Most claims in lawsuit over fatal stabbing at Chicopee Housing Authority moved to Superior Court
In a 32-page memorandum and order June 27, Judge Katherine A. Robertson of U.S. District Court in Springfield said some but not all charges against the housing authority — which has been embroiled in several lawsuits — will move to the Hampden Superior Court.
In August, six plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the housing authority and its former executive director, Monica Blazic, saying she engaged in neglect and discrimination after a fatal stabbing at the public housing facility.
Two months later, attorneys representing the housing authority and Blazic asked the judge to toss all of the claims. That motion was partially denied, according to Robertson's memorandum.
'The plaintiffs are invigorated by the recent federal court decision,' the plaintiffs' attorneys, Cornelius W. Phillips and Richard Morrissey, said in an emailed statement. They said their clients look forward to pursuing their claims in Superior Court.
Defense attorneys Gerard Donelly and Wendy Quinn, both of Worcester, declined Thursday to comment about the case.
The plaintiffs include the daughters, girlfriend and neighbors of Domingo Arocho, a Hispanic man who in 2021 was fatally stabbed at the Governor George D. Robinson Apartments, a publicly subsidized apartment complex operated and managed by the Chicopee Housing Authority. He was 67.
The complaint alleged the housing authority was 'deliberately indifferent to residents' civil rights and racially discriminatory' toward its predominantly Hispanic housing community. It also alleged the housing authority failed to protect its residents by allowing Arocho's suspected killer, Urayoann Urimagua-Guaraboa, who is also Hispanic, to live in the apartment complex despite having a criminal history.
The housing authority, which is governed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, offers federal and state housing.
According to its policies, Robertson explained in her memorandum and order, the housing authority can '(deny) admissions or continued occupancy to families whose presence in a public housing neighborhood is likely to adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of other residents or the physical environment of the neighborhood.'
The housing authority is also responsible for requesting an applicant's criminal record, the memorandum said.
The plaintiffs argued the housing authority did not do that in Urimagua-Guaraboa's case. Prior to his tenancy at the housing authority, the man was charged with first degree murder stemming from an incident in Puerto Rico in 2010.
The plaintiffs allege the housing authority 'ignored his personal and criminal history before accepting him as a tenant.'
Almost a decade later, the plaintiffs allege the man grabbed a neighbor by her neck and threatened to kill her. Following that incident, he was slapped with an assault and battery charge and three other criminal offenses. This incident took place in 2019 outside of his Chicopee Housing Authority residence on Benoit Circle.
About four days after the alleged neighborhood assault, Blazic served Urimagua-Guaraboa with a notice-to-quit because his arrest and charges had violated the terms of his lease, the memorandum and order said.
The judge noted that the housing authority and Urimagua-Guaraboa came to an agreement that stayed his eviction for six months.
Then, Robertson wrote, an alleged pattern of violence from Urimagua-Guaraboa toward his neighbors unfolded.
The man was relocated to a new apartment after allegedly threatening to harm the woman on Benoit Circle.
An altercation between Urimagua-Guaraboa and a new neighbor, Candida Laracuente, in June 2020 led to the latter filing a police report against the man. She claimed he had threatened her life and she feared for her safety.
In September 2020, following more threats to Laracuente, Urimagua-Guaraboa allegedly fatally stabbed Arocho, who was visiting Laracuente's apartment.
The lawsuit alleges Urimagua-Guaraboa also attempted to stab Laracuente, and allegedly shouted, 'Who's next?' after the attack. Some of the plaintiffs say they witnessed the killing.
Robertson, the judge, agreed with the defendants that three of the plaintiffs' claims — violations of the Fair Housing Act, due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution — were not well enough argued.
'The Supreme Court has acknowledged standing under the (Fair Housing Act) for plaintiffs suing to vindicate or advance the right to live in an integrated or racially balanced community,' the memorandum and order said.
The plaintiffs were not residents of the housing authority but made discrimination claims based on the trauma they experienced witnessing a violent offense, they assert.
However, Robertson said, 'the claims of these bystanders and the nature of the injuries for which they seek to recover are so distantly related to the interests intended to be advanced by the (Fair Housing Act) that these four plaintiffs cannot be said to be in the zone of interests protected by (the law).'
She said, the plaintiffs failed to identify how they suffered from violations of the Fair Housing Act. For similar reasons, the other two claims also failed, she said.
'The Constitution does not protect against all intrusions on one's peace of mind,' Robertson said.
While Arocho's family members do not have standing to bring these claims against the housing authority and Blazic, the court believes Laracuente does because she lived there.
Additionally, a claim that Blazic, the former executive director of the housing authority, committed a civil rights conspiracy was tossed. The judge alleged the plaintiffs did not properly state their claim or prove that Blazic had personally inflicted racial or discriminatory harassment on them.
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