Maya McFadden Photo
Maye spars with 13-year-old EJ White at Elephant In The Room gym.
Thanks to a judge’s ruling, Solomon Maye is back in the gym teaching local youth to tuck their elbows, pivot, and turn into their punches.
Maye, a former boxer himself, runs a youth boxing program called Get ‘Em Boy. Until last August, he was running it through a sublet at Elephant In The Room (EIR) Boxing Club at 746 Orchard St.
The operator of EIR, New Haven native and former two-time world boxing champion Devonne Canady, evicted Maye. A dispute ensued. It ended up in state housing court, with another round yet to come. The dispute tore apart a friendship and business partnership and has featured calls to the police, with concerns about Covid-19 safety in the mix.
In the meantime, a ruling by Superior Court Judge Claudia Baio enable Maye to relaunch his program there this past Monday with adult training and a group of seven competing youth.
Soloman Maye.
Maye said he plans to start an after school program this week for youth. Friday was a fun day for Maye’s competing squad, ages 11 – 13. Before taking them out for pizza Maye trained with them for about an hour.
“You’re moving your feet too much. That’s why your punches aren’t on target,” Maye called out to 13-year old E.J. White.
Biz Partners Turn Sparring Partners
MARKESHIA RICKS FILE PHOTO
Devonne Canady at EIR.
Canady founded the Elephant in the Room boxing gym in 2012 at the corner of Orchard and Henry.
After a two year reconstruction project of an old garage, Canady introduced an EIR urban youth after-school boxing program for kids ages 8 and up.
Maye and Canady knew each other as New Haven boxers. Both trained under amateur and professional boxer Gary Smikle.
In 2013 Maye returned home after serving a six-year prison sentence. He then had a professional boxing career until 2017. When Maye made his professional boxer debut, Canady was his boxing manager.
In 2015 Canady began getting help at the gym from Maye as a volunteer trainer working under Smikle, the head trainer at the time.
When Smikle departed the program, Maye became a prime candidate for the job in 2016. Canady and Maye then established an agreement soon after resulting in Maye becoming the gym’s new head trainer without pay. Canady said the gym was having financial troubles at the time. So in place of a paycheck she allowed Maye to personally train adults 21+ at the gym under his own limited liability corporation, Get ‘Em Boy.
Canady helped Maye get his LLC started in exchange for a salary as EIR trainer. “It was a win-win. EIR trained the kids and he trained adults for his own income,” she said.
Canady recalled telling Maye, “Let’s see what happens in regard to grants.”
In 2014 and 2015 Maye said Canady allowed him to do personal training at the gym to get back on his feet after being incarcerated. Canady was not asking Maye to pay rent for his use of the facility due to her understanding of his personal financial struggles.
After a money dispute in 2015, Canady drafted a lease requiring Maye to begin paying $350 of rent to the gym for his use of it for personal training.
Maye said he paid rent for about six months before taking on the head trainer position. Once he became head trainer, Canady and he came to the agreement that he no longer had to pay rent, he said.
Maye argued that once he took on the role as head trainer, Canady became less present at the gym. This left Maye to operate and financially support both the gym and his own business, he said. At one point, Maye said, Canady didn’t visit the gym for years. “I still asked no questions, though. because I was focused on helping the kids,” Maye said.
Maye was no longer just training the kids but was also coaching them at competition and paying out of pocket for new gym equipment, hotels, and food, he said.
In 2019, Maye said, he asked Canady to be compensated for a part of the program expenses he paid for out of pocket, to no avail. “Get ‘Em Boy wouldn’t have to exist if I was getting paid,” Maye said.
Around the same time it was brought to Canady’s attention that there was money that wasn’t be accounted for at the gym. Canady said she believes as head trainer Maye was mishandling client funds. “He was sending clients invoices for Get ‘Em Boy rather than EIR,” she said.
In 2019 Canady was contacted by a EIR client who received an invoice from Get ‘Em Boy instead of EIR. “He was not authorized to serve children,” Canady said. “That invoice alerted us that he was stealing money.”
