Judge scolds Chicago for trying to seize Englewood church

Cross-posted on Marathon Pundit.

The Chicago media has been extensively covering the tragic killings last week of two girls from the impoverished Englewood neighborhood. In separate incidents, the girls were killed while inside their homes by stray bullets that came from alleged street gang crossfire.

On Saturday, there was a neighborhood march in Englewood calling for an end to the violence. Mayor Richard Daley and Governor Rod Blagojevich participated in the march.

Two days later, Daley's law department got a scolding from U.S District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan because of the City's attempt to seize the Beth-El All Nations Church for unpaid taxes. The tax bill and the notice of a hearing on those taxes was sent by the City to the wrong address.

Beth-El All Nations Church claims the City has its hungry eyes on the property for redevelopment.

Judge Der-Yeghiayan was hard on the City of Chicago, as the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Der-Yeghiayan ruled that the church did not have reasonable opportunity to pay the taxes or even attend the hearing because the notices were sent to the wrong address. "One wonders how the city could not know the address of a church that is located within the city’s own municipal limits, a church the city is attempting to possess," he wrote in his ruling.

He wrote that the City admitted to "being derelict in its duty to give proper notice" and has "ought to keep the allegedly unlawful title to the church by hiding behind technical arguments concerning the passing of limitations periods ..."

The judge said the ceasing of operations of the church could cause "severe harm" to the church and result in “losses to the community that could not be quantified in dollars and cents . . . In fact, it is entirely unclear why the City would desire such an asset to the community to cease its operations and move elsewhere,” Der-Yeghiayan wrote.

John Mauck, the attorney who representing the church, commented Beth-El All Nations is the kind of place that "might keep a gang-banger from shooting a little girl."