Complaint Review: Boulevard Villa Apartments

Boulevard Villa Apartments is a small apartment complex in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  It is, without a doubt, the most rundown and poorly-managed apartment building in the Twin Cities.  It receives more police calls than any other location in the city of Coon Rapids.  There have been numerous busts for drug dealing, gang activity, prostitution, robberies, domestic assault, and even 2 murders in the past 10 years. It's owner is one Jerry Morrow, a notorious career criminal well-known to police in the area.

Boulevard Villa Apartments has been cited numerous times by local inspectors for health and safety violations, like infestations of rats and cockroaches, and non-working fire alarms, and sprinklers that have been shut off.  Gang graffiti covers the walls, garages, even the dumpsters at Boulevard Villa.  Boulevard Villa is a filthy cesspool of squalor and its reputation is well-known in the north metro.

The manager of Boulevard Villa Apartments, Robin Marie Johnson, has recently been caught, tried and convicted of breaking into the apartments of tenants to steal goods to support her drug habits.  In fact, Robin Johnson has also had a penchant for stealing prescription pain killers like oxycontin and vicodin from tenants.  Johnson has a lengthy record for crimes like drug possession, theft, embezzlement, and 3 drunk driving offenses.

But guess what?  After her conviction, this manager is back on the street and still resides at Boulevard Villa Apartments! Johnson is even still the manager!  Why is that so?  Because Robin Johnson is too valuable to the owner of Boulevard Villa Apartments, Jerry Morrow.  Morrow, a convicted felon himself, works with Robin Johnson to fence stolen goods to supplement the paltry income from Boulevard Villa Apartments' low-life tenants.  Jerry Morrow also has a rap sheet as long as your arm, having been convicted for theft and robbery. Morrow is a shifty person who always seems to hide on the fringes of the law.

The story even gets worse.  Since two tenants were bold enough to catch Robin Marie Johnson on video in the act of burglarizing their apartment earlier this year, these tenants are now being evicted by Jerry Morrow.  This is in retaliation for cutting into Morrow's pipeline of stolen goods and giving Boulevard Villa Apartments a bad image in the local media.  But trust me, Boulevard Villa has quite a reputation for crime and violence already.  Ask any Coon Rapids cop.

The 2 tenants have now retained a lawyer and are planning a lawsuit against Jerry Morrow and Boulevard Villa Apartments for violation of Minnesota's anti-retaliation statute.

If you are considering moving to Boulevard Villa Apartments, think again.  You would be safer sleeping under a bridge in North Minneapolis.