3 May 1-7, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ DANIA BEACH A GOOD DEED, PUNISHED BAPTIST CHURCH SUES TO EVICT TEMPORARY TENANT. BY B. SCOTT MCLENDONE ight months ago, in a show of compassion, Dania Beach rever- end Esau Dalrymple allowed a homeless woman to begin living on site at his church, according to a lawsuit filed in Broward County. But his good deed was quickly punished two months later when the temporary ten- ant became a nuisance and began threaten- ing to assault him, Dalrymple says. So, in a rare but not unheard of scenario, the rever- end on April 14 filed a restraining order and unlawful detainer to evict her from Lael Baptist Mission, an unpresuming stucco building surrounded by a fenced parking lot in Dania Beach. “I allowed her to live here temporarily to get her out of the elements,” Dalrymple tells New Times. “She said she had a job and wouldn’t stay long. But then she insisted on staying.” Churches of all denominations are known as places where the needy can find respite from all manner of issues, the reverend says. Pastors across the country have been known to allow people to live temporarily in the church until they can financially fend for themselves, according to Dalrymple. That’s all Dalrymple was trying to do, but the woman took advantage of his goodwill, he says. Dalrymple had to call the police several times when the woman threatened to assault him, he says, hoping that was the end of it. When his other options seemed ex- hausted, the pastor in mid-April filed a com- plaint for unlawful detainer, essentially an eviction filing for landlords who don’t have a lease agreement with a tenant, attorney Jer- ron Kelley with Boca Raton- based real estate firm Kelley, Grant & Tanis, says. Kelley, who is not representing Dal- rymple, has de- fended scores of landlords in simi- lar court pro- ceedings throughout the Miami area. He sees it most often when a person over 18 is still living with their parents or when someone invites their significant other to move in with them without putting their name on the lease, Kelley says. “The boyfriend either owns property or is a tenant with the landlord when his girl- friend moves in. Two months later, she never pays rent or they break up after some argu- ment, and he wants her gone,” Kelley says. But the cops refuse to remove the girlfriend because she has a bill in her name and tech- nically isn’t a squatter, since she was invited to live there. In another quite common scenario, an adult child living with his parents gets hooked on drugs and starts stealing from mom and dad for drug money. In either case, when the lessee, landlord or homeowner wants to remove the unwanted quasi-tenant for some infraction, simply call- ing the police doesn’t resolve the matter, Kel- ley says. Officers will advise them to file an unlawful detainer, which can result in the person’s removal from the property up to eight weeks later, though he says it usually happens in about a month. “I advise my clients that it’s good you’re in Florida,” Kelley told New Times. “This could take up to a year to play out in California or New York.” [email protected] | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS The reverend of Lael Baptist Church, 337 SW 13th St., Dania Beach, initiated legal proceedings to remove a “threatening” tenant from the church. B. Scott McLendon ▼ BROWARD COUNTY ILL TREATMENT WOMAN ALLEGES SEXUAL ASSAULT AT SOUTH FLORIDA REHAB CENTER. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A woman is suing a South Florida rehab center after she says one of its employ- ees sexually assaulted her while she was a patient at the facility for alcohol addiction. In a new lawsuit filed in Broward County, the woman, who is identified as Jane Doe in court documents, was staying at Evolutions Treatment Center two years ago, when a staff member, Ty- ler Eason, allegedly entered her room and sexu- ally assaulted her. Evolutions, founded in 2013, has an inpatient facility in Miami, an outpatient center in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and a facility in Fort Lauderdale, according to its website. Evolutions CEO and founder is Gedale Fenster, an internet personality and a self-described internationally renowned motivational speaker, spiritual leader, life coach, entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist. According to the complaint, the woman was smoking a cigarette outside her room on the evening of April 10, 2023, when Eason forced her behind a wall and started kissing her face and neck. She says she managed to push him off of her and get away. As she lay in bed later that night, the woman alleges Eason entered her room, got on top of her, and sexually assaulted her. She says Eason ignored her requests to stop. “Several days later, [she] told Jason, an em- ployee at Evolutions Treatment Center, that Ea- son had sexually assaulted her,” the complaint reads. “Upon information and belief, this em- ployee did not properly handle receipt of this in- formation, did nothing to protect [the woman], and ratified this conduct.” “Tyler Eason used his position of authority and trust over [the woman] to sexually assault her,” the complaint alleges. A week after the sexual assault, Eason quit his job at Evolutions, according to the complaint. Weeks after the incident, the complaint says the woman saw Eason at an Alcoholics Anony- mous meeting where he “apologized for his ac- tions,” acknowledging that the woman was seeking help at the facility and “in a vulnerable position.” In a statement to New Times, Jennifer Lipin- ski, one of the woman’s attorneys, said no per- son should go through what her client went through, especially when trying to heal from ad- diction. “We are deeply concerned with what hap- pened to Jane Doe while she was at Evolutions Treatment Center,” Lipinski said in an email. “We look forward to getting answers, including what existing measures they had in place to prevent this and what Evolutions is doing, if anything, to stop future sexual assaults of their residents by staff members.” Evolutions did not return New Times’ re- quests for comment. Since 2021, six pa- tients have sued Evolu- tions, which goes by the name TLC Recov- ery Center of South Florida in business fil- ings, alleging they were sexually as- saulted while seeking treatment at one of its facilities. Two women sued the treatment center in 2021, alleging that a behavioral health technician sexually abused them during their stays at a Broward County Evolutions facility four years prior. One woman claims that the employee took advantage of his position to sexually abuse her during her stay. One lawsuit says that a therapist was aware of the technician’s “predatory” behavior but failed to intervene to stop him. A 23-year-old man sued the company in 2022 after two of his roommates at the Fort Lau- derdale facility allegedly “kicked, punched, and spat on him,” and sexually assaulted him in his room. Upon receiving treatment at the Nancy J. Cotterman Sexual Assault Treatment Center, ac- cording to the court documents, the facility’s re- port noted that the man had bruising on his face, multiple abrasions on his body and hands, and a laceration on his anus. A woman alleges in a 2022 lawsuit that she was also sexually assaulted at the facility in Miami. “On March 4, 2021, Jane Doe, AKA I.A., was a patient at the premises, and was thus an invitee upon the premises wherein she was criminally attacked and sexually assaulted upon the prem- ises by another, and suffered serious and perma- nent injury as a result,” the suit reads. A year later, another former patient filed a lawsuit against the facility with allegations that a male patient, “who was regularly being inappro- priate with some of the female patients,” entered her room and sexually assaulted her in 2019. The complaint states that the woman received a rape kit exam at the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center three days later. [email protected] CHURCHES OF ALL DENOMINATIONS ARE KNOWN AS PLACES WHERE THE NEEDY CAN FIND RESPITE. SINCE 2021, SIX PATIENTS HAVE SUED EVOLUTIONS, ALLEGING THEY WERE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED.
