher than average, and would likely not have been able to fight it.

Ramos Cruz said the added fees for his decision to speak to the press amount to getting ​“punished for something that’s your right.” 

“These people are supposed to be Christians, but they are doing this just because they want more money,” he added.

A section of the Landlord Law Firm’s website states: ​“At the Landlord Law Firm, our position is clear – we represent landlords – we do not represent tenants. Our goal is to uphold and improve the laws that protect Connecticut landlords while finding ways to make landlording more rewarding and profitable.”

A slogan emblazoned on the website states, ​“Get the rent … or get them out.”