Howards evicted for second time

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By Ann McGlynn | Thursday, October 02, 2008 |

Members of a Davenport family, kicked out of one house after a police raid in August, now have been evicted from a second house in the city after problems with criminal activity.

The number of police calls to 1520 Ripley St. increased dramatically after police raided a house four blocks away at 818 W. 14th St., documents from the city of Davenport indicate.

Those in the neighborhood of 1520 Ripley, in a meeting with police and Alderman Bill Lynn, “expressed concerns regarding the inability of their children to walk home from school without being intimidated. In addition to the daily noise and disruptive behaviors, incidents have occurred involving BB guns; several large fights in the middle of the street; and juveniles breaking into and loitering on neighborhood property,” a city attorney, Angela Foht, wrote to property owner Adam Baumann, urging action.

So earlier this week, Pequita Howard “and all other occupants” were evicted by court order from 1520 Ripley St. after determining that several people who were not on the lease were living at the home, documents state.

In the letter to Baumann, who owns the property with Connie Baumann, Foht enclosed the list of police calls to 1520 Ripley. For a year, there were two calls to the house. Then, from Aug. 1 through Sept. 2, there were 23 calls.

“The effect on the neighborhood is very clear as well, given that from September of last year until July 2008 there were an average of 5.5 calls per month to the entire fifteen hundred block of Ripley Street,” Foht wrote. She continued: “However, during the month of August that number increased to 77 calls for service. This drastic increase in police calls is a very clear indication of what the residents in the neighborhood are undergoing.”

Foht informed Baumann that city action was under way, action that could ultimately result in the revocation of the license to rent.

Foht wrote the letter on Sept. 2. The Baumanns, who list a Moline address, filed for eviction on Sept. 19. They could not be reached for comment, and neither could Pequita Howard.

When officials arrived at 1520 Ripley to serve Howard the eviction notice, Bessie Howard, also known as Bessie Brown, accepted the notice, documents filed in Scott County District Court show.

Bessie Brown is the woman who was buying, on contract, the home the city raided and then shuttered in early August. Investigators found more than 20 people inside when they arrived early Aug. 1 to serve a search warrant on a stolen bicycle investigation. They did find stolen bicycles and parts. They also found an electrical problem that allowed them to order the property vacated and boarded.

Authorities had been called to the 14th Street house dozens of times since the beginning of the year; 26 times in June and July.

One of the people living at 818 W. 14th St. was Walter Mack Howard, a registered sex offender — one of two registered sex offenders living there.

When Walter Howard, 23, was arrested on two occasions in late September, police listed his address as 1520 Ripley St., records show. He is accused of punching an ex-girlfriend in the face and of threatening a group of people with a gun.

The second sex offender at 818 W. 14th St. was Milton Howard. His address is listed as 1111 Spring St. on a recent arrest report for being a felon in possession of a gun. He hid a loaded revolver in a backpack when he saw the police, then handed the backpack to a 15-year-old, police say. That address on Spring Street, according to Scott County Auditor’s Office records, does not exist.

Milton and Walter Howard are listed as homeless on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.