LAWYER QUESTIONS SPRING HILL ATTEMPT TO SHUT 'CRACK HOUSE'

No Mention Of Drugs In Complaint, He Says

SPRING HILL - Spring Hill officials have scheduled an April 18 condemnation
hearing for a McLemore Avenue house that city officials call a crack house.

The Spring Hill Board of Housing Adjustments and Appeals will decide
whether the 609 McLemore home of Bernard Oden should be demolished or
closed until it is brought up to compliance with city codes, City
Administrator Ken York said.

The house was the scene of a shooting last month, authorities said.

"Any time we find considerable codes violations, we always afford the
property owners an opportunity to say why their property shouldn't be
condemned," York said.

Oden's attorney, Barton Kelley, maintains that there is a discrepancy as to
why the city wants to shut down the property.

"They say there are code violations, but then I read in the paper that
Mayor (Ray) Williams said, and I quote, he 'is serious about shutting down
the illegal drug trade in his city - no matter what. Last week the city
condemned what it called a crack house on McLemore Avenue after a man there
was shot,' " Kelley said, reading from an article in the March 25 Tennessean.

"Well, this condemnation hearing makes no mention of selling drugs out of
this property," he said. "It just lists a string of code violations." Those
violations include leaks in the kitchen, roaches, no covers on wall plugs,
the bathroom floor being rotted out, an exhaust fan that doesn't work,
piles of carpet, beer bottles and clothing stacked up in various rooms in
the house, Kelley said.

"I'm not saying whether or not it's a code violation," Kelley said. "I'm
just saying, (Oden) should have been given notice, rather than them
immediately posting a notice on the door and not letting him back into the
house he's lived in for the past three years."