Merrell refuses to leave Wilson Point home, is arrested
By John Nickerson, Staff Writer
Published: 12:12 a.m., Wednesday, February 3, 2010Comments (5)
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NORWALK -- Calling himself a political prisoner, Scott Merrell threw his hands up like an Old West cowboy and insisted on being arrested during his eviction from his multimillion-dollar waterfront home Tuesday morning. He was then handcuffed after refusing to leave his home of nearly 20 years.
As if another point needed to be made in the bizarre episode, Merrell, wearing a black cowboy hat, threw out his hand to approaching officers just before his arrest and introduced himself as a candidate for governor.
Merrell, who ran unsuccessfully for Norwalk mayor in the last two elections and said last March he would seek the Republican nomination for governor this year, was charged with first-degree criminal trespass and held in lieu of $5,000 bond.
His rundown Tudor-style home was sold at a city tax auction 18 months ago for $725,000 because of a delinquent $110,000 city property tax bill.
Since then, the Rowayton native and former California racetrack veterinarian has been unable, or unwilling, to pay the overdue tax bill and save the 4,000-square-foot home, which sits on nearly 1 acre in exclusive Wilson Point.
Merrell, who bought the home in 1990 for $785,000, owned the property free and clear. City taxes on the property are $59,000 per year.
Refusing to call a bail bondsman, Merrell, who calls himself the Rowayton Cowboy, spent the rest of Tuesday in the Police Department jail and is scheduled for arraignment at state Superior Court on Wednesday.
While Merrell was walking a reporter around his neighborhood at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, pointing out how much less he thinks other property tax assessments are compared with his, two state marshals arrived at the house and, with the help of a locksmith, quickly opened his locked front door.
When he walked back up to the home with the reporter in tow and saw the front door open, he launched into a diatribe against Norwalk and state property tax policies as three news cameras rolled.
"They want to make a criminal out of me," Merrell said, his voice rising. "I am proving this is a police state. This is a police action."
Merrell said he was being made a "sacrificial lamb" for standing up for all property owners who could not take on the city over taxes.
During the eviction, a man drove into the driveway across the street from Merrell's home, but he declined comment on what was happening.
Police Chief Harry Rilling rolled up in a car to watch the high-profile eviction; he said Merrell had many opportunities to get his home back.
"It is a sad situation, but he was evicted, and he is now trespassing on property that isn't his. It is a very sad situation," Rilling said.
Merrell accused the marshal of breaking and entering his home; he also called the eviction an illegal search and seizure. He insisted he filed a court motion Monday that would bar the eviction from going forward.
Although he filed a motion to quash the eviction Monday, Norwalk Housing Court Clerk George Papallo said the motion would be sent to Judge Referee Jack Groggins for action at a later date. Papallo said Merrell filed the wrong motion to stop the eviction.
"You are destroying the American dream that I worked seven days a week and 12 hours a day for," said Merrell, who insisted that his property taxes were paid up to 2016.
At an earlier court hearing, Groggins said he did not believe Merrell's argument the city agreed not to charge him taxes for the next six years.
Walking up the driveway Tuesday morning, State Marshal Edmund Makowski told Merrell, "If you don't leave the property, you will be arrested." Makowski said he asked police to accompany him.
"All right, arrest me then. " I want to be arrested for being a homeowner. " They want to force me out to steal my property so they can sell it to a developer," Merrell said as police began walking up the driveway.
Although the four officers talked to Merrell and tried to get him off the property, Merrell kept telling them to arrest him.
After he was taken away in a squad car, five or six workers came walking up the street with bundles of boxes over their shoulders and began emptying out the house.
Makowski said he expected Merrell's possessions to be moved out by Tuesday. After going into the house, Makowski called the view of Long Island Sound "breathtaking."
As the possessions were packed up, the city Health Department put them into a large truck and will store them for 15 days, when they will be put up for auction.
Norwalk Tax Collector Lisa Biagiarelli, who sold Merrell's property in the July 19, 2008, tax sale, said every property owner has to pay their taxes.
"There is a very simple answer: If you really and truly do not want to pay another dime in property taxes, don't own any taxable property," she said. "It is unusual that a homeowner or property owner would allow their property to be lost through a tax sale because the vast majority, in my experience of 25 years, has paid the tax bill prior to the sale in order to avoid sale or redeemed it within the six-month period.
"In this case, it was a deliberate decision on his part not to redeem the property."
She said Merrell could have negated the city's claim on his property by paying the back taxes and interest on the $725,000 bid on his property by Wilton resident Carmelo Tomas, who is now the home's owner. Biagiarelli said she treated Merrell just like any other taxpayer and even gave him more attention by going to his home and talking to him about how he could get the property back.
http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Merrell-refuses-to-leave-Wilson-Point-home-is-348092.php
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