Maye claimed that for insurance purposes he had to sign EIR clients under Get ‘Em Boy because Canady was longer present to offer insurance under the EIR program. Maye said he made it clear to all clients that he was registering them under Get ‘Em Boy and was met with no hesitancy.
“I never received a program stipend or any guidance for how things should be,” Maye said.
Canady accused Maye of breaking their agreement’s non-compete clause by training youth under Get ‘Em Boy.
After giving Maye a warning of termination for mishandling funds, she decided to revamp EIR’s payment system at the end of 2019.
Then the gym had to close in March due to the Covid outbreak. It later reopened in July. Maye reassumed his role as head trainer.
After reopening, Canady said, she immediately began receiving complaints from parents about Maye. Canady said Maye was said to not be following the gym’s safety protocols. She also witnessed a post by Maye of several members standing shoulder to shoulder unmasked inside the gym.
This resulted in Canady terminating Maye as head coach of EIR in July.
“The liability was too great,” she said. This came after a total of three termination warnings, Canady said.
After she served Maye with a termination letter, she said, Maye became uncooperative. She called the police to escort him out.
Maye did not present the police with a lease, and was escorted from the premises on July 24. Maye said the police told him to come back the next day.
Maye refused to return his building keys. Canady said. To avoid Maye taking illegal possession of the building, Canady said, she put new locks on the business the same day. “He was fired and no longer had any business there,” Canady said.
On July 25 Maye returned. After learning he was locked out, he called the police. The police allowed Maye to break the locks. Maye said the officers agreed that Canady did an illegal lock out of a tenant.
Canady claimed Maye was never established as a subtenant and no official lease was made stating he was. Maye was an employee earning money by a barter system, and Get ‘Em Boy was an independent contractor. Canady said.
Escorted Out By Cops
In August Canady served Maye with an eviction notice. He was escorted out the building a second time by police. A client of Maye recorded the interaction with the police. Watch that scene above. (Click here and here for additional clips. )
After being escorted out in August, Maye temporarily stopped operating out of the 746 Orchard St building. Maye claimed Canady has caused him about seven months of economic damage by not allowing him in the building. He said he also lost equipment in storage during that period of time.
Maye continued to do small-scale training for his clients in the summer at the Hillhouse fieldhouse. Then in October Maye brought Get ‘Em Boy to the Village in Hamden for about a month.
Maye said he also hosted virtual trainings with clients to keep them active during the temporary program suspension.
After terminating Maye’s employment in August, Canady suspended the EIR program for a month. In October she reopened the gym and hired two new trainers.
In October the battle for the building was brought to court.
On March 2, Judge Baio ruled, “The defendant [Canady] disputes that there was a landlord tenant relationship with the plaintiff. The facts presented established that there was.
“Where the trial court finds that the evidence demonstrates that the plaintiff [Maye] had occupied the premises during the time in question including that, at least for a period of time, he had paid some rent to the landlord, such evidence ‘clearly demonstrates that the plaintiff exercised the type of control that a resident in possession of a dwelling would exercise.’”
The order declared that Maye be “restored to the premises.”
After the ruling, Canady decided to suspend EIR’s training because the atmosphere was “too contentious,” she said.
Canady argues that the order was written unclearly and “too vague.”
“How can he be reinstated to what he had before the lock out if he is terminated from EIR? There is no longer a barter in exchange for salary,” she said. “This is all a selfish and vile move by him. He’s not thinking about the kids.”
On March 4 the court issued a clarification for the order. Canady claimed it still remained vague about whether the court was ordering joint or sole possession by Maye.
Since he returned to the building last week, Maye said Canady has parked across the street from the property and approached clients entering the business to defame him and his business.
Maye said he is in conversation with the building’s landlord, who testified on his behalf, to lease the space after Canady’s lease is up in July.
The case is scheduled to return to court on April 6 for an eviction hearing, then again on April 22 for a damages hearing.