BIGGEST DRUG-DEN OWNER? THE STATE, DUGGAN ASSERTS

He Says Dealers Return To Raided Homes; He's Suing For A Solution

When police finished their latest drug raid of a Mettetal street home in
Detroit, neighbors said they breathed a short sigh and waited for the next
influx of drug dealers.

It didn't take long.

Within three hours of Monday's raid, neighbors said cars were again pulling
up to the abandoned home, which has been raided five times since May 2000.
They continued to pull up Thursday.

Who owns the house? The State of Michigan.

Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan says the home is just one of 20 in
Detroit, seized by the state for unpaid taxes, where there have been one or
more drug raids.

This morning, the Mettetal street home will be at the center of a lawsuit
filed by Duggan's office, alleging the property is a nuisance and demanding
that the state take control or demolish it. State officials say Duggan has
no authority to sue them, and while they're sympathetic to his cause, they
can't be ordered to take action.

"At this point without question, the number one drug house landlord in
Detroit is the state of Michigan," Duggan said. As many as 10,000 Detroit
homes are owned by the state, a state attorney said.

With the drug trade fueling violence in Detroit -- including many of the
recent child homicides -- Duggan said Friday's hearing could be
precedent-setting if the judge rules in his favor. If he loses, Duggan said,
drug dealers will continue to thrive in abandoned buildings.

The Michigan Attorney General's Office, representing the state, argues that
it has sovereign immunity from such a lawsuit.

"We don't want drug dealing to happen there, either," said Bill Richards, a
deputy attorney general. "But you can't sue the government for a so-called
nuisance, in our position."

The home, at 11654 Mettetal on the city's west side, just south of I-96, has
been raided five times since May 2000, according to Duggan's office. Police
have seized marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and cash.

"They're here servicing people all day, all night," said a man who lives in
a neighboring home. He asked that his name not be used because he fears
retaliation. "It's ridiculous. It needs to be shut down. Now."

Three of the 12 Detroit homicide victims 16 and younger were caught in the
crossfire of feuding drug dealers, police and prosecutors say.

Duggan said he is beyond frustration in his effort to rid the Mettetal
street home of drug dealers. He said the city is much more cooperative than
the state.

"When we sue the state, we say: 'Either sell the house or knock it down,' so
people don't keep dealing drugs in there," Duggan said. "The state takes the
position that they have no responsibility to shut it down or knock it down.
The hypocrisy is unbelievable."

Duggan said the state owns more than 5,000 homes in Detroit it has seized
for unpaid property taxes. Richards said the figure may be closer to 10,000
homes.

"I think the sophisticated drug dealers know where these houses are," Duggan
said. "If they have a way to go move into houses because they know they're
safe, it's going to undercut our efforts."

Richards said the state does demolish homes. In March, it turned 100 of them
over to Habitat for Humanity, he said.

"The state doesn't wish to own individual, scattered parcels of property in
the city of Detroit," he said. "We are holding them passively because the
law dumps them in our lap.

"It's almost operating like a humane society with stray puppies. As soon as
we find a new owner, we turn them over."

Neighbors of the Mettetal street property said they don't want to hear about
red tape.

"We're angry, and we're scared," said a man who also asked that his name not
be used because he's scared of the drug dealers. "The best philosophy for us
is: We don't bother them and they don't bother us. I don't know about all
these laws, but that's no way to live."

The hearing on Duggan's lawsuit over the Mettetal street home is scheduled
for 9 a.m. today in front of Wayne County Circuit Co-Chief Judge Timothy
Kenny.

To report drug dealing in abandoned houses in Detroit, call the Wayne County
Prosecutor's Office at 313-224-6688.