Building Inspector: Owner appears to have known about violations

The city of Medford filed civil and criminal complaints yesterday against the owner of the home on Harris Road where junior Wendy Carman was killed in a fire on Jan. 18.

"We filed two complaints to Somerville District Court," Medford Building Commissioner Paul Mochi said. The criminal complaints included 12 violations of Massachusetts State Building Code, and one violation of the City of Medford Zoning Ordinance. The civil complaint, on behalf of the city, sought to reimburse the costs of fighting and investigating the fire.

The complaints were filed against Thomas Bagley, the trustee of the Frederick Shaffer Realty Trust, the company that owned the building.

The date for the hearing of the criminal complaint has not been set. If the court hears the complaint, and the building's owner is found guilty, he could face fines of up to $1000 per day for the State Building Code violations and up to $300 a day for the City Ordinance violations. The owner could also face one year in jail.

Mochi said that it would be "speculating" to say that the owner intended for the garage space where Carman lived to be inhabited, but that "it appears that [the owner] did know."

It would also be difficult to determine when the modifications to the building were made because of the structure's age, according to Mochi. "That loft was originally built in 1903 _ it was a stable," he said. "Since that time, 1903, we have no records indicating that permits have been issued for any work in that area."

Determining the owner's responsibility for the building codes may be difficult. Four people inhabited the building, which classifies it as a lodging house under the Medford City Zoning Ordinance. However, the property was never listed as such. Because there are no applicable permits on file for the building, determining the owner's responsibility for the building code violations could be difficult.

"He wouldn't need a permit if he rented out to less than three people," said Mochi. "He had four _ it puts you in a lodging house classification."

Mochi said that although the Building Commissioner's office received complaints about illegal apartments, this situation was particularly dangerous. "It's very seldom that we get one that's in a garage area such as this one was, which makes it even worse. This appears to be not a very common situation," Mochi said. "We all hope that we don't run into this kind of scenario anywhere."