NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — It is the chapter in Vernette Scarboro’s life that doesn’t seem to ever turn the page.
"I'm frustrated, aggravated. I feel as though I don't matter, that's the part that hurts," Scarboro said.
Scarboro, 74, is one of the hundreds of former SeaView Lofts tenants who were forced to find a new place to live in the summer of 2022 after code officers discovered safety violations with the building’s elevators, cooling system and more.
13News Now first encountered Scarboro on June 30, 2020, while she was in the process of moving her and her wheelchair-bound husband out of their three-bedroom apartment.
More than two years after the initial move out, she's now dealing with a new dilemma from her old unit.
"'You’re not going to believe what’s happened.' He said 'somebody broke into every apartment, tore them to pieces,'" Scarboro said.
Last week, Scarboro received pictures from inside her old unit, showing her apartment ransacked and turned upside down. Her furniture seems to be vandalized, and her clothes are strewn across the apartment floor.
Attorneys representing the Seaview tenants confirmed they've heard multiple accounts of alleged theft from the vacant units. Belongings, including cash, are believed to have been stolen from Scarboro's apartment, with more tenants possibly impacted.
The images of Mrs. Scarboro’s apartment speak for themselves. The proposed Amended Complaint addresses these issues under the claim of conversion. Conversion involves illegitimately depriving an owner of personal property without their consent. If tenants were barred from retrieving their belongings due to safety concerns, it was the building management's legal duty to secure those items. Due to the complete lack of security, it is possible that the robbery occurred some time ago, and it is only now being discovered. We remain committed to securing justice for the former tenants of the Seaview Building.
John Maravalli, with Consumer Litigation Associates, tells 13News Now the "entire building may have been hit" and "it is possible that not everyone has been notified."
Beyond the financial loss of having her items possibly stolen, the visual is a heartbreaking image for Scarboro.
“They destroyed it, rampaged. It’s just like, they didn’t want it but they threw it all on the floor. My cherished pictures of my children, and both of my children are dead. And they took those pictures and they were thrown all over the floor. Pictures of my mother, my father, wedding pictures. Something that means something to me.”
This January, more than 80 former residents of the condemned apartment complex in Newport News, and their representing attorneys have filed an amended lawsuit seeking financial compensation and relief for the abrupt building condemnation in 2022.
The latest complaint incorporates new details about the year-and-a-half experience after code violations forced city Code Compliance officers to shut the building down.
Between compensatory damages, treble damages, rent abatement, punitive damages as well as attorneys' fees and costs, the amended lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages for the collective group of plaintiffs.
The attorneys for Seaview’s tenants, and the attorneys representing the building’s owner Ben Weinstein, will next meet in court on July 15